Harry Styles: Ruling the Heart of the World with his Art
The 27- year old English singer has had quite a glamorous and fun-filled journey so far. He is not only a singer but also a songwriter, and an actor. Harry Styles’s mother Anne Twist gave birth to him on 1 February 1994 in Redditch, Worcestershire, England. He was a child when he moved to Holmes Chapel in Cheshire with his parents and older sister, Gemma Styles.
With his mother’s encouragement and support, he auditioned for the seventh season of the British televised singing competition show The X Factor where he performed Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely”, he failed to capture the judges the hearts as a solo act, as well others in his age group failed to do so.
But he got qualified with four other members Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson to form the boy group under the mentoring of Simon Cowell.
It was Harry Styles who came up with the name ‘One Direction’ and his bandmates liked it as well so they agreed to name their band ‘One Direction.’ One Direction signed their contract with Simon Cowell’s label ‘Syco Records’, they released their first album ‘Up All Night’ in 2011.
Three of the songs ‘Taken’, ‘Everything About You’ and ‘Same Mistakes’ in this album were co-written by Harry Styles singers and it made them the first British group to have their album reach number one in the United States.
In their short span of success, they released four studio albums, ‘Up All Night’, ‘Midnight Memories’, ‘Four’ and ‘Made in the A.M.’
The Band went on the ‘Where we Are Tour’ in April 2014, and became the highest-grossing tour of 2014 and remains the all-time vocal group to have the highest-grossing tour. ‘One Direction’ is the only band in the history of US Billboard 200 so far to have their first four albums debut at number one.
After the departure of Zayn Malik from the group in March 2015, the band kept doing their activities as the four-member group and released their fifth studio album called ‘Made in the A.M.’ and had their fourth concert tour, ‘On the Road Again Tour’, it was their last tour before their indefinite hiatus in 2016.
Harry Styles signed as a solo artist with Columbia Records in 2016 and later that year he formed his record label called ‘Erskine Records’.
On 7 April 2017 he released his solo single, “Sign of the Times” from his debut album ‘Harry Styles’, the song went to secure number on the Billboard Hot 100 and its music video won the Brit Award for British Video of the Year. His self-titled debut album peaked at number one in many countries including The US, The United Kingdom, and Australia.
He headlined his first concert tour ‘Harry Styles: Live On Tour’ as a solo artist from September 2017 to July 2018. He made his film debut in Christopher Nolan’s ensemble ‘Dunkirk’, a World War II drama about the Dunkirk evacuation in which he played a British soldier named Alex alongside the ensemble cast consisting of Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh, Fion whitehead, Tom Glynn-carney, Jack Lowden, Mark Rylance.
Styles released his second studio album, ‘Fine Line’ on 13 December 2019. ‘Watermelon Sugar’ indie-pop inspired single from Harry’s second studio album won the 2021 Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance and also won the Song of the Year at the 41st Brit Awards in 2021, the single peaked in the top ten in more than 20 countries including Canada, Australia, The UK, and The United States, where it reached and became his first number-one single on Billboard Hot 100. ‘Lights Up’, ‘Falling’, ‘Adore You’, Golden’ and ‘Treat People with Kindness’ were other songs released from his album ‘Fine Line’.
His second concert tour as a solo artist, ‘Love On Tour’ was scheduled to take place in 2020 but was postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19 Pandemic. Harry Styles won the Favorite Pop/Rock Album at the 48th American Music Awards for Fine Line.
Harry Styles with Emma Corrin on the set of MY Policeman in Brighton
He had a cameo in Marvel Cinematic Universe’s film ‘Eternals’ as Eros/Starfox as the brother of Thanos in the mid-credits scene.
He will next be seen leading two films, Olivia Wilde’s psychological thriller ‘Don’t Worry Darling’ alongside Florence Pugh, Gemma Chan, Olivia Wilde, Nick Kroll, Chris Pine, and Kiki Layne and in ‘My Policeman’, a film adaptation of the 2012 novel of the same name. The English singer is currently dating his next film director Olivia Wilde since January 2021.
Styles engages in a lot of charity works also. In 2014, he endorsed Emma Watson’s gender equality campaign, HeforShe, In 2016, he donated his hair to the UK charity ‘Little Princess Trust’ which supplies and supports wigs made from natural hair to children who lost their hair due to illness.
Harry Styles supports the LGBT community and has shown his support for them by wearing LGBT- themed clothes and waving rainbow flag which symbolize the LGBT community.
He has also shown his support for Black Lives Matter and End Gun Violence by tweeting in support of the petition for March For Our Lives and sticking Black Lives Matter and End Gun Violence stickers on his guitar.
He also protested alongside BLM protesters in Los Angeles in June 2020. He was shown carrying the placard with the words Black Lives Matter written on it.
Just like his fellow artists Jennifer Aniston, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles is also all set to launch his beauty brand called ‘Pleasing.’ Its merch has been available on the website of the brand since 2 December 2021.
The products that come under the brand ‘Pleasing’ are mainly nail polish and skincare products like lip serum, moisturizer and primer used for pre-makeup skincare.
edited and proofread by nikita sharma
