Niall Horan has confessed that she thought Shawn Mendes was the “essence of innocence” when they first met as he praised his “sweet” nature and his “angelic” voice. The ‘On The Loose’ hitmaker has struck up a close friendship with the ‘There’s Nothing Holding Me Back’ singer and praised his “sweet” nature and his “angelic” voice.

Revealing his first impressions of Shawn, Niall said: “Tall. The essence of innocence. Extremely Canadian. Just a very, very sweet guy that can sing like an angel like we know.”

And Shawn, 19, is grateful to Niall, 24, for keeping his nerves at bay before he heads out on stage.

Speaking backstage at BBC’s Biggest Weekend, Shawn added: “Every time he would see me I would be like, ‘Oh man I’m nervous today.’ And he was really good at helping, making me calm down about everything and made everything a lot more chilled, which was really helpful for me.”

Meanwhile, Niall previously revealed he is keen to duet with Shawn one day. He said: “The fans would love it. He’s in the middle of his album at the minute so if we can get something rustled up in the next while, we’ll see what happens. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Shawn had previously insisted that he will collaborate with Niall when their schedules align. Asked if the collaboration is happening, Shawn shared: “Yes, definitely, it will. Eventually when we get time. I met him for the first time the other day, but it’s funny because we felt like we knew each other because we were talking back and forth for a long time. But yeah, when we get the chance, I’d love to write with him. I think he’s incredible. He’s got this great, great vibe happening with this whole acoustic thing so I think I really want to get involved with it, if he is down. Which he is, I think.”