Today at 1:38 PM • Updated today at 2:48 PM
Being right at the front of your favorite artist is of course fantastic, but the fact that world-famous singer Harry Styles also has a chat with you is ‘too bizarre for words’. It happened to Elise van Helderen (21) from Dongen. Then the singer tried to say where Elise is from: ‘Brgabant?’ “He did have a hard G,” Elise laughs now.
How do you get the attention of a superstar? A day earlier, Elise celebrated her birthday with her friends. “That was a dinner themed around Styles’ latest album. A friend joked that I should bring a sign with lyrics on it to the concert.”
“As if it were just the two of us.”
The sign read ‘Kiss all the time, 21 occasionally’, a play on the name of Harry Styles’ latest album. When the singer walked by a few times during the concert, Elise seized her chance. “I held the sign very high above me. Then he started talking to me. I thought, what is going on here?”
Elise is one of the thousands of fans who will travel to Amsterdam between May 16 and June 5 to see her idol Harry Styles perform. The American singer, previously a member of One Direction, will perform there for ten evenings. Although Elise has seen Harry perform before, she will not soon forget Saturday evening’s concert.
“It was very special, as if the two of us were alone for a moment,” says Elise, still impressed. Very special: Elise celebrated her birthday that evening. “It was certainly a special birthday present.”
“He did have a hard G, but he did his best.”
She doesn’t fully realize that her idol is talking to her. The deafening screams of her friends keep her focused again. “It was a very normal conversation. He asked who I was with.”
The two are even having such a good time that Elise shows her birthday photos. And so the world-famous singer stands in front of a packed arena viewing Elise’s birthday snaps. “Then he asked where I come from. I thought: I could say ‘Netherlands’, but I’ll just say where I really come from.” And so she shouts ‘Brabant’, after which the singer repeats it: ‘Brgabant’, he says woodenly. “He said Brabant with a g in between. He did have a hard G, but he did his best,” Elise laughs.
Harry’s statement led to loud screaming and cheering in the ArenA. “I think there were many other people from Brabant at the concert,” Elise concludes. Elise does not know whether the singer really has an image of the province. She knows how she would like to explain Brabant to Harry: “I would take him to the Efteling. Or give him a sausage roll,” she beams.
