AceShowbiz - Niall Horan has penned a love ballad about what it's like to try and start a romance in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Irish musician is holed up in London seeing out the crisis, having been forced to cancel his world tour due to lockdown restrictions limiting large gatherings in countries across the world.

However, Niall's not wasting the enforced time as he's practising his baking and penning new hits - including a social distancing love song that takes inspiration from the Plain White T's "Hey There Delilah", a ballad that tells the story of an unfulfilled transatlantic romance.

"I'm in London in my apartment, cooking - I'm making a Victoria sponge right now - and writing a lot: two songs yesterday," the One Direction alumni tells The Guardian. "I had to cancel my tour, so I might as well go on the hunt for a big song. I started writing a Hey There Delilah-type one about when this is all over, called, well, 'When This Is All Over', and I was also writing about the idea of meeting someone without actually meeting them, and getting to know them because of this crisis."

Niall, who is single after a split from Hailee Steinfeld but has been linked to stars including Selena Gomez, says that there are actually benefits to dating from afar.

"It's an odd one: it's actually a good way to get to know someone," he adds. "Usually, say you went to a bar for a date, you're probably drunk after five drinks and you forget everything you've learned about them. Now, you actually have time to ask questions. There's no romances as of yet, but I wouldn't mind if they started to blossom."