Harry Styles has taken over Rockefeller Plaza!
In honor of his third studio album, "Harry's House," which will be released tomorrow, the "Watermelon Sugar" singer headed to the plaza stage for Citi Concert Series on TODAY on Thursday.
The callout for Styles’ performance broke records at TODAY, with approximately 50,000 people requesting Fan Passes to see him perform. In February 2020, he was the last singer to take the stage at TODAY’s Citi Summer Concert Series before New York City went into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Styles had the crowd riled up when he walked out on the stage in a neon green, brown and black onesie and started singing his hit "As It Was" from the new album.
The singer revealed to Hoda Kotb, Savannah Guthrie and Carson Daly that he chose his outfit because he had to perform so “early” and he wanted to be “comfortable.”
“I thought, sleeping bag ... I’m going for comfort and I thought I could soak up some of the rain in this," Styles said.
He told TODAY that “Harry’s House” is his “most diverse” album to date since it was influenced by different people in his life.
“I feel like it’s kind of a collection of all of my favorite things and very much like the album I’ve always wanted to make so I’m really happy,” he said.
“I think for me, it’s definitely the most personal record I think I’ve made. It was definitely the most intimately made thing I’ve done so far,” he continued. “Obviously, the pandemic and everything kind of added to the way it was made. It was made by a few people in a small room.”
Styles added, “I think it’s the most free I’ve ever felt making music ... I’m really happy. It comes out at midnight so I hope you enjoy it.”
His next performance was “Boyfriends," another track from his new album that he had performed at Coachella last month.
Styles talked about how "Boyfriends" came about.
"I wrote (it) kind of towards the end of the recording of the last album," he said. "We could have rushed it to get it ready and it just felt like there's something special about it and I wanted to kind of take my time with it. I knew that it would find its way onto the album. It was meant to be and I love the song."
Styles noted that "Boyfriends" was the hardest song to write on his new album because he had "different versions of it" and was trying to figure out which one would be the "best version" for "Harry's House."
Styles continued to perform with his 2019 singles “Watermelon Sugar" and "Golden," as well as his new songs “Late Night Talking" and "Daylight."
When asked how it felt to be playing his new tracks out loud, Styles lightheartedly said that it felt like a “mistake” because he’s “supposed to be playing them in secret.” But regardless, he said that he’s excited to be playing them for TODAY’s Citi Summer Concert Series.
“I’m sorry it’s raining. Thank you for being out here,” he told his fans.
In March of this year, Styles announced that he was coming out with “Harry’s House.” That same month, he released the official tracklist of the new album before he dropped his first single, "As It Was," in April.
At the beginning of the track, he sampled his goddaughter's voice from a voice message that her father sent him.
Styles’ goddaughter is Ruby Winston, the daughter of Ben Winston, an executive producer of “The Late Late Show With James Corden," according to Entertainment Weekly.
“She used to try and call me before bedtime every night and one time it didn’t ring or something so they sent me that,” he explained on the UK radio show “Capital Breakfast" in April. “I dug it out when we were in the studio and put it in front of the song for some reason and I kind of just fell in love with it so it stuck.”
Styles was also seen playing with an adorable baby in a behind-the-scenes bonus clip that his team released on YouTube.
After breaking away from his former boy band, One Direction, Styles debuted his self-titled album in 2017 before he released his second album, "Fine Line," in 2019. During his career, Styles has been nominated for three Grammys and he won his first for Best Pop Solo Performance for his single "Watermelon Sugar."