Last week, the world saw the return of Harry Styles to the concert stage with the beginning of his new 56-stop world tour in Basel, Switzerland. This tour is Styles’ second for his self-titled debut solo album, released last May, after all of his 2017 tour dates completely sold out. The beginning of this new tour comes with a new setlist for the singer.
On this tour so far, audiences have heard many of the same songs off of Styles’ self-titled album, including “Sign Of The Times,” “Carolina,” “Kiwi” and “Meet Me In The Hallway.” But there are three songs being played on tour now that weren’t included in the previous tour setlist, upping the list to 16 songs. One of these songs is “Sweet Creature” from Styles’ album and the other two songs are completely new songs that it is assumed Styles wrote but never released. The two songs, “Anna” and “Medicine,” are both very upbeat tracks differing from the mostly introspective and calm nature of the majority of Styles’ album.
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While introducing the songs to the crowd during the Basel concert, Styles noted that both songs were originally composed during the writing process for his album but didn’t make the final cut. “Medicine” is similar to the song “Kiwi,” in that both of the songs are fast-paced. However, “Anna” is a lighter tune while still upbeat. The bridge for “Anna” samples the George Michael song “Faith,” causing the song to sound like a nod toward the 1970s era of music to which Styles has often looked for inspiration. Neither song has had any studio recording time yet and the lyrics may end up not being completely the same, but right now audiences love what they are hearing and both songs have been blowing up through fan recordings across social media.
After listening to concert attendee recordings of the songs, many fans are hailing “Medicine” to be a bisexual anthem. “Medicine” seems to include the lyrics “the boys and the girls are here / I mess around with ‘em / and I’m okay with it,” which many listeners are interpreting as Harry Styles singing about bisexuality and possibly coming out as bisexual. However, in past interviews during Styles’ time with One Direction, he denied to make a statement about his sexuality and claimed that he felt no need to label himself. Though he hasn’t officially shared his sexuality publicly, Styles has been extremely supportive and vocal for the LGBT+ community and has often waved various LGBT flags on stage during his concerts.
Courtesy: Jeff Kravitz
In addition to these two new bops and our favorite songs from Harry Styles being played, Styles is also including covers of One Direction songs “Stockholm Syndrome,” “If I Could Fly” and “What Makes You Beautiful” in these upcoming tour dates. Along with these, Styles has also been playing covers of Ariana Grande’s “Just a Little Bit of Your Heart” (a song that Styles co-wrote) and Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.”
Even though there has been no official studio recording of “Anna” and “Medicine” yet, Styles performing both songs in major concert venues makes it seem promising that fans will get recordings soon and possibly even more new music. However, if you are interested in listening to either of these new songs, both have high-quality fan recordings available on YouTube.