Niall Horan saw some pretty wild things when he was part of One Direction, but one particularly surreal experience was having members of the Obama family — and all of the security guards who came with — attend the boy band’s concerts.
“You know I love Michelle Obama,” Horan told The Capital Evening Show With Jimmy Hill on Tuesday (March 31). “I’ve met her a couple of times. Back in the 1D days she would bring the girls [Malia and Sasha] to our show in D.C.”
The Irish star continued, “It was a whole outfit. They had Secret Service there, and they were all over the arena.”
“I would look out from the stage and just see Secret Service guys doing the whole thing,” Horan added. “But she was lovely and obviously very smart and funny.”
In those concert crowds, the daughters of President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama got to be just like every other teen girl cheering on their favorite teen heartthrobs. One Direction played in Washington, D.C., in 2013 on the Take Me Home Tour and in 2014 on the Where We Are Tour.
It’s been many years since 1D eventually disbanded in 2016, with all five of the members pursuing solo careers after parting ways. Liam Payne released music until his death in 2024, and Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik have all released or plan to release albums this year.
Horan’s latest full-length is titled Dinner Party, set for release on June 5. The singer has been candid about his romance with longterm girlfriend Amelia Woolley inspiring the project, which is named after the occasion at which they first met.
“I realized that that dinner party became a bigger thing than just sitting around, getting drunk and having a bit of food,” Horan told Capital Breakfast in March. “It’s become the next six years of my life and hopefully the rest of it. So, yeah, it allowed me to then go and write songs that were about all of the moments of this said relationship.”
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