Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. His musical career began in 2010 when he auditioned for the British singing competition The X Factor. He was eliminated early on, but was brought back to form the boy band One Direction. The band finished in third place and signed with Syco. They earned four number-one studio albums on the Billboard 200, and four top-five singles on the Billboard Hot 100. They embarked on four world tours and won a number of accolades. The band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016.
Styles signed with Columbia Records as a solo artist in 2016. His self-titled debut album was released in 2017 and topped the charts of fourteen countries. His debut single, “Sign of the Times“, was released earlier that year and topped the charts in seven countries, including the UK Singles Chart; it also peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, and was named Rolling Stone’s Single of the Year. Styles also made his film debut in Christopher Nolan‘s war film Dunkirk (2017), which was a critical and commercial success. His second studio album, Fine Line, was released in 2019.
Styles’ sexuality has long been a subject of speculation.[133] When questioned during a GQ interview whether he was bisexual, Styles responded: “I’m pretty sure I’m not.”[134] He later affirmed in 2017 that he did not “feel any need to label his sexuality or identify with one sexual orientation.”[135] In December 2019, when asked about his flamboyant image and sexual ambiguity, Styles stated:
“Am I sprinkling in nuggets of sexual ambiguity to try and be more interesting? No. […] in terms of how I wanna dress, and what the album sleeve’s gonna be, I tend to make decisions in terms of collaborators I want to work with. I want things to look a certain way. Not because it makes me look gay, or it makes me look straight, or it makes me look bisexual, but because I think it looks cool. And more than that, I dunno, I just think sexuality’s something that’s fun. Honestly? I can’t say I’ve given it any more thought than that.”[136]