Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi, Oi… Lovers! We bet you didn’t see that twist in the iconic call and response. Or maybe you did, call, eh, us synching up to our pesky, jewelry-bearing Irish leader’s mannerisms. But come next weekend, when deep maroon washes over the crowd just before The Show: Live On Tour’s curtains swipe up to reveal him, the Niall Horan will salute his two-finger-mirror-pose after it. We’ll probably slightly roll our eyes all in good banter (the Irish and Australians have camaraderie, of course) before slinking into our seats. We imagine it will have engraved numbers slanted onto its rim for all purposes of staying on theme.
However, just before we all change the further light show he has planned into a curated image of that Irish flag popping up across the New Zealand and Australian arenas through cardboard orange and green stock cards held up to our phones—we know we have it in you!—there’s a guest. Yep, Birdy! We have no idea how a night that was already special upped its amp. However, we’re looking at the sound gauge of Niall’s electric guitar.
If you’re still in the cocoon era, Birdy’s most known for her hits like ‘Wings’ and her cover of Bon Iver’s ‘Skinny Love.’ But she has many more tunes that could be covered in her opening set. Obviously, we’re also crossing every finger that Niall and her team up at some point—cough, across his two-night Melbourne spectacular. So, we’ve thought up five possible duets, including one off The Show!
‘Let It All Go’
Straightaway, ‘Let It All Go’ lends itself to a duet, primarily because of how it’s stylized as one, the accompanying lilt coming from Rhodes. So slip one European singer for another, and it’ll be a seamless Horan takeover. However, this song is on the list mainly due to its narrative arc and lyrics, or if we were to get down to the bare bones of it, couplet: “There’s a light on the road, and I think you know / Morning has come and I have to go.”
Are you already seeing touches of ‘If You Leave Me’ and even Niall’s Zach Bryan’s ‘Something In The Orange’ cover? So are we. During both songs, Niall plays with the themes of the interstellar and how his muse is only able to enchant him at night. For in the morning, when those hints of a sunrise seep in, she’s nowhere to be found. Adding Birdy into the Niall Horan mix, this song would lend itself to the angsty, ethereal atmosphere that hearing the female’s perspective of the story would provide. Interestingly, nightfall is the backdrop for the ‘Let It All Go’ music video featuring the Northern Lights (something we’ll touch on later!)
‘Battlefield’
This slinky piano ballad taken off of Birdy’s latest album, Portraits (and most likely what we’ll be hearing at the concert), has similar galaxy themes in its lyrics. Yet there’s a slight spin on it, too, which lends itself to the fairytale-like jargon used in ‘You Could Start A Cult.’
What we will be drawing our eyes to, particularly where Niall could lend his vocals, is the second verse. “Tried to keep you in my dreams / Tried to barter with the kings.” If you’re clicking play on that video below, listening to the song like we are, you’ll notice the haunting desperation swarming in Birdy’s vocals. There’s also a drumline anchoring into the production. “Tradin’ secrets with the stars / But they won’t listen, no one does.” At one point, there is even an EDM throughline. Though slightly contrasting with the summertime 80s vibes Niall had on The Show, it could almost be like a seamless collision, mainly when solely focusing on the bass on ‘If You Leave Me.’
‘Not About Angels’
All Birdy locals, please raise your hands! That may be harsh. We’ll drop a teeth-baring emoji in right now just to cut the tension a little bit 😬. See, just for you! We do have some kindness to those in the audience who only know the Birdy classics, especially when we’ve primarily bought the tickets for Niall Horan, seeing how late of an addition to the show she is. Moreover, the ‘Heaven’ connection is there from the moment we look at the song title. Then, an Augustus Waters and Hazel Grace Lancaster montage can spiral in our heads. The song was, of course, a part of The Fault in Our Stars soundtrack!
So, back peddling on the ‘Heaven’ connection, as we know, angels reside up in the celestial realm. In the context of ‘Not About Angels,’ quite clearly, the angelic nature is supposed to represent Hazel as she experiences stage IV thyroid cancer, wondering if there’s a point in letting love in, even if it’s short-lived. Her boyfriend, Augustus, who has osteosarcoma, a bone cancer, dies later on in the movie (Generation Alpha, y’all should’ve found a wormhole to the early 2000s!) So, it then also becomes a metaphor for love itself. Is love still love even when it isn’t tangible? When strange light surrounds them, and they’re cast into reveries? Plus, we all know that Niall loves a ballad, and with its orchestra-like melody, this one will undeniably pull at all of our heartstrings.
‘Surrender’
We told you we’d be back here, Birdy’s usage of the Northern Lights. This time, it doesn’t tie in visually through a music video’s scenery but instead pops up in the lyrics of ‘Surrender.’ “And if I could reach the northern lights / Maybe then I’d understand it all;” yeah, we know you’ve probably got your mental highlighter out. We’re choosing the color pink, circling the word. It lays there in the chorus, by the way. “Sometimes I try so hard to fight / When all I want to do is fall.”
Birdy is denoting that what may appear as hot and cold behavior to her muse is just her mind pulling its own tug of war-between fight and flight. It’s undeniable to her that she loves the person in question but cannot express it entirely due to her own self-esteem. It sounds like a song that we Niallers know fully well, right? We’re looking at you, ‘Must Be Love’ and maybe even its sister song in ‘Science.’ What’s a synchronicity here is that Birdy just happens to slip the word “night” into the lyrics during the chorus and outro. She just wants to envelop her lover in the darkness, but as the visualizer suggests, there’s still a little light, her inner demons on.
‘If You Leave Me’
Pit girlies, we’re especially about to hear your grumbles. But sometimes, we just have to be selfish, and this is one of those times. As much as we probably all want Niall Horan to chalk up his health bills even more by plummeting to his knees, almost in devotion to his muse, there’s something about an acoustic performance we can’t pass up on, especially when paired with Birdy! With ‘If You Leave Me’ in her hands, we don’t doubt that we’d be able to see the rawness of its lyrics on full display, perhaps even the titular of The Show’s thesis itself.
To whoever gets the setlist (may the odds forever be in your favor), and one of these songs ends up on there, not to say that we’ve got witchy, voodoo powers. But maybe? And if you want to get your vote pooled into the bet, tweet us @thehoneypop which song out of these you’d most like Birdy and Niall Horan to duet together while on the New Zealand and Australian leg of The Show: Live On Tour. Extra tickets became available today (rolling through Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne). You can snap them up here!
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT BIRDY:
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TO LEARN MORE ABOUT NIALL HORAN:
DISCORD | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | TWITTER | YOUTUBE | WEBSITE
