Harry Styles Pays Tribute to Liam Payne With Unreleased Song on Anniversary of Payne’s Death

Harry Styles debuted an unreleased song he wrote for his late One Direction bandmate Liam Payne at Madison Square Garden on Friday (Oct. 16), the second anniversary of Payne’s death.

Styles performed the tribute during his 30-night residency at the New York venue. Before the song, he paused to speak to the crowd and reflected on the people who had shaped his life. “I feel incredibly lucky to get to play these shows here in New York, and this building means a lot to me,” he said. “And two years ago today, I lost one of those friends.”

“I’m sure a lot of you have been through similar things. I hope you haven’t. But really, it’s just about looking after each other,” Styles continued. “So many people who have touched my life in such special ways, I wouldn’t be here without. I’m gonna play you a song I wrote for my friend about two years ago, if that’s all right.” He then named the song, saying, “This is ‘What Is Enough,'” and played it live for the first time.

Payne died in October 2024 at age 31. He rose to fame alongside Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik in One Direction. The group formed on the U.K.’s The X Factor in 2010 and went on hiatus in 2016. It remains one of the best-selling boy bands of all time, with four consecutive No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. In the two years since Payne’s death, each surviving member has returned to making music.

Styles’s Together, Together Tour supports his fourth studio album, Kiss All the Time, Disco Occasionally. The tour includes a record-breaking 30-show residency at Madison Square Garden, for which Ticketmaster reported that 11.5 million people registered for presale access. A two-time Grammy winner, Styles has topped the Billboard Hot 100 with “Watermelon Sugar” and “As It Was,” the latter spending 15 weeks at No. 1. As a solo artist, he has also scored three consecutive No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200.

Source: Billboard