Blast from the Past! Harry Styles Rewinds to 'X Factor' Audition Look for Harryween Spectacle

Harry Styles transported fans back to his origins at his 'Harryween' show at Madison Square Garden on Friday, October 30th. During the 29th night of his 30-show 'Together, Together' residency, Styles meticulously recreated his 2010 X Factor audition, donning the exact outfit he wore at 16. He performed Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely,” the very song that secured his advancement to the next round. Adding to the nostalgic moment, Styles repeated a memorable line from that day, telling the cheering crowd, “I work in a bakery,” a heartfelt reference to his part-time job in his hometown of Holmes Chapel, Cheshire.

This audition-day transformation was a mid-show surprise. Styles initiated the evening dressed as Elvis Presley, while his band and dancers paid homage by appearing as various iterations of Styles from throughout his career. The Elvis tribute was fitting, as the first song Styles ever recorded was a cover of Presley’s “The Girl of My Best Friend.” Further details about his initial X Factor audition reveal that “Isn’t She Lovely” wasn’t his first choice. Footage released in 2022 showed he initially sang Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister,” performing the Wonder song a cappella only after Simon Cowell’s request to hear him without a backing track.

Styles' career trajectory from that audition led to his placement in One Direction, alongside Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, and the late Liam Payne. Earlier in the month, at the same Madison Square Garden venue, Styles debuted “What Is Enough,” a song specifically written for Payne, marking the second anniversary of Payne’s passing.

Costumed cover performances have become a cherished tradition of Harryween. At the inaugural event at MSG in 2021, Styles appeared as Dorothy to sing “Over the Rainbow” and followed up the next night as a clown to cover Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” In 2022, during his show at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum, he channeled Danny Zuko from Grease for a rendition of “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”

The 'Together, Together' residency concluded on Saturday, October 31st, with a final Harryween show. This highly anticipated MSG run garnered a record-breaking 11.5 million presale registrations on Ticketmaster. Harry Styles has achieved significant solo success, with all four of his solo albums reaching No. 1 on the Billboard 200, including his most recent, *Kiss All the Time* in March, and *Disco, Occasionally.*. He has also topped the Hot 100 three times: with “Watermelon Sugar” in 2020, “As It Was” in 2022 (holding the No. 1 spot for 15 weeks, the longest run by a U.K. act), and “Aperture” this year.