“Mabuhay, Manila!” Sweet creature Harry Styles kicked off his first Asian leg tour as a solo artist on May 1st at the MOA Arena, Manila, Philippines. The last time Styles was here was during the On the Road Again Tour, March 21 and 22, 2015, alongside his bandmates from One Direction Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson.
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Fans lined up for almost eight hours before the concert, buying sunflowers in the form of hair ties and as actual flowers, which were planned by the local street team @HarryEStylesPH to represent Hazza’s belief that we should treat people with kindness. Subsequently, it also served as a reflection of Pinoy hospitality.
The show was opened by Warpaint and when it was over, the team did a quick setup and played songs from the album along with songs that didn’t make it to the album. A burst of energy showed while the audience sang along to the songs. After that, the team played some visuals on the big screen – an animation of Styles, fixing a rubix cube that the fans were hyped up to see.
The only light was the animation from the big screen and a stream of lights from the stage turned on in line with the intro of the ‘Only Angel‘. A bunch of orange lights also shone in the back when the song become more upbeat.
“My name is Harry. It;s a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for being here tonight. Thank you for choosing to spend some time with us,” he said after singing ‘Woman’.
“Please feel free to be whoever you want to be,” he announced as he performed songs from the album: ‘Ever Since New York’ ‘Carolina’ ‘Two Ghost’ ‘Sweet Creature’ ‘From the Dining Table’ and ‘Sign of the Times’, as well as other songs that he wrote a few years back, ‘Medicine’ ‘Oh Anna’ ‘The Chain’.
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He greeted the fans from every side of the arena, and Harry even talked to one lucky fan in the Platinum section. He also sang her a birthday song with the audience backing him up.
After singing ‘Meet Me In The Hallway’, he walked in the middle of the moshpit with fans trying to grab him until he got to stage b and performed a few acoustic songs.
“Every single one of you tonight is absolutely fabulous!” He also surprised the fans with an old One Direction classic ‘Stockholm Syndrome’‘What Makes You Beautiful’ and the emotional acoustic of ‘If I Could Fly’.
Harry also performed the song he gave to Ariana Grande a few years back that was featured in ‘My Everything’ album, whereas everyone still had their phones up with the flash on, making them look like the stars in the sky. The surroundings were calm and surreal as a few fans teared up to the song.
“See you next time!” as Hazza wrapped his show with his hit song ‘Kiwi’. After the show, Styles’ dominated the Philippines’ trending topics on twitter with the hashtag #HarryStylesLiveOnTourManila, #HarryStylesMNL, #NOCHILLPHILIPPINES, #HarryStylesAtMOAArena and #MahalKaNaminHarryStyles.
Did you cry in a cool way, as well? Share your thoughts in the comment section!
This event was brought to you by MMILive.
