Harry Styles revisits X Factor as he kicks off Wembley residency

Harry Styles revisits X Factor as he kicks off Wembley residencyImage source, Anthony PhamImage caption, Harry Styles is the first artist to play 12 nights at Wembley Stadium in a single yearByMark SavageMusic correspondentPublished13 June 2026Harry Styles opened the first night of his record-breaking residency at Wembley Stadium by reminiscing about his audition for The X Factor, 16 years ago."Just outside of this building, just next door in Wembley Arena, my sister brought me to London for the very first time," said the star, who was born in Redditch and raised in Cheshire."It was… in that building that I was put in a band. We were called One Direction," he recalled, prompting screams from a sold-out crowd of 80,000 fans."My sister is here tonight," he added. "I want to thank her. I love you and I appreciate you."Later, Styles also thanked his mother, Anne, who secretly signed him up for The X Factor when he was just 16 years old."I wouldn't be here today if she hadn't done that," he said. "I thank you so, so much."Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Styles (centre) auditioned for The X Factor as a soloist, but was later paired up with (L-R) Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan to form One Direction.Back in 2010, Styles' audition consisted of two songs: Train's Hey Soul Sister and Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely - earning him a space in the global phenomenon One Direction.Prior to that, the first song he ever recorded was Elvis Presley's The Girl of My Best Friend. Appropriately, then, his walk-on music at Wembley was also an Elvis track - in this case, his cover of Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water.Styles has a lot in common with the King of Rock and Roll: from his chiselled good looks to the particular way he wiggles his hips. At Wembley, those qualities - combined with armour-plated pop smashes like As It Was and Watermel...