Harry Styles opens BRIT Awards with live debut of chart-topping "Aperture"

Harry Styles opened the 2026 BRIT Awards in Manchester with a striking live debut of "Aperture," the lead single from his fourth album that has already hit No. 1 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and the U.K. singles chart. The performance at Co-op Live on Feb. 28 served as a high-profile promotional push ahead of the album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, due March 6.

The set began on a tiered bleacher platform and unfolded as a staged spectacle. A prelude skit featuring host Jack Whitehall framed the moment as a return, with a montage of Whitehall comically pining for Styles before the singer took the stage. Dozens of dancers in black shades and T-shirts printed with snails flanked Styles; he led tightly rehearsed choreography, strode down to meet a backing band and gospel singers and finished with dancers converging on him mid-venue for a synchronized finale.

Styles arrived on the red carpet in a slouchy black Chanel suit with broken white pinstripes and moved into a stage look that leaned vintage and precise. He performed in a pale-blue shirt tucked into high-waisted trousers with a striped tie and black ballet flats, shedding a blazer once the music kicked in. Longtime stylist Harry Lambert has been curating a campaign of vintage and designer references for this era, drawing on Miu Miu Spring Summer 2000, Prada motifs, knitwear from Patrick Carrol and nods to Jonathan Anderson’s Dior.

"Aperture" was released on Jan. 22 through Erskine and Columbia Records and credits Kid Harpoon as co-writer and producer. The single has topped the Irish chart and reached the top ten across markets including Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden, marking Styles’s third No. 1 in both the U.S. and U.K. The BRITs performance was his first major live appearance since he headlined the show in 2023, when Harry’s House dominated awards categories.

Beyond the immediate spectacle, the timing and scale of the BRITs slot underscore the business calculus behind major awards telecasts. Opening a national broadcast places a single and its forthcoming album in front of millions of viewers and can convert televised exposure into streaming spikes and preorders in the crucial fortnight before release. For Styles, whose new record is billed as synthesizer-heavy with nods to LCD Soundsystem and a Berlin-influenced sonic palette, the televised debut functions as both artistic statement and commercial engine.

Culturally the set stitched together several contemporary pop currents: the return of disco-adjacent textures in mainstream charts, the growing nexus of music and fashion as simultaneous cultural product, and the use of theatrical staging to create shareable moments. Style choices and choreography reinforced Styles’s role as a tastemaker whose sartorial risks filter rapidly through retail, social media and red carpet conversation.

With Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally arriving March 6, the industry will be watching whether the BRITs push deepens the single’s hold on global charts and how the album’s synth-forward direction broadens Styles’s audience. The live debut was a reminder that even at the commercial pinnacle, pop performance remains a strategic tool for shaping both culture and commerce.