Over the past decade, Harry Styles has become a music sensation after starting out as a solo contestant on the British music competition series ‘The X Factor’.

Although he was eliminated from the show early on, the judges brought him back and four others in his age group, putting them together as an ensemble during the bootcamp stage of the competition.

However, for Styles, One Direction wasn’t the first musical band he was a part of. Born in Redditch, Worcestershire, Styles, during his school years, was the lead singer for the band White Eskimo, which won a local Battle of the Bands competition.

The group consisted of Styles, Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik. 

Styles said he had suggested the name ‘One Direction’ to his bandmates and they agreed to keep it. 

Since the five came together, they became insanely popular in the UK and finished third in the competition.  Before they went into an indefinite hiatus in 2016, One Direction became one of the best-selling boy bands of all time.

The band won innumerable accolades, including 70 million records worldwide, including 7.6 million albums and 26 million singles in the US. They had a glittering trophy cabinet with seven Brit Awards, seven American Music Awards, six Billboard Music Awards, and four MTV Video Music Awards.

After the band parted ways, Styles released his self-titled debut solo album through Columbia Records in 2017. It debuted at number one in the UK and the US, and became one of the world’s top-ten best-selling albums of the year. Its lead single, “Sign of the Times”, topped the UK Singles Chart.

Styles’ second album, ‘Fine Line’, dropped in 2019, topping the US charts.  At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, he received three nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Music Video, winning Best Pop Solo Performance for “Watermelon Sugar”.  

Aside from music, Styles made his acting debut in Christopher Nolan’s 2017 war film ‘Dunkirk’. 

H is also known for his flamboyant fashion, and is the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue magazine.