Niall Horan

Early Years

Niall James Horan was born on September 13, 1993, in Mullingar, County Westmeath, Ireland. His parents, Bobby and Maura Horan, divorced when he was a child. He and his older brother, Greg, moved back and forth between their parents' two households before settling in with their father. Niall grew up in Mullingar and attended St. Kenny National School, where he performed in school plays and sang in the school choir. He attended secondary school at Coláiste Mhuire (Mary's College), also in Mullingar. As a teenager he performed at the Mullingar Arts Centre (in a fund-raiser for the local football team, the Shamrocks) and at The Academy in Dublin.

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X - Factor

In 2010, when he was 16 years old, Horan auditioned for the television talent competition The X Factor. He moved up through several rounds of preliminary auditions culminating in a performance for the program's judges, including Simon Cowell and guest judge Katy Perry, in Dublin. He sang a version of Ne-Yo's "So Sick" and was accepted into the official competition. Although he was eliminated as a solo contestant after the semifinals, the judges combined Horan with Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson to form the boy band called One Direction.