If an X-Factor audition were ever cemented in the public consciousness, it was young Harry Styles’s rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely in 2011.
His performance might have seemed unpolished, a little shaky perhaps, but the 16-year-old captured the nation with his cherubic face and mop of curly brown hair.
Little girls loved him, so did their mums, and Harry became a global phenomenon almost overnight. Today, his audition clip has been watched more than 27 million times on YouTube.
Soon, fans were being offered tours of his home village, Holmes Chapel, in Cheshire, where the sights included ‘Harry’s Wall, where he had his first kiss, and the W Mandeville Bakery, where the teenager had a Saturday job before finding X-Factor fame.
The band that helped launch Harry to stardom, One Direction, would eventually fall apart – yet his solo career rocketed. Harry would eventually become the biggest male solo artist on the planet, winning Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2023.
This week, however, the singer has been waking up to a very different reception. In fact the pop sensation is receiving an unprecedented backlash, with public opinion taking a sudden and dramatic turn against him.
Despite his global popularity, loyal fans are claiming to have ditched him, while some suggest they’ll throw tomatoes at him when he is next on stage. What could possibly have prompted them to turn against their idol with such fury?
Sadly, I can reveal, it comes down to claims about money and what they claim is ‘greed’.
Harry Styles’s X Factor audition – a rendition of Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely – has been watched more than 27 million times on YouTube since it first aired in 2010
The band that helped launch him to stardom, One Direction, would eventually fall apart – yet his solo career rocketed and his last world tour (Love on Tour) was one of the highest-grossing in history
Fans on a tour of his Cheshire home town in front of ‘Harry’s Wall’, where he had his first kiss. The same loyal fans are said to be turning against the star for his astronomical ticket prices
Fans say they have been left reeling by the astronomical ticket prices for his forthcoming world tour, Together Together, which celebrates his new mouthful of an album, Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally, due out in March.
Many have felt so betrayed by the hefty amount that is being charged – even for the seats furthest away from the stage – that they are turning against their idol.
Standing prices for the UK leg of the tour – which begins in May – range from £144.65 to £279.45. While some VIP packages range from £468 to £725. Harry lovers claim this is a huge increase from his 2022 Love On Tour show, when they paid just £90 to stand.
Prices for the seats at Wembley Arena are almost treble what they were for his 2023 tour, the Daily Mail found this week.
And with tickets currently priced at more than £1,000 to see him in Madison Square Gardens, New York, many among his fanbase of young women say they have been forced to pull out of the pre-sale queues.
Current listings for the Madison Square Garden show seats start at $1,400 [£1,019].
‘Harry is the only member of One Direction to have got out of the band unscathed,’ says my music source. ‘But now it seems like we are seeing the true colours of his machine.
‘He couldn’t do any wrong. He was Mr Perfect, the well-mannered, polite lad who, despite his superstardom, would hold doors open for his fellow gym goers at Barry’s Bootcamp or ride a Lime bike through London.
‘Harry is the middle-class, good boy. But finally, maybe, it has all gone to his head and it’s about money after all. That is what we appear to be seeing here and it is really, really sad.
‘It’s fair to say he has always been regarded as an angel. But has the halo now slipped?’
‘Despite his superstardom, he would hold doors open for his fellow gym goers or ride a Lime bike through London. But finally, maybe, it has all gone to his head and it’s about money after all,’ one fan said
Harry Styles on stage during his last worldwide tour in 2023, Love on Tour, at the RCF Arena in Reggio Emilia, Italy, where he sang for more than 100,000 fans and standing tickets cost £90
It was just last week that Harry announced his long-awaited return after taking a break from the spotlight following the global success of his Harry’s House album and an accompanying tour.
To the delight of his global fanbase, he revealed the tour will consist of residencies in seven cities: London, New York, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Melbourne and Sydney.
Delight turned to disappointment, however, when the ticket prices were revealed.
While Styles has added more dates to his schedule in response to the demand, the wave of fan backlash has also become unstoppable.
Harry revealed his latest tour, Together Together, will consist of residencies in seven cities. But fans’ delight turned to disappointment when ticket prices were revealed
One person wrote on X: ‘Harry is charging me $1,200 for one concert ticket – like it’s my fault that he hasn’t done anything for three years. It is not my job to fund his lifestyle.’
Perhaps she is referring to his many holidays: Harry has taken numerous trips to Rome with girlfriend Zoe Kravitz, 37. He is also in the process of creating a £30million mega-mansion in affluent Hampstead, London, by combining two properties.
One fan wrote: ‘He made tomatoes the fruit for this album so we could bring them to the shows and throw them at him.’
(Harry has made a point of linking his albums to a specific fruit, making it a motif on his merchandise and putting it on records.)
Another person commented on social media: ‘Going to a concert is supposed to be like when you’re going to a museum or the cinema, by the way. It’s supposed to be a fun, casual night out enjoying an art form.
‘You’re not supposed to take out loans or max out your credit card for it. Wake up people.’
More ominously, one former fan summed up the situation like this: ‘I guess money is real and Harry Styles might not be forever. Suddenly, my frontal lobe has developed, and I do not need to see Harry Styles.’
Harry has taken numerous trips to Rome with girlfriend Zoe Kravitz, pictured above shopping. But fans have complained that it’s not their job to fund his ‘lifestyle’
The pop star, pictured performing at Coachella in 2022, is selling tickets for his world tour this year which range from £144.65 to £725 in the UK and more than $1,000 in the US
Fans paid up to £200 for his last concert in 2023, Love on Tour, though most reported paying around £90 for standing tickets.
But standing tickets for his London show in June are priced at £725 on Ticketmaster unreserved general admission.
Fans have begun comparing the prices to Taylor Swift’s billion-dollar-grossing Eras Tour, for which tickets cost £172 for standing. That said, she performed a three-hour spectacle with scores of back-up dancers.
One girl took to her TikTok account and said: ‘The price of this tour is like double the last tour, for like not much change.
‘He’s not going to do anything drastic that requires that big of a hike in price.
‘As much as you want to argue, “Oh it’s his management doing it”, he’s still a very prominent figure that has control over the pricing.
‘I think it’s crazy that I’m finally being priced out of a Harry Styles concert. VIP was £450 last tour, for early access all the goods and being right next to the stage.
‘I practically went on Harry’s world tour last time with him, and that’s because ticket prices were affordable. This year I don’t even think I can go to one.’
One Direction fans were further disappointed to learn that the singer is releasing his single, Aperture, on the same day that his former One Direction bandmate, Louis Tomlinson, will release an album, his first for almost four years.
One person wrote: ‘We love you, Harry, but do you really need to [release] a new song the same time Louis’ album comes out?’
Another said: ‘Ending your four-year-long-awaited music hiatus on the exact dates your significantly less popular ex-bandmate releases his album? Come on. As someone who works in the music industry – I can tell you right now this wasn’t without intention.’
It’s an unprecedented amount of negative attention for Harry Styles in the 15 years he has been the music industry’s golden boy. Will 2026 be a comeback or a big come down?
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