Harry Styles

Styles photographed for the "lusT" album campaign

**Harry Edward Styles** (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer and songwriter. He was known as a member of the pop rock band One Direction. He made his debut as a singer with his band White Eskimo, who performed locally in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire. In 2010, Styles auditioned as a solo artist for the British television series *The X Factor*. After being eliminated as a solo performer, Styles was brought back into the competition, along with four other contestants, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson, to form One Direction.

Styles and his bandmates released the albums *Up All Night* (2011), *Take Me Home* (2012), *Midnight Memories* (2013), *Four* (2014), and *Made in the A.M.* (2015). They also performed on two worldwide tours and won several awards, including five Brit Awards and four MTV Video Music Awards. In addition to singing, Styles has also appeared in television and film, including the Nickelodeon series *iCarly* and the concert film *One Direction: This Is Us*.

Following his stint in One Direction, Styles went off on a solo venture in mid 2015 following the release of *Made in The AM* where he began to work on solo work under HYPE® Recordings, a part of the Sony Music Group, in August 2015 the star debuted his first solo project- an EP titled *Eclipse* that later went on to spawn the two hit singles *No Way* and *Gravity*, the latter going on to become critically acclaimed and garner multiple awards for it's songwriting and music video. The record alongside Styles' other ventures *California Dreaming*, *Open Palm* and *lusT* has went on to become multi platinum worldwide.

## **Personal Life**

After leaving his former boyband One Direction, Styles began to date in secret and was in a longterm relationship with Brazilian model **Marlon Teixeira**, they became engaged in early January 2016 but sadly separated in March 2016 due to Styles' hectic working schedule. Additionally Styles developed an alcohol dependancy problem during this difficult time in his career which lead to various controversial decisions, the most notable was that of the lead single from cancelled album *The Fourth Wall* titled *Sex*.

Styles is currently Teetotal and has multiple stints in rehab. For an extended period of time, during which he disappeared from the public eye and his then upcoming release was cancelled, Styles' personal relationship with former fiancé Marlon Teixeira began to crumble and Teixeira left the star ultimately becoming a big influence on his then album *Open Palm.* Additionally Styles has claimed Teixeira was a big influence on "California Dreaming".

Styles is an outspoken supporter of Anti-Industry sentiments, often updating his social media with rants about the music industry attempting to control art and people, Styles is additionally a huge supporter of AIDs and LGBT charities with his own the "Chanel AIDs Foundation" co-created with Maureen Chiquet, CEO of Chanel. The charity currently stands as a subsidiary to the fashion label and house.

Amongst other things, Styles has a large network of industry friends including; Belinda, Mariah Carey, Lily Allen, Maxence, Lindsay Lohan and most notably Beyonce whom allowed him to open for her on the *Colors World Tour* in late 2015, Beyonce and Styles have collaborated musically on Styles' LP *California Dreaming* on a song titled *The River*. Styles has claimed multiple times that Belinda Peregrin is his best friend in the industry.

## **Career**

#### ***The X Factor (2010)***

On 11 April 2010, Styles auditioned as a solo candidate for the seventh series of the British televised singing competition *The X Factor*. He failed to progress to the "Boys" category at "judges' houses". Four others in his age group did as well, but after a suggestion by Nicole Scherzinger, a guest judge, they were put together to form a five-piece boy band at Wembley Arena, in London, England, in July 2010, during the "bootcamp" stage of the competition, thus qualifying for the "Groups" category. Subsequently, the group got together for two weeks to get to know one another and to practise. Styles came up with the name One Direction. For their qualifying song at "judges' houses", and their first song as a group, One Direction sang an acoustic version of "Torn". Simon Cowell later commented that the performance convinced him that the group "were confident, fun, like a gang of friends, and kind of fearless as well. Within the first four weeks of the live shows, they were Cowell's last act in the competition. The group quickly gained popularity in the UK.

One Direction finished in third place and immediately after the final, their song "Forever Young", which would have been released if they had won *The X Factor*, was leaked onto the internet. Shortly afterwards it was confirmed that One Direction had been signed by Cowell to a reported £2 million Syco Records record contract. Recording for their debut album began in January 2011, as they flew to Los Angeles to work with RedOne, a record producer.  A book licensed by One Direction, *One Direction: Forever Young (Our Official X Factor Story)*, was published by HarperCollins in February 2011, subsequently topping *The Sunday Times* Best Seller list. The same month, the boy band and other contestants from the series participated in the *X Factor* Live Tour. During the tour the group performed for 500,000 people throughout the UK.[34] After the tour concluded in April 2011, the group continued working on their debut album. Recording took place in Stockholm, London and Los Angeles, as One Direction worked with producers Carl Falk, Savan Kotecha, Steve Mac, and Rami Yacoub, among others. Styles came up with band name One Direction, which he thought would sound good when *The X Factor* announcer Peter Dickson read their name out on the live shows.

#### ***One Direction (2011-2015)***

Following *The X Factor*, One Direction were signed to Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment in 2010. They released their first studio album, *Up All Night*, in 2011, followed by their second, *Take Me Home*, in 2012. One Direction's debut single "What Makes You Beautiful" debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart. *One Direction: This Is Us*, a documentary about the band directed by Morgan Spurlock, was released in August 2013. The film grossed more than $30 million worldwide its first weekend in theaters. The band's third studio album, *Midnight Memories*, was released on 25 November 2013. The band released their fourth studio album, *Four*, in 2014, and their fifth and final album, *Made in the A.M.*, in 2015.

#### ***Solo Career Beginnings/Eclipse (2015)***

Following the split of the band, Styles began almost immediately preparing for a solo career in the industry, having been released from Syco and signed to HYPE® within a matter of months the star began working with producers both new and cemented in the industry to craft an album ideal for his debut solo endeavour. Styles worked with Pop producer **Max Martin** for the majority of his time whilst taking some time to self-produce some records as well as work with **Nile Rogers** and **Jeff Bhasker**. The latter two worked with Styles to help craft an experimental pop EP that Styles stated was meant to "test out my sound and see where my audience want me to head" the name of the EP was *Eclipse* and it's primary genre was Pop but featured heavy influences from Funk, Rock, R&B and House music. *Eclipse* is still considered by Styles as one of his most concrete pieces of work despite all the songs lacking sonic cohesion due to them all being different genres.

The EP spawned two hit singles, *No Way* and *Gravity*,with the former even debuting and peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. *No Way* served as an introduction to Styles' solo endeavours featuring production from Rogers, Bhasker and himself, the song was well received both commercially and critically. *Gravity* despite only peaking at #6 became the bigger of the two singles, earning multiple awards for it's songwriting and respective music video in late 2015.

#### ***California Dreaming, The Chanel AIDs Foundation & The American Dream Tour (2015-2016)***

Following the success of *Eclipse*, Styles announced on social media that fan feedback had been taken into account and that the direction of his first solo LP had been decided upon, the star began to tease lyrics and conceptual theme images online over a 10 day period before finally on the 11th day revealing the lead single from his then-forthcoming album *California Dreaming (a 1980s heavily influenced album)* entitled *My Heart*. The Synthpop and Tropical House influenced single was later demoted to buzz single following multiple meetings with HYPE® and the fact the single could not seem to peak past #10, the official lead single followed titled *What a Feeling* inspired sonically by the song *Little Lies* by **Fleetwood Mac**, the single went on to peak at #8 respectively.

During this time Styles had already collaborated with the Chanel fashion house to be the face of the Spring/Summer 2016 collection, the fashion show even became the place where Styles premiered his lead single from *California Dreaming* in mid-September 2015. The star collaborated with the current reigning CEO of the house Maureen Chiquet to form the Chanel AIDs Foundation inspired by Styles' unnamed and unknown friend whom had sadly died from the disease in early 2015, even inspiring a song on *Eclipse* called *End of The Line*. The foundation still currently runs as a subsidiary to the major fashion label and hosts many private fundraising benefits every 4-8 months, Styles still remains vocally supportive as an ambassador.

Also during this time, Styles released the third and final single from the album titled *Caroline* in January 2016 which went on to become the biggest hit of the album era and, at the time, Styles' biggest overall hit putting him on the map in the Pop scene. The track is a 1980s Synth-Rock record and was proclaimed a standout in Styles' discography alongside his Beyoncé collaboration *The River*. The latter track was actually considered to be the fourth and final single from the album era, however, due to both *Sex*'s release being imminent and Universal restricting Beyoncé's brand and image due to the theme and imagery of *Black Ambition*,the decision was ultimately that the record should stay a non-single, despite the track peaking at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 without any promotion whatsoever.

   In support of the album, following the final single Styles embarked on a North American theater tour called *The American Dream Tour*, the tour grossed $7.3m and was well received by critics, whilst on tour however Styles began to feel the pressures of fame and success and became subdued by an alcohol dependancy problem, even sometimes appearing onstage either drunk or with a bottle of beer on each corner of the stage for ease of access to alcohol. Despite this Styles managed to pull together a physically and vocally demanding show that was more theatrical and an embraced change from his One Direction tour days.