Niall Horan insists there’s "no fighting" between One Direction and Justin Bieber.
The band have gone head-to-head with the Canadian pop star today (13.11.15) by releasing their fifth album ‘Made in the A.M.’ on the same day as his new record ‘Purpose’, but Niall said similar clashes happen all the time and he doesn’t understand why people are making a big deal about it.
He said: "We’ve released albums on the same day as Rihanna and stuff like that, but it just happens to be – on the internet – made into a big deal that it’s Bieber.
"But it’s fine – he’s got good tunes, we’ve got good tunes, and we don’t really see it as who’s going to win.
"If anything it’s good for pop culture that something like this is going to happen. There’s no fighting involved at all."
But music experts have failed to predict the outcome of the chart battle, with Spotify data suggesting the result is too close to call.
According to the streaming service, One Direction have 16 million monthly listeners versus Justin’s 22 million, although the band have received 2.2 billion streams in total to date, compared to just 1.6 billion for Justin.
But away from the fact the band are going up against the ‘Sorry’ hitmaker, Niall, 22, admitted they’re feeling nervous about releasing the collection prior to their extended break.
He told Digitalspy.co.uk: "When you’re making the album you don’t really get that nervous – you don’t think about it.
"It’s only when it gets closer to the actual release date when you’re doing promo, talking about it, releasing songs and stuff like that when it becomes quite nerve-racking.
"It’d be stupid to say that it’s not, because when you’re making it you love it because it’s your stuff, but you obviously don’t know what people are going to think of it."
Niall: There’s ‘no fighting’ with Justin Bieber
