Niall Horan has surprised One Direction fans by releasing his first solo single titled ‘This Town’.

The acoustic track has a distinct Ed Sheeran vibe and is accompanied by a black and white video of Niall performing the song while playing guitar.

In a statement the One Direction star said: "I'm excited to announce I have signed a record deal with Capitol Records USA and released my first solo song. Thank you to all the One Direction fans for your love and support as always. I'm looking forward to the next part of this journey together.”

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Shortly after the song’s release #thistown began trending on Twitter and the 23-year-old later thanked fans again for their support. ‘Been workin in the studio, wanted to share this song I just wrote with u guys. thank you for always being there,’ he tweeted. ‘Blown away by all your amazin comments!’

The song is a downbeat break-up track and its lyrics include: ‘You still make me nervous when you walk in the room / Them butterflies they come alive when I'm next to you / Over and over the only truth / Everything comes back to you. And I know that it's wrong / That I can't move on / But there's something about you.’

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If you don't count Zayn Malik, who left the band last year, Niall is the first One Direction member to release solo music. However Harry Styles has also signed a solo record deal, as has Liam Payne who is said to be in LA working on his first album.