Harry Styles plays unheard tribute to Liam Payne at sold-out Madison Square Garden
Harry Styles played an unheard song written for Liam Payne to a sold-out Madison Square Garden on Friday night.
He told the crowd the song was for his friend and that he had written it about two years ago, according to Rolling Stone. The room was full. The performance took place on Oct. 16, two years to the day after Payne's death.
Payne was Styles's former bandmate in One Direction. He died on Oct. 16, 2024, aged 31, from injuries sustained after falling from the balcony of his hotel room.
Styles joined fellow bandmates Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson at Payne's funeral, a private church service in Amersham, according to Reuters. After Payne's death, Styles paid tribute in a statement and said Payne wore "his heart on his sleeve", Sky News reported at the time.
The new song was performed as part of Styles's Together, Together residency, a fixed run of shows at one venue that now totals 50 dates across seven cities. The New York leg is a 30-night stay at Madison Square Garden in support of his fourth studio album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally.
That album includes the single Aperture. The Garden lists the New York run as 30 shows between Aug. 26 and Oct. 31, with the next performance scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 17 at 8:00 p.m. ET, according to MSG.
For fans in the room, this meant hearing the tribute live first, with no studio version announced. It was a brief break in a large arena production to mark a personal loss.
