At bootcamp, Niall sang "Champagne Supernova", but failed to qualify for the "Boys" category. After a suggestion from guest judge Nicole Scherzinger, Niall was put into a group with four other boys, who also failed to move on in the competition, but since they were too good to let go the judges decided to agree with Nicole. Niall, along with
Harry Styles,
Liam Payne,
Louis Tomlinson, and
Zayn Malik formed
One Direction. Niall, along with Louis was not given regular solos to perform during X Factor. One Direction made it to the finals where they received 3rd place.
Following
The X Factor, One Direction signed a record contract with Sony Music subsidiary
Syco Music . They released their first studio album,
Up All Night, which went #1 worldwide. In November 2012, One Direction released
Take Me Home, starting with
Live While We're Young. Around this time, fans became frustrated with Niall's lack of solos on record, starting a hashtag #LetNiallSing. As of the band's third and fourth albums - Midnight Memories and FOUR - Niall has been featured much more as a lead vocalist and has his own solos on each song. On Four, he sang a number of first verses in their entirety on his own.
In June 2015, Niall told fans on Twitter he had been contributing a lot of songwriting to the band's fifth album. He said was unable to contribute more to FOUR because of his leg injury, which he was recovering from during primary songwriting for that album.
Niall James Horan,our angel is 22 years old..
We love him to the moon and back for everything ♥♥
Happy birthday Nialler #AlwaysInOurHearts
You are our inspiration..We love you ♪♫