By Vyshnavee Wijekumar
MUSIC
Harry Styles Love on Tour ★★★★★
Marvel Stadium, February 24
There’s a party at Harry’s House and we’re all invited. After years of pandemic postponements and cancellations, pop superstar Harry Styles is finally in Australia – and his first Melbourne gig saw him perform to a packed-out Marvel Stadium filled with adoring fans.
Unlike the press tour for feature film Don’t Worry Darling, where he offered up meme-able lines such as “you know, my favourite thing about the movie is, like, it feels like a movie”, Styles feels much more at ease with a stadium crowd – waving, blowing kisses, flirting and bantering.
Styles continually thanked the crowd for coming to his Melbourne concert.Credit: Lloyd Wakefield
While bounding across the main stage and U-shaped runway into the VIP section, he grabbed cowboy hats and feather boas from the audience, adorning himself without missing a beat. The screens adjacent to the stage shifted between psychedelic graphic illustrations, cloudy blue skies and layered cityscapes reminiscent of Tokyo, where he recorded some of his latest album, Harry’s House (2022).
Alongside mainstream singles from Harry’s House and Fine Line (2019), such as As It Was, Late Night Talking and Watermelon Sugar, he also dived into lesser-known tracks including Love of My Life and Keep Driving, giving them renewed depth through stellar live vocals that filled the stadium, soliciting karaoke-style accompaniment from his adoring audience.
On the Perth leg of his tour, Styles did a “shoey” – when someone pours a drink, usually beer, into their shoe and drinks it. It seemed he was not keen to repeat the experience in Melbourne, however. His refusal was met with a boo from the crowd, with one of his band members taking on the time-honoured tradition instead.
There’s authentic gratitude from Styles, and perhaps disbelief, that his career has reached the heights it has – he continually thanked the crowd for coming (he last visited Australia five years ago). For mainstream pop stars, you’re only as relevant as the following you garner, and there’s an acknowledgment from Styles that his fans have legitimised his solo career.
His multigenerational appeal is impressive: Middle-aged women to Gen Z teenagers – some of whom had queued overnight to obtain a premium spot in the general admissions area – filled Marvel Stadium.
Rayne Wrighton-Smith, 20, waiting in line for the Harry Styles concert at Marvel Stadium.Credit: Paul Jeffers
Fans emulated the flamboyant sartorial choices of the star, creating a sea of glittery glam. Styles opted for a sleek, flared brown pleather pant and stripey shiny top on stage.
A culture of care and consideration filtered through the concert, synonymous with the tour’s title and Styles’ popular single Treat People With Kindness. He danced in the ambiguity of his sexuality and romantic relationships, parading the pride flag and encouraging his fans to “be whoever it is you’ve always wanted to be without reason”.
Styles’ daring approach to leave questions unanswered intensifies our curiosity and hunger to know him. His genderfluid style, penchant for sequins and jerky dance moves have led to claims he’s derivative of David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Elton John. But artists – indeed, all of us – are always inspired and influenced by our forebears. His brand brings a new wave of softer manhood to combat toxic masculinity for a younger generation.
Harry Styles performs at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on Friday night.Credit: Lloyd Wakefield
Styles’ charisma and sex appeal are undeniably alluring – and Friday night’s concert made clear he’s a showman and talented lyricist born to grace the stage.
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