[Source: BBC News]

Harry 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.”

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 Watermelon Sugar – had the audience spellbound.

They arrived in sequins and feather boas, or sometimes in waistcoats and ties. They held paper hearts aloft during Fine Line, and painted red lips on their necks in reference to the star’s latest album: Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.

Hand-painted signs declared “Welcome home” and “Can I be your intern this summer?”

But it was a more left-field statement that caught Styles’ attention.

“We have some hard-hitting journalism down here,” he observed, highlighting a sign from Ella, who had come from Sunderland.

“Ella’s sign says, ‘What’s your favourite type of egg?’

“Um… I like a fried egg. Followed closely with a scramble.”

So now we know.

However random that seems, such moments of connection are the backbone of Styles’ show.