Turns out, Pavarotti sang with watermelons way before Harry Styles did. Just saying.

14 September 2020, 16:05 | Updated: 14 September 2020, 17:23

These photos of Luciano Pavarotti posing with watermelons are a big mood.

In the past year, the humble watermelon has become more than just an average fruit.

Many have credited this to Harry Styles and his catchy hit ‘Watermelon Sugar’. But we’ve found the real instigator of watermelon worship.

It seems Luciano Pavarotti, the King of High Cs himself, was such an advocate of the sweet fruit, that he had a full-blown photoshoot with them. We’d like to think the tenor was singing ‘Che gelida melon-ina’ as the photographer snapped away...

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The rather special photos were captured many years ago at the operatic legend’s home, by photographer Gérald Bruneau (there are even more watermelon-themed snaps on his website here).

But they came to the Internet’s wider attention only a few days ago, by the hand of Twitter user Tom Usher who aptly coined them “an overwhelmingly powerful vibe”.

And as you’d expect, the world cannot get enough of Pavarotti’s quirky – and a tad intense – posing.

But of course, Harry Styles’ fans tried to argue otherwise.

One keen-eyed Twitter user even noticed that Pavarotti wasn’t the only tenor to declare a love of the fruit...

Seems like there’s a mysterious musical power in watermelons that we’ve clearly been missing.