The Love on Tour concert in Portugal, sold out for many months, produced more than 20 songs, which was a celebration for the audience and the singer.
Effervescent, festive, deafening atmosphere all the time. There are many possible adjectives to describe what happened at the Altice Arena in Lisbon this Sunday during Harry Styles’ solo debut in Portugal, but few can sum up what actually happened. It was one of the most anticipated concerts of recent years in Portugal and the former One Direction member, who is now leading a brilliant solo career, paid tribute to him.
It must be remembered that the anticipation around this event was monumental. Sold out for many months, twice postponed, Love on Tour caused an almost unprecedented ticket rush. Inspired by their teenage sons and daughters, desperate parents have spent the past few weeks trying to find the best tickets. lucky, he told JN the local security team. Fans paid almost 200 euros for special seats, the rest went to the pavilion very early, under the scorching sun. There were flags, colorful scarves, T-shirts, posters, statements.
However, in Lisbon, it was noted that not only teenagers are becoming more numerous and devoted fans of Styles. There were a lot of young people in the hall, yes, One Direction fans, right – the sheer hysteria with which one of the band’s themes sounded in the speakers before the concert was met, if there were any doubts. But there was much more. This is a whole phenomenon that includes enthusiastic parents, lovers of all genres – after One Direction in the break columns, Kings of Leon was met with almost the same hysteria as the incredibly sung “Bohemian Rhapsody” from beginning to end. crowded room, including children and teenagers. Altis was a sea of people of all ages, couples, families, pregnant women; groups of friends, new and newly created, foreigners.
Stiles, 28, dozens of records and accumulated prizes, 12 minutes late and then power; started with “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” accompanied by a band of five, two of them women – an impressive drummer and bassist/keyboardist. Everyone is dressed the same, all in pink, like a singer. Immediately, the phenomenon and reputation of the Briton began to be perceived live: on the first topic it already seemed that it was worth a trip, such was the energy, dance, greetings, communication, kisses and winks of the eyes to the public, racing, claw. How are you, Lisbon? he asked the second “Golden”, already playing the guitar, at a moment when it was almost difficult to hear the concert, as the audience was screaming loudly. “Good evening Lisbon, my name is Harry and welcome to the last show of the tour,” he later said. “I want you to have fun, dance. Feel free to be who you always wanted to be,” he emphasized before asking the audience to join hands with the person next to them; and even to say “I love you” to the person next to him, the instructions, however unusual, are quickly carried out.
The room was made up of designated places, but not for sitting: this is because the chairs were for everyone, but few people used them. In each of them, upon arrival, the fans were waiting for a paper heart, setting the tone of the night and the following theme: “I adore you.” The interaction with the audience was constant and even during the songs there were constant kisses, bows, thanks, running around until the end of the stage. After “Daylight” and “Cinema” “Keep Driving”, the theme of the new “Harry’s House”, which touches on a more alternative side of the musician, preceded the acoustic moment with “Matilda”. Once again thanking the fans, he sang it in the center aisle of the stage with two of the female members of the band and, seizing the moment, in the same register and in the same register of the new album, “Boyfriends” followed.
In “Lights Up”, Harry receives from the audience and wears a rainbow scarf and flag to symbolize LGBTQIA+. Then, in his habit of giving space to public displays, he reads many request posters and chooses the one that read “Help me propose”; passes the microphone to a Portuguese couple proposing in public, in the middle of a concert. Harry jokes and says that after “celebrating something beautiful, this engagement”, he wants to celebrate his “second favorite thing to do in Portugal”: with the right to “drum roll”, he shows a pastel de nata and speaks with a strong British accent, draws to the typical village humor that “these things are unbelievable.”
After love, its other causes and attributes – tolerance and kindness – are in the next topic, which is also the motto of Stiles and his followers: “Treat people with kindness.” After the One Direction tour with “What Makes You Beautiful” and also with “Late Night Talking”, the artist once again defends how incredible the Portuguese public is, and then with “Love of My Life”. He then drops a “thank you Lisbon” as if he’s walking away but can’t leave the stage and picks up a guitar for a rare “Fine Line” with some fans already crying profusely – perhaps because of the theme itself. , surprise, catharsis of the concert or its imminent finale.
The encore is “Sign of the Times”, a key song in Styles’ career: after the collapse of One Direction, the solo debut with this single came as a surprise to many, since it was not a simple and fun pop theme, but with its time, more dense, almost a child between booty, indie and the 70s – like Stiles himself. The song caught the attention of a new audience in the early days of his solo career, and the risk paid off, nearly reaching a billion views on YouTube. Live, it was an amazing new moment, consisting of deafening choirs and thousands of lights.
Still encore, from the second album “Fine Line”, “Watermelon Sugar” – one of the singer’s other great record hits – was hysterically received in Lisbon. An unexpected calmer moment ensued when Stiles calls Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice, the band from the first leg of the Lisbon tour that he never tired of thanking and praising nightly, an indie band with a cult following also growing in Portugal. With Ellie, he performs “No Hard Feelings” before the final party in chameleon mode, first with the infectious pop of “As it Was” and then again with some 70s-sounding rock, mannerisms and The dance that got him started is often compared to Mick Jagger (including aerial kicks) in Kiwi.
“No one knows like me that it’s useless if you don’t come. You have changed my life and are constantly changing my life,” he tells the audience again at the end, adding, “This shouldn’t be happening to people like me and it’s only because of you.” On the last night of July, it was a tropical and heavy night outside Altice Arena due to the smell of smoke from fires near the capital. Indoors, in the same abrasive heat, more than 15,000 people of all ages, styles, expressions, tastes celebrated music, kindness and freedom for almost two hours, messages from a chameleon and whole artist, where energy, gratitude and return are undeniable; and where all the airtime and attention of thousands of fans is dedicated to promoting love and inclusion. Everything about Styles is peace, tolerance and gratitude, and it seems sincere, starting to understand why this phenomenon would even become the goal of a research department at an American university. “It was the best summer of my life,” the singer once said of a tour that ended Sunday in Lisbon. Certainly, it was the best night in the lives of many young people present in the hall.