Harry Styles took a moment during his New York City concert on Wednesday to honour the late Dolly Parton.
Towards the end of his opening Madison Square Garden show, the British pop star gave a shout-out to the late country music legend, who died on Tuesday at the age of 80.
“We’ve got a couple of songs left for you, but first I wanna say a proper thank you to all the musicians over the years who have inspired me,” Harry told the audience. “Dolly, we love you. Thank you so much.”
Dolly’s 1974 song I Will Always Love You – which was later popularised by Whitney Houston – then played over the arena’s speakers as Harry and his band stood on the stage. He encouraged the crowd to sing along and light up their phones.
According to footage captured by The Hollywood Reporter, Drew Barrymore and broadcaster Gayle King sang along to the song while standing next to each other in the audience.
After playing around a minute of the song, Harry launched into the final two tracks of the night – Sign of the Times and Aperture.
Wednesday night’s show marked the first concert in the pop star’s unprecedented 30-night residency at Madison Square Garden as part of his Together, Together tour.
During the show, the 32-year-old acknowledged his debut performance at the venue with One Direction in 2012.
“I had the great privilege of playing this building for the first time when I was 18 years old,” he said, according to a video posted by Variety. “There’s a gentleman who’s working here who was working here then, who shared with me that when I got out of the car that day, I kissed the floor and said, ‘I’ve made it to Madison Square Garden!'”
The As It Was singer has been on the Together, Together tour since May, performing shows in Amsterdam, London, Mexico City and São Paulo in Brazil. So fans in New York City were stunned to discover that he had radically overhauled the setlist and created essentially a new show for his MSG residency, which concludes on 31 October.
Harry will then wrap up the tour in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia in November and December.
