Harry Styles: Love On Tour 2023 - Singapore

National StadiumLast Friday

The last time British pop star Harry Styles performed at the National Stadium, one of Singapore’s largest concert venues, it was eight years ago as a member of boy band One Direction.

This time, the 29-year-old made a triumphant return to the same venue – as a solo act.

Styles, fresh from a Grammy win for Album of the Year for 2022 release Harry’s House, played to the gallery. But he also came across as a performer who not only wanted the fans to be entertained, but also went out of his way to make the 32,000-strong audience feel like they were seen and heard.

The concert was his biggest solo show in Singapore to date. He had performed at the Singapore Indoor Stadium to 6,000 fans in 2018 and at The Star Theatre to 5,000 fans in 2017.

When he was not thanking them after every other song, he was checking in on their well-being. When he singled out members of the audience, he would ask for their names and made sure he pronounced the non-English ones properly.

He read out the handmade signs, picked up the assortment of hats, flags and other items they threw on stage, and proudly held up a portrait of him drawn by a young fan before folding it carefully and sticking it into his back pocket.

And he gleefully handed the spotlight over to a male fan who proposed to his girlfriend, much to the delight of everyone.

“What am I supposed to do now? You’ve stolen my thunder,” he joked, before wishing the newly engaged couple “a life of happiness”.

When h...