HARRY STYLES // MADISON SQUARE GARDEN NIGHT 2


I recently saw Harry Styles live for the first time! I've had the tickets to see him at Madison Square Garden in New York City for nearly 13 months and it was so worth the wait. In today's post, I'm going to be sharing my experience from the concert - Enjoy!

His debut self-titled solo album is easily one of my all-time favorite albums. Harry sang it in its entirety, along with 2 unreleased songs, 3 One Direction songs and 3 cover songs. 

Most people would probably know Harry from being in One Direction, aka one of the biggest boy bands of all time. I've been a big fan of them since late 2011/early 2012 before their first album even came out in America. I was so happy when he sang 3 of the band's songs; Stockholm Syndrome, If I Could Fly, and What Makes You Beautiful. I love that he still plays those songs even though he's solo now - something that I don't think any of his former bandmates would do. Harry changed the songs a bit to cater more to his style of music, which I loved. It made them more modern and more mature than the original boyband-pop feel. I never saw One Direction live, so I was so excited to be able to hear songs live that I've listened to over and over for the last 7 years. I still vividly remember hearing What Makes You Beautiful for the first time when I was 12 years old and associate their music with so many memories from that time in my life. 

Harry opened the show at Madison Square Garden with one of my favorite songs, Only Angel. In my opinion, that was the absolute perfect song to start with. It has a really great intro that sounds almost like it was made to be performed live. After that, he sang Woman, which is one of the most underrated songs from his album.

Ever Since New York was definitely one of the highlights of the night. Since the show was in New York, I think everyone in MSG was especially excited to hear him sing it. Another favorite of mine from the night was Carolina, which I have listened to countless times since it came out last year.

He also did a cover of Ariana Grande's Just a Little Bit of Your Heart - which he actually co-wrote for her 2015 album My Everything. In my opinion, that is one of her best songs, both lyrically and vocally, but I really love the way he transformed the ballad into being a more up-beat rock song.



Midway through the show he went over to the B-stage where he sang Sweet Creature and If I Could Fly. I wish that the B-stage was rotating or at least positioned differently because his back was facing the majority of the crowd the whole time. Regardless of that, those songs sounded so beautiful live.



Before Harry sang Sign of the Times he said, "Outside in the world there is a lot of bad stuff that happens and I could not be more honored to get to play in front of you wonderful, wonderful people for an hour and a half every single night. There is just pure joy in this room, and I thank you for that because you absolutely changed my life and I couldn't do it without you. I do it only for you. I love each and every single one of you." There were several moments throughout the show that he stopped and expressed how grateful he is to be there. It didn't seem like he was saying any of that because he had to or because he needed to kill some time before the next song - everything he said felt really genuine. Sign of the Times is a song that has such a strong message attached to it, especially for this point in history we are in right now. The first time I ever heard it I cried - and many times after, which I guess contradicts the lyrics in the song - but that's because of how strong of a meaning it holds for me and a lot of other people. Being able to hear it live in that setting was really such a moving experience.


During the encore, Harry brought out opening act Kacey Musgraves to sing a duet of Shania Twain's You're Still The One. They never performed live together before and I'm so happy I was able to witness that performance in person. Their voices blended so well together, too. I hope one day they release a studio version of this song together!





The last song of the encore is one of my favorites, Kiwi. It was clearly a crowd favorite, considering how every person in the arena was screaming along to every single word. I've watched so many videos of him performing this song and it lived up to all my expectations. It was the absolute perfect end to the show!

Overall, this concert is truly one of the best I have ever been to and over the past week I haven't been able to stop thinking about how much fun I had there. Like Harry said, there was just "pure joy" in the room that night. Madison Square Garden had such an electrifying and joyful energy that I will never forget. In my opinion, Harry is one of the most talented musicians I've heard and I can't wait to see what he does in the future! If you ever have the chance to see Harry Styles live, you won't regret it!

-Melissa

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