Harry Styles, welcome to your life: Tears for Fears is head over heels for your cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
The “Aperture” singer stopped by BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge this week and performed several cuts off his new album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, and slipped in a 1985 new-wave tune by Tears for Fears.
Styles’ cover stays true to the classic by British duo Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal, while also reflecting his own pop-rock flair — and for bonus points, it also features a pair of backing musicians on the trumpet and saxophone.
Fans applauded the performance on social media and the YouTube video’s comments section, but perhaps the biggest compliment came from Tears for Fears themselves.
“Loving this cover by @harrystyles for BBC Radio 1,” the band exclaimed in their Instagram post’s caption of a clip of the singer’s rendition.
“Everybody Wants to Rule the World” was released in 1985 (a decade before Styles was born) and is considered Tears for Fears’ signature song, reaching No. 1 in the U.S. and cracking the Top 20 in a dozen more countries around the world.
Other greatest hits from the band’s discography include “Mad World,” “Shout,” “Head Over Heels,” and “Sowing the Seeds of Love.”
Styles is certainly not the first to cover “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
Lorde recorded her own dark, moody version for the soundtrack of the 2013 film The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. In 2019, Weezer included the track on their self-titled cover album, and incredibly, were joined by Smith and Orzabal for a live performance at Coachella that year.
Styles isn’t even the first member of One Direction to cover “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”; Niall Horan pulled off an impressive version of the song, which he seamlessly mashed up with his own “If You Leave Me” when he headlined Electric Picnic in 2023.
Take a listen to Horan’s version below (“Everybody Wants to Rule the World” begins at the 3:00 mark).
Styles will be the host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live this weekend. Last weekend, however, he hilariously crashed Ryan Gosling’s opening monologue.
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Sitting in the audience, Styles’ mere presence repeatedly distracted the actor as the camera kept panning away from him for the beloved pop-rock star. “Your coolness is becoming a bit of an issue,” Gosling complained to Styles.
Perhaps the Project Hail Mary actor will get his payback this Saturday night?