I've seen a whole lot of Harry Styles's performances (both live and live on TV), and they're all really good, you know? It's hard to pick favourites, because they're all special in their own way. However, I did pick favourites, because I want to shine a light on the best of the best, especially if you're new to this fandom. From epic covers to songs of his own, Styles has belted out some stellar tunes. I dug through all of his live performances from the past three years — since the former One Direction singer started releasing solo music — and pulled out what I believe are his 12 best. There are a lot of other really, really, really good performances, but we'll save those for another day. Keep reading to see my faves in no particular order!
Watch Harry Styles's Best Live Performances
It's Actually Impossible to Rank Harry Styles's Best Performances, So I Just Picked 12 Favourites
Harry Styles melted every heart in the fandom when he covered Lizzo's "Juice" in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. What made it even better was that he performed the cover live in London in front of a devoted audience who would happily get lost in his DMs.
This will always be my favourite cover that Harry Styles does. (Is it a cover if it was originally a One Direction song? I'm honestly not sure.) I think every performance of it is flawless, but in 2018, Styles brought a couple fans on stage to dance along with him, and they were all full of so much joy that the song got even better.
"Medicine" is one of the songs that Harry Styles wrote and performed live on tour but never put on an album. The fandom is not at all bitter about it, but at least we have the live videos to fall back on. "Medicine" has some highly suggestive lyrics that Styles seemed a bit shy to perform when the tour started in March 2018. Fast forward a few months, in particular to this Sacramento, CA, show in July 2018, when Styles firmly settled into dancing along to this raunchy tune.
How fitting was it to have Harry Styles perform "Only Angel" while surrounded by Victoria's Secret Angels at the 2017 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show? The singer nearly upstaged the models with his killer dance moves and spot-on vocals.
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I promise it's worth watching this video the entire way through to see Harry Styles perform his hit song "Kiwi" three times in a row. He ended every show of his first tour with this song, but on the last night in LA, to avoid leaving the stage, he just kept going. And going.
While the performance itself of this song is superb, I really just want to talk about the visuals Harry Styles has on set during this. After creating an entire fake island for this single, it's not really surprising that the fancy fish patterns carried over into this performance on The Graham Norton Show. Also, yes, Styles sounds great as always.
Guess what, y'all. This song is a bop on Fine Line and it's just as much of a bop live. Harry Styles performed it for the first time live at The Forum in LA when his album was released, and it's quite possible that I've never seen one of his crowds go harder.
This 2017 performance of Harry Styles's debut single "Sign of the Times" is arguably his best. He performs it with ease and confidence, and you absolutely cannot help but sway along. Especially when he drops in a note change or two or some melodic embellishments. The whole thing is just *chef's kiss* so good.
This performance is honestly mind-blowing. During a 2017 concert in Tokyo, Harry Styles climbed up onto a balcony with just his guitar and sang a cover of Little Big Town's "Girl Crush." The crowd remained silent while he poured his heart out in this song. The performance feels so much more intimate because you're hearing his voice with no amplification and no band. Just the man and his guitar.
For Harry Styles's second stint on Saturday Night Live, he performed "Lights Up" as well as this jam, "Watermelon Sugar." The fact that he brought in a brass section to accompany him? The man just knows what he's doing.
The few One Direction songs that Harry Styles took and made his own were all great, and every performance was great. The first time he sang his own rendition of 1D's "Stockholm Syndrome" (which he cowrote) live on tour was his first show of 2018 in San Francisco. What made this performance particularly amazing was how much the energy from the crowd fed him and took it up about seven notches.
I've lost count of how many times Harry Styles has performed his cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain." As a fan of the band, he made sure to keep this cover a staple of every tour stop in 2017 and 2018. However, in early 2018 at the Grammys MusiCares Person of the Year ceremony, Styles performed the song with Fleetwood Mac. I felt a little bit like a proud mother watching this performance happening, to be honest. Styles held his own alongside the iconic band and gave the performance of a lifetime.