If you've ever wanted to hear Harry Styles sing about being worth the squeeze, today's your lucky day. Styles covered Lizzo's "Juice" during a Wednesday, Dec. 18 performance on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge — and he's already gotten Lizzo's stamp of approval. Sharing a video Style's appearance with her more than 1.3 million Twitter followers, Lizzo first added the word "melts," along with the head-explosion and heart-face emojis. Shortly afterward, she took a more direct approach. "You know what this means right....? 😏😉" Lizzo tweeted at Styles with a performance clip, tagging his official Instagram account later the same day.
Styles had already proven the love was mutual during his BBC Radio 1 interview, calling the "Good as Hell" singer "amazing." As the former One Direction band member added: "She's one of the most exciting artists working now for sure. She's exactly what you want an artist to be, which is themselves."
He also followed that mantra in his performance, switching up the "Juice" lyrics to make them a bit more his own. As pointed out by Rolling Stone, Styles replacement of the word b*tch with "Mitch" was in reference to his guitarist Mitch Rowland. Later, he gave a nod to manager Jeffrey Azoff, replacing the name "David" with his in the line: "David, you ain’t bein' slick/Don't dare try to cop a feel."
In addition to his Lizzo tribute, Styles also covered Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmas Time" and performed his new singles "Adore You" and "Lights Up" at BBC. The latter two tracks are off of his sophomore album, Fine Line, which he dropped on Friday, Dec. 13.
Styles isn't the only One Direction member who's caught Lizzo's eye. During a Dec. 13 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Niall Horan recalled a recent "flirt fest" with the 2020 Grammy nominee that ended with him blushing. While both were visiting London's KISS FM UK in November, Horan said someone introduced the pair in a hallway. "I was like, 'Lovely to meet you!' I gave her a big hug [and said] 'Your voice is incredible. Your songs are amazing. You're absolutely smashing it.' And literally, without missing a beat, she just went, 'You can smash this!'"
For her part, Lizzo confirmed Horan's story during a "Liar Liar" game segment later the same day on KISS Breakfast with host Tom Green. When pressed about which of three fellow celebrities she "wanted to smash," Lizzo responded, "There's only one direction that I’m going in." Recounting her version of the encounter with Horan, Lizzo joked she "didn't expect him to be so cute in person." As for whether or not she was serious, Lizzo joked, "It's one of those like, 'I'm just playing, unless you’re gonna do it.'"
Lizzo's made clear she has plenty of love to give though. And given that Styles also has a new song called "Watermelon Sugar," his rendition of "Juice" seemed to be the natural choice for an ode to Lizzo.
