Louis Tomlinson’s “Chicago” 

Songs titled “Chicago” are usually performed by Midwesterners, such as Michael Jackson or Sufjan Stevens. That makes Yorkshire-born Louis Tomlinson an outlier. Tomlinson’s rendition spotlights an anonymous ex-partner now living in the city, with a new child and new life, to whom he semidespondently croons, “If you’re lonely in Chicago, you can call me, baby.” The One Direction alum included the track on his sophomore album, last November’s Faith in the Future. But with relatively context-free lyrics (and no other Chicago references), it’s unclear whether “Chicago” is really about Chicago — or even an ex. (Some fans theorize the song is partially about former bandmate Zayn Malik, a recent father who left 1D in tumultuous fashion in 2015. One problem: Malik does not live in Chicago.) Whatever the case, thousands of Chicagoans had the collective opportunity to ponder these answers in June, when Tomlinson sang the vulnerable verses live at Northerly Island.