Harry Styles dancers claim major stage malfunction affected Grammys performance

Performance of ‘As It Was’ was apparently thwarted with an unexpected stage direction

Harry Styles’s dancers have spoken out about performing at the Grammys, claiming that an incorrect staging cue threatened to derail their entire routine.

The “As It Was” singer performed his hit track at Sunday’s ceremony (5 February), later controversially taking home the coveted trophy for Album of the Year.

However, while Styles took care of the vocal part of the production, the dancers were reportedly dealing with trying to perform in reverse, as the walking turntable started spinning in the opposite direction to what had been rehearsed.

Brandon Mathis, one of the dancers on stage with Styles, shared his account of the performance on his Instagram Stories on Monday (6 February).

“The curtain opened and it was time to perform,” he began.

“Our turntable started spinning in reverse, backward, freaking all of us out on live television and there was nothing we could do to stop it.

“So after a week of rehearsing this piece perfectly this way, the moment it’s time to perform, it starts going this way,” Mathis continued, spinning his finger in one, and then the opposite direction.

“And in real-time, we have to troubleshoot and try to do a complete piece in reverse.”

Mathis went on to post some celebratory images and shared a message of appreciation for the artistic director, Yoann Bourgeois.

Harry Styles performing at the Grammys (Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

He wrote: “I am so grateful to you for your trust, your compassion, and your willingness to play and stay soft through it all. Even ridiculous technical difficulties that none of us could have prepared for.”

Choreographer Dexter Da Rocha also gave similar details about the turntable issue in a TikTok video that has now been deleted.

“We were practising with the turntable counter-clockwise and we did it loads of times and got it down to the point where, in dress rehearsal yesterday, it was spotless,” he had explained, according to Variety.

The Independent has reached out to a representative for Harry Styles for comment.