Harry Styles & Stevie Nicks Perform ‘Landslide’ in Honor of Christine McVie’s Birthday
Harry Styles, Stevie Nicks and thousands of people at London’s BST Hyde Park gave the most touching birthday salute to the late Christine McVie Friday (July 12).
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In honor of her friend — who would’ve turned 81 that day — the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman invited the “As It Was” pop star to join her on stage for an emotional duet of her 1975 masterpiece “Landslide.” “I asked Harry to do this,” she told the crowd at the festival. “It’s always heavy to ask someone to come and sing the song with you when you’re singing about your best friend that died so suddenly and so sadly.”
“What I want you to know is that Christine was Harry’s girl, she was my girl, she was your girl,” Nicks continued as Styles, wearing a songbird pin on his lapel, nodded solemnly. “She was from here. And she loved all of us. And today was her birthday.”
The pair performed the ballad while making sustained eye contact, the “Edge of Seventeen” musician taking the lead as the One Direction alum sang harmony. “And if you see my reflection in the snow-covered hills,” their intertwining voices belted. “Well, the landslide will bring it down.”
The tribute comes over a year and a half after McVie died at the age of 71 in November 2022, having suffered a stroke with her secondary cause of death being listed as cancer. “She was truly one-of-a-kind, special and talented beyond measure,” wrote Fleetwood Mac in a joint statement at the time. “She was the best musician anyone could have in their band and the best friend anyone could have in their life. We were so lucky to have a life with her.”
Nicks has been open about her grief since losing her bandmate, telling Vulture last fall that she doesn’t anticipate full-band activities continuing in McVie’s absence. “She was like my soul mate, my musical soul mate, and my best friend that I spent more time with than any of my other best friends outside of Fleetwood Mac,” she told the publication. “Christine was my best friend… Who am I going to look over to on the right and have them not be there behind that Hammond organ? When she died, I figured we really can’t go any further with this. There’s no reason to.”
Styles also previously honored McVie on his own by singing “Songbird” at his December 2022 concert in Chile. He and Nicks have performed together several times in the past, including at his 2019 One Night Only show at Los Angeles’ The Forum.
Watch Styles and Nicks perform “Landslide” in McVie’s honor below.
Hannah Dailey
Billboard
