Niall Horan on TODAY | Nathan Congleton/NBC
For the first time in his career — whether as part of One Direction or as a solo artist — Niall Horan has a #1 hit at pop radio.
Up one place, his “Slow Hands” earns #1 on this week’s Mediabase pop radio airplay chart.
The hit single received ~18,062 spins during the September 17-23 tracking period. The format-leading count tops last week’s mark by 692 plays.
Prior to releasing “Slow Hands,” Horan had never gone higher than #4 at pop radio (he reached that point with One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful” and “Story Of My Life”). His previous solo single “This Town” peaked outside the Top 10.
Shortly after midnight, Horan Tweeted about the achievement.
“Found out today that ‘Slow Hands’ is the #1 song in the US this week,” wrote Horan. “Thank you all so much for supporting the song.
“You’ve no idea how much this means to me . There’s no way when I wrote this song did I think it would do stuff like this. Thank you so much”
Charlie Puth’s “Attention,” the previous #1, falls to #2 on this week’s pop chart. It received ~16,819 spins this week (-1,289).
Played ~16,563 times (+1,243), Liam Payne’s “Strip That Down (featuring Quavo)” rises one spot to #3. Shawn Mendes’ “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back” falls one place to #4 with ~14,509 spins (-1,063).
Up one place, Taylor Swift’s “Look What You Made Me Do” earns #5 on the strength of its ~13,407 spins (+839).