Harry Styles and Stevie Nicks Duet in Tribute to Christine McVie at BST Hyde Park Concert Christine McVie would have turned 81 on Friday.
Photo: MJ Hewitt
Harry Styles joined Stevie Nicks‘ headlining set for the BST Hyde Park concert series on Friday for a duet of “Stop Dragging My Heart Around” and “Landslide.” Before he appeared on stage, Nicks told the audience in London that she asked Styles to help her in commemorating what would have been her late Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie‘s 81st birthday.
“At the end of the show, since the end of last year and since Christine passed away, I would say something about her, and I asked Harry to do this with me and it’s a lot to ask someone to sing a heavy song about a best friend that died so suddenly and so sadly,” she said. “What I want to say to you is that Christine was Harry’s girl, she was my girl, she was your girl, and she loved all of you, and today would’ve been her birthday.”
Styles was wearing an embroidered songbird pin, making a reference to McVie’s vocal performance in “Songbird,” the piano ballad off Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album “Rumours.”
Styles has not appeared on stage for a performance since the end of his “Love On Tour” on July 22, 2023 in Italy. His last full-length album was 2022’s “Harry’s House,” which won a Grammy for album of the year. He has remained largely out of the spotlight since.
Nicks, meanwhile, told the crowd at BST Hyde Park that she often turns to the stage when she is dealing with something as heavy as the sudden passing of McVie: “One thing that my mom used to say to me when I was little was… When I was hurt, she’d go ‘Stevie when you’re hurt, you always run to the stage.’ And that’s what I’ve been doing since Chris passed away.”
Nicks is a headliner for the concert series that also includes performances by Kings of Leon, Kylie Minogue, the Corrs, Stray Kids, Shania Twain, Robbie Williams and Andrea Bocelli.
Harry Styles joins Stevie Nicks in Hyde Park for tributes to Tom Petty and Christine McVie The pair performed ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’ and ‘Landslide’
Kevin E G Perry Los Angeles
Photo: Ben Maden
Harry Styles joined Stevie Nicks as a surprise guest during the Fleetwood Mac singer’s headline performance at BST Hyde Park on Friday (July 12).
The former One Direction star, 30, duetted with Nicks, 76, on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” which she originally released in 1981 with the late Tom Petty and his band The Heartbreakers.
Nicks performed the song with Petty in Hyde Park in 2017, just months before the rock icon’s death at 66.
On stage at tonight’s show, Nicks said of Petty: “This is a special day for a lot of reasons, to be back here because I feel his presence. I know he’s at this event and he’s happy with me here.”
Styles remained on stage to perform the 1975 Fleetwood Mac classic “Landslide,” before Nicks delivered an emotional tribute to her late bandmate Christine McVie. McVie, who died in 2022 at the age of 79, would have turned 81 today.
Nicks told the crowd: “I want you to know that Christine was my girl and she loved all of us and today was her birthday.”
She added: “All of you have helped me get over [her death] and I want you to know how much I appreciate it.”
Nicks also thanked Styles for joining her on stage, saying: “Harry, I thank you - we thank you!”
Elsewhere in the concert, Nicks urged the crowd to be politically active and said she had never voted until she turned 70. “I was too busy,” she said. “Don’t be me; vote.”
Back in 2019, Nicks joked that Styles is the “love child” of her and her bandmate, Mick Fleetwood, after praising him for his eponymous debut album.
“He’s Mick’s and my love child,” Nicks told Rolling Stone. “When Harry came into our lives I said, ‘Oh my God, this is the son I never had.’ So I adopted him.
“I love Harry, and I’m so happy Harry made a rock and roll record – he could have made a pop record and that would have been the easy way for him,” she continued. “But I guess he decided he wanted to be born in 1948 too – he made a record that was more like 1975.”
That same year, Styles inducted Nicks into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame.
“Stevie Nicks is the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a second time,” said Styles during the ceremony. “First, with Fleetwood Mac, and now for her unforgettable solo work. With Stevie, you’re not celebrating music from long ago through the mists of time. She was standing on stage headlining a place doing her best work just three nights ago. She is forever current. She is forever Stevie.”
Harry Styles, Stevie Nicks Duet ‘Landslide’ in Emotional Tribute to Christine McVie The duo also performed "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" at Hyde Park in London
BY ETHAN MILLMAN
Stevie Nicks brought out longtime friend Harry Styles to join her for hits “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” and “Landslide” during her concert at Hyde Park in London on Friday night, with Nicks taking the time to commemorate Christine McVie on what would’ve been her 81st birthday. McVie died in November of 2022 after suffering a stroke.
The show marks Styles’ first live performance since finishing his Love On Tour last year.
“Christine was Harry’s girl, she was my girl, she was your girl,” Nicks told the crowd in London on Friday. “She loved all of us, today was her birthday. It’s taken me all this time to try and be able to deal with this situation. One thing my mom used to say to me when I was little was when I was hurt, she’d go ‘Stevie when you’re hurt you always run to the stage. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since Chris passed away, is running to the stage. The only people that have been able to help me to get over this has been all of you.”
This isn’t the first time the two have played those songs live together; Nicks joined Styles to play “Landslide” at the Forum in Los Angeles at the end of 2019, and they played “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony that same year when Styles inducted Nicks into the Hall.
“With Stevie, you’re not celebrating music from long ago through the mists of time,” Styles said in his induction speech that night. “She was standing on stage headlining a place doing her best work just three nights ago. She is forever current. She is forever Stevie.”
STOP DRAGGIN' MY HEART AROUND
RHIANNON
LANDSLIDE
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