Niall Horan promised to spend about 30 minutes with fans on Instagram Live on Tuesday but instead treated them to more than 75 minutes of music and chat.
“I think I’ve sang every song the album,” he said at the end of the session, which at one point had more than 30,000 viewers. “You basically just got a free gig there.”
In addition to performing songs from his new album Heartbreak Weather on guitar and piano – and giving guitar lessons – Horan covered Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin.'" Among those tuned in was singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder.
Horan initially said he wanted to talk about "how I wrote each song" and "where it fits into my storyline" rather than watch a constant stream of emojis – but most fans stuck with sending emojis.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Irish pop star to cancel a global promotional tour for his sophomore album, so he has been using social media to his advantage while holed up in his London home.
"I released an album on potentially one of the worst weeks in the history of the planet," Horan said. (At one point, he coughed and then assured fans it was “not what you’re thinking.”)
"I was going to do an [iHeartRadio Secret Session] in Toronto and that obviously got [cancelled]."
In a radio interview this week, Horan admitted “the last thing the world needs to worry about is my album” but at the end of Tuesday’s Instagram Live session he urged fans to get it to No. 1 on the charts.