British singer-songwriter Harry Edward Styles was born in Reddich, UK in February 1994. Best known as a part of the hit teen boy band One Direction, Styles began his music career as a solo contestant on the British music competition series ‘The X Factor’. 

After being eliminated in the Bootcamp round, Styles auditioned with an ensemble in the ‘Groups’ category. Consisting of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, who would later become his bandmates, the group together progressed through the different stages of the competition, eventually reaching the finals. They soon became immensely popular in the UK, their debut single ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ (2011) topping charts in the UK.  Since then, the group has won numerous accolades, including seven Brit Awards and AMAs. 

In February 2016, Styles left the company managing One Direction. In May, he launched his own record label, Erskine Records, and a month later in June, signed a recording contract with Columbia Records as a solo artist.

In March 2017, Styles announced that his first solo single, ‘Sign of the Times’, would be released on April 7. The song immediately topped the UK Singles Chart and reached number four on the Billboard Hot 100. Described as a soft rock power ballad, the glam rock influenced track was ranked by magazine Rolling Stone as the best song of 2017. Its music video, which featured Styles walking and floating in water, won the Brit Award for British Video of the Year.

Also read: Fashion in 2021 is all about androgynous clothing

Style’s eponymous debut album was released in May 2017. Described by Variety as a ‘classic cocktail of psychedelia, Britpop, and balladry’, the album reached number one in several countries, including UK, US and Australia. The album received positive reviews from critics, and was included in several publications’ lists of the best albums of 2017. Two more singles, ‘Two Ghosts’ and ‘Kiwi’, followed that year. From September 2017 through to July 2018, Styles embarked on his first headlining concert tour, ‘Harry Styles: Live on Tour’. He performed in cities across North and South Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

In July 2017, Styles made his feature film debut in Christopher Nolan’s war film Dunkirk. He played the role of a British soldier named Alex, who is a part of the Dunkirk evacuation during World War II.  The cast of the film also included Fionn Whitehead, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jack Lowden, Kenneth Branagh, and Mark Rylance, among others. Despite being unsure of whether he he possessed the talent needed for the role, Styles was praised for his ‘bright, convicted, and unexpectedly not-at-all-jarring performance’.

Style’s second studio album ‘Fine Line’ was released on December 13. Additional elements of funk and soul were incorporated into the rhythms of its track. The album debuted at number three in the UK and topped the US chart. Significantly, it broke the record as the biggest sales debut from an English male artist in the US since Nielsen’s SoundScan tracking began in 1991. Rolling Stone ranked the album at number 491 in their 2020 list of the ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’. Four other singles, “Falling”, “Watermelon Sugar”, “Golden” and “Treat People with Kindness”, were released that year. “Watermelon Sugar” was Styles’ first number-one single in the US. 

Also read: From Taylor Swift’s ‘Folklore’ to BTS’ ‘Dynamite’, here’s the full list of Grammys nominations

At the 2020 Brit Awards, Styles received nominations for British Male Solo Artist and British Album of the Year. He won the awards for Favorite Pop/Rock Album for Fine Line at the 48th American Music Awards, the Best International Artist at the 34th ARIA Music Awards, and the Chart Achievement at the 27th Billboard Music Awards. 

In December 2020, Styles became the first male to appear on a VOGUE solo. Styles is set to star in the upcoming psychological thriller film ‘Don’t Worry Darling’, directed by Olivia Wilde.