Harry Styles covers Britney Spears' 'Toxic' on night 2 of 'Harryween'

British singer-songwriter Harry Styles' two-night 'Harryween' Halloween-weekend stand at Madison Square Garden, which was promised to be much more than the "fancy dress party" it was billed as, did not disappoint.

According to Variety, on Halloween Eve, he and his entire band performed while dressed as characters from 'The Wizard of Oz', with Styles as Dorothy, naturally and covered 'Over the Rainbow' as part of the encore.

Halloween night was apparently less specifically themed, Styles wore a billowing harlequin clown costume that many fans on social media said they'd thought he'd rip off to reveal a different costume (he didn't), but he covered Britney Spears' 2003 smash 'Toxic' in full during the encore.

Styles could be seen mock-stumbling around the stage as the band finished the rarity 'Medicine', which he hadn't played the night before, and after a quick pause, the band shifted straight into 'Toxic' as the crowd erupted when they realized what it was.

Clad in his white costume with jewels glued to his face, Styles ran from one side of the stage to the other, leading the crowd in sing-along's on the chorus and gyrating during the slow and slinky section, before the band brought the song to a tight conclusion.

It was unclear, at least in the hours immediately after the show, whether there was any significance to Styles singing the song in a clown costume, or whether it was simply a show of support for Spears and, by extension, the 'Free Britney' movement, that happened to take place on Halloween.

Many fans were confused, and a few observers on social media seemingly felt it was in poor taste, but most had a positive if not ecstatic reaction. Interestingly, one fan online predicted, well before the song performance, that Styles would tear off the harlequin suit and reveal himself dressed in a Spears costume.

As per Variety, while the rest of the set was largely the same as night one, each night got its own rarities. Night one had 'Over the Rainbow' and the occasionally-played 'To Be So Lonely' from his first solo album, while night two got 'Toxic' and 'Medicine', the latter of which is an unreleased original song that Styles played frequently on his 2018 tour. Apparently, it was the first time he'd played either of the covers publicly.

( With inputs from ANI )

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