{"id":453737,"date":"2026-05-17T16:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T16:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/453737\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T16:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T16:44:09","slug":"harry-styles-makes-a-triumphant-comeback-in-amsterdam-tour-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/453737\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Styles Makes a Triumphant Comeback in Amsterdam Tour Opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAt last, the words that the world has waited three years to hear: \u201cGood evening\u2014my name is Harry. It\u2019s an absolute pleasure to be here with you this evening. This is Night One of the Together, Together Tour.\u201d Harry Styles<\/a> is back, all right. His Saturday-night blowout in Amsterdam officially kicked off the first Harry tour season since his record-breaking Love On Tour signed off in July 2023\u2014an unthinkably long layoff for the ultimate mega\u2013pop crowd-crusher. As he quipped early in the night, \u201cI got older and the stage got bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHarry celebrated the start of his massive new Together, Together run with a crowd of 56,000 frenzied fans. Nobody could say this boy wasn\u2019t missed. Walking around Amsterdam the previous couple of days, you could tell which people were in town for the Harry show, just by their eyes. They were coming out of the cage and out for blood.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd so was Harry, who made it a comeback triumph. You couldn\u2019t miss how hungry he was to be back onstage, face to face with his people. It was the kind of pop spectacle that leaves feathers all over the floor and hysteria lingering in the air. He focused on the tunes from his new album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally<\/a>. These songs were designed for the live show\u2014hearing them in a giant room full of strangers is the way they were always meant to be experienced. His band has expanded, with horns, dancers, back-up singers, and\u2014for some songs\u2014a string section, with nearly 20 musicians onstage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNone of these songs would exist if it wasn\u2019t about being open to things and letting things enter your life,\u201d he told the crowd. \u201cSometimes to put your phone down and go out for a night can change your life. It actually sounds silly, but it\u2019s true. It changed MY life. And YOU\u2019VE changed my life, over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIf anyone needed proof, one of the countless peaks of this show: \u201cTreat People With Kindness,\u201d a song nobody saw coming, but one that exploded into a jubilant sing-along\u2014the anthem that made the fans on the floor throw their bags and coats in a pile so they could join hands and dance in a witchy circle around it. Harry turned it into an Eighties mash-up with the Talking Heads\u2019 classic \u201cThis Must Be The Place (Naive Melody),\u201d singing the whole first verse. (\u201cLess we say about it the better \/ Make it up as we go along\u201d\u2014now there\u2019s a Harry sentiment.)<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tThe band elevated the tune into a global groove full of West African soukous and South African mbaqanga, as the horn section blasted the riff from Paul Simon\u2019s \u201cYou Can Call Me Al.\u201d It summed up Harry\u2019s daft ambition as well as his warmth\u2014the handiwork of a madman who couldn\u2019t wait to jump back onstage and start showing off.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was the start of a 10-night run at Amsterdam\u2019s Johan Cruijff Arena. The 67-date tour has Harry doing residencies in seven cities around the globe, through the end of 2026. After Amsterdam, it\u2019s London (12 nights at Wembley Stadium), S\u00e3o Paulo, Mexico City, New York, Melbourne, and Sydney. His only U.S. dates are his 30-night stand at NYC\u2019s Madison Square Garden, where he already has a banner hanging<\/a> to commemorate his last stand there with 15 sold-out shows.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe spent much of the night elaborating his concept for KissCo, inspired by dancing till dawn in Berlin\u2019s electro clubs. \u201cThe whole reason we\u2019re on this tour,\u201d he explained at the start of the night, \u201cthe whole reason I made this last album, is about being together, sharing moments together, having fun together. And that\u2019s what we want to do here tonight. I challenge you to have as much fun as I\u2019m going to have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe gigantic stage had one catwalk down the middle, but a much longer one that stretched all across the floor, so he could get up close and personal with the audience in every corner of the room. Despite the name, Johan Cruijff Arena is a gargantuan football stadium. (The home team is AFC Ajax, so a banner outside declared, \u201cAjax All The Time, Disco Occasionally.\u201d) The vastness of this stage made it clear why he\u2019s doing these residencies instead of lugging it from town to town\u2014in terms of size it\u2019s comparable to the Grateful Dead\u2019s Wall of Sound.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tHarry spent half the show on the catwalk\u2014the sheer amount of running he did all night was comparable to the Berlin and Tokyo Marathons combined. For the finale \u201cAs It Was,\u201d after he\u2019d already been dancing for two hours, he raced three bonus laps all the way around the stadium. (His Runner\u2019s World pal Haruki Murakami would be proud.) On previous tours, Harry\u2019s catwalks had steps for him to climb\u2014a comical sight, because he always ignored the stairs and just leaped right over them. But these runways have no steps\u2014nothing to slow him down.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAnthony Pham*<\/p>\n

\n\tHarry wore a blue shirt with a kaleidoscopic necktie and black slacks, accessorized at first with a red leather jacket. The night began with his new walk-on theme: Elvis Presley\u2019s 1972 rendition of \u201cBridge Over Troubled Water<\/a>.\u201d It was the night\u2019s first Paul Simon tribute, but definitely not the last. It was a fitting choice, since one of his key KissCo inspirations was playing his childhood faves Simon & Garfunkel for a friend who\u2019d never heard them before, as her joy reminded him of how he first fell in love with music. It led to a video where he walks alone in the garden as a female voice asks over the phone, \u201cHarry, are you coming out tonight?\u201d He took the stage with the new \u201cAre You Listening Yet?\u201d He let the crowd take over to sing the lines, \u201cIf you must join a movement, make sure there\u2019s dancing\u201d\u2014a motto for the night.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show was expertly paced, with loads of familiar hits up front to set the mood\u2014the collective serotonin rush really hit when he picked up the guitar for the second song, the Fine Line California-sunshine anthem \u201cGolden.\u201d The show\u2019s \u201cAct One,\u201d as he called it, had sure shots like \u201cAdore You,\u201d \u201cMusic For a Sushi Restaurant,\u201d and \u201cWatermelon Sugar.\u201d The first half was essentially the Kiss All the Time part\u2014then came the disco. It combined the intimate warmth of his Fine Line shows with the dance-floor glitz of his Harry\u2019s House tour.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe sat at the piano for the knockout ballad \u201cComing Up Roses,\u201d with the string section, letting the audience carry the wordless singing at the end. It cued an orchestral version of one of the night\u2019s crowd-slaying surprises, the heartbreak ballad \u201cFine Line.\u201d It\u2019s a fan fave he left unplayed for most of the Harry\u2019s House era, reviving it only in the final two months of Love on Tour.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a song I used to play at the end of the show,\u201d Harry said before \u201cFine Line,\u201d holding his blue acoustic \u201cgalaxy guitar.\u201d \u201cBecause it felt like a song about the end of something.\u201d That was enough to trigger loud gasps of pain from people who suddenly realized what was coming. (The fan in front of me told her friend, \u201cHe\u2019s SO mean!\u201d) \u201cBut actually,\u201d Harry added, \u201cbeing in rooms like this, I\u2019m more hopeful than ever, and it feels like the beginning of something. So it\u2019s gonna end what we like to call \u2018Act One.\u2019 And then we\u2019re gonna start dancing,\u201d adding, \u201cHere is a song for when you get home.\u201d But when he hit his first guitar strum for \u201cFine Line,\u201d it was basically pouring fresh blood into a shark pool.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Act Two dance party blitzed through most of the new album, blazing with \u201cwe want to dance with all our friends\u201d energy. If you\u2019re one of the many Harry fans who had trouble connecting with KissCo, by far his most divisive album, the songs truly explode live, especially bangers like \u201cReady Steady Go\u201d and \u201cPop.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cItalian Girls\u201d is a new techno-style instrumental jam, flowing into \u201cAmerican Girls.\u201d \u201cTaste Back\u201d brought the Nineties rave flavor with a snippet of Underworld\u2019s lager-lager-lager classic \u201cBorn Slippy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDance No More\u201d began with an intricate routine for Harry and two of his dancers, sashaying down the catwalk to the intro from the Sugarhill Gang\u2019s \u201cRapper\u2019s Delight.\u201d \u201cCarla\u2019s Song\u201d (inspired by the real-life friend who he turned on to Simon & Garfunkel) turned into a medley with the Harry\u2019s House highlight \u201cSatellite,\u201d a perfect pair. Hearing \u201cAperture\u201d take off with the live band, with 56,000 voices singing the \u201cah-ah-ah-ah\u201d synthesizer throb out loud\u2013it couldn\u2019t be a more succinct mission statement for everything he\u2019s trying to say in these songs.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe audience wore more neckties than feather boas, though plenty of those. (There were also a few Liam Payne shirts, a poignant sight.) Many wore shirts that said \u201cSted Sarandos,\u201d the pseudonym Harry used to run the Berlin Marathon last year. He kept bantering with the fans, with his usual chatty crowd work, helping one fan locate her lost mother. (\u201cTheresa\u2019s mum, are you here?\u201d) Best fan sign: \u201cA bird just shat on my head on the way here can I have a set list?\u201d Hope she got one.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor a star who\u2019s been shy about doing interviews lately, he sure does love to wax eloquent about the philosophical premise of KissCo and the whole Together, Together show. \u201cI think we live in a time where it doesn\u2019t seem very cool sometimes to try,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think trying is the coolest thing you can do. When I\u2019m in these rooms with you, I see the way that you treat each other and you TRY with each other\u2014you dance with a friend, you dance with a stranger. That\u2019s what this is all about. It\u2019s about being open to people, being open with your friends, being open with strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe hit that theme over and over\u2014the importance of music as a communal experience. \u201cI want to say thank you to all my friends who took me out dancing the last couple of years,\u201d he added toward the end. \u201cAnd all the strangers who had to dance with me.\u201d The crowd was feeling his words deep. \u201cI think in a world where we\u2019re surrounded by so much noise, wherever it is\u2014if it\u2019s online or in your life, it happens to all of us and it affects all of us.\u201d But he added, \u201cI want you to feel what this feels like, to be in this room with a bunch of people who love you tonight, and remind you that the only thing to do is live and exist with your integrity and your respect and your dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSeeing Bruce Springsteen and Harry Styles in the same week is such a revelation of the power of live music. Two very different shows, with very different moods, but two inspirational nights that prove there is no substitute for human enthusiasm\u2014the more ridiculous the better. Both shows demonstrated the miracles that can only happen in a room full of crazed music fanatics, in the face-to-face confrontation between a performer and an audience, when they\u2019re both equally possessed by that unkillable, irrational, passionate, and downright dangerous lust for music. Watching these two showmen work so absurdly hard to prove it all night\u2014and watching audiences live up to that challenge and then some\u2014well, it\u2019s a timely reminder of why, even in our era of blue-dot fever and robber-baron ticket monopolies, live music remains a humane ecstasy that\u2019s always worth showing up for.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor the encore, the string section returned for \u201cMatilda,\u201d in a lush new arrangement. It\u2019s always so poignant to see that song\u2019s impact on an audience, as clusters of friends huddled to weep and sing. (Guitarist Mitch Rowland told Rolling Stone he\u2019s never been able to play \u201cMatilda\u201d facing the audience, because the emotion\u2019s too intense to witness\u2014and he still can\u2019t.) He brought down the house with \u201cSign of the Times,\u201d the glam-soul piano ballad that began his solo career after One Direction and opened up his future. \u201cAs It Was,\u201d his biggest hit, was the inevitable finale. So why did Harry feel the need to climax the song by racing three extra loops around the entire floor? (\u201cBecause he\u2019s insane\u201d is an acceptable answer.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe show was over, but nobody wanted to leave, even after the house lights came up. The exit music was already playing: in a real Eighties power move, it was a deep cut from synth-pop legends Orchestral Manouevres in the Dark, \u201cOf All The Things We\u2019ve Made<\/a>.\u201d That led into the jazz-piano classic that used to serve as his longtime walk-on theme, Bill Evans\u2019 1958 \u201cPeace Piece<\/a>.\u201d Yet everyone still stood there cheering, or just listening\u2014some no doubt hoping he\u2019d come back to bust out \u201cKiwi,\u201d his longtime show-closer (always unleashing the most awesomely violent moshpit chaos) but most simply soaking in the communal atmosphere. After three years, it was a feast of something everyone had been starving for, even more than we\u2019d realized. The whole night was a long-awaited comeback for both Harry and his people. And both went overboard to make it worth the wait.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n

\n\tSETLIST:
\u201cAre You Listening Yet?\u201d
\u201cGolden\u201d
\u201cAdore\u201d
\u201cWatermelon Sugar\u201d
\u201cMusic for a Sushi Restaurant\u201d
\u201cTaste Back\u201d
\u201cComing Up Roses\u201d (with strings)
\u201cFine Line\u201d (with strings)
\u201cItalian Girls\u201d\u00a0
\u201cAmerican Girls\u201d
\u201cKeep Driving\u201d
\u201cReady Steady Go\u201d
\u201cDance No More\u201d
\u201cTreat People With Kindness\u201d\/\u201cThis Must Be The Place\u201d
\u201cPop\u201d
\u201cSeason 2 Weight Loss\u201d
\u201cCarla\u2019s Song\u201d\/\u201cSatellite\u201d
\u201cAperture\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tENCORE:
\u201cMatilda\u201d (with strings)
\u201cSign of the Times\u201d (with strings)
\u201cAs It Was\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At last, the words that the world has waited three years to hear: \u201cGood evening\u2014my name is Harry.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,6437,61,60,278],"class_list":["post-453737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-harry-styles","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}