Original subtitles

Are you ready?

CHEERING, SCREAMING

NARRATOR: An enigmatic pop star,

Harry Styles is a global phenomenon...

Debut record, number one here and in America.

..an icon of our times.

Harry Styles is a pop prince.

I have one job tonight, that is to entertain you.

And I promise you I will do my very best.

Without a doubt, one of the biggest stars

to emerge from a pop band for years.

He sells out concerts worldwide...

He wins a Grammy Award for Best Album,

he wins a Brit Award for Best Album.

..and a beloved fan base that follows his every move.

We've arrived at Harry's high school.

CHEERING

I sat in that stadium, and I went, "Wow!"

His success is unrivalled.

He's gone from being pop star to being superstar to being icon.

That achievement is down to one person...

The Brits 2023,

he thanks his mum for putting him forward for the X Factor.

If she hadn't signed him up for it,

then he never would've been here in the first place.

He didn't wanna do it and did it for him.

She saw something in her son.

He's never forgotten his friends and his family,

and I think that maketh a man.

And he's brought that love to his fans.

..which is the driving factor behind everything he does...

Your job is to have the best time you possibly can.

..while influencing the global fashion world, too.

Music and fashion - it's always been hand in hand,

and he understands that.

Harry, to me, is like Bowie was in the '70s and '80s.

Everyone who's here for Harry Styles is dressed in colours,

a little bit extravagant.

He's just such a positive person.

And he's really good looking. That doesn't hurt.

This celebrity god, extreme talent and extreme kindness.

Harry's fan base is multi-generational.

Are you a fan, as well? Course!

Everyone seems to love Harry - whether you're gay, straight,

white, Black, whatever religion.

From the early days of his career as a member of One Direction...

These guys sold out stadiums.

Number one in 16 countries around the world.

A phenomenal British export.

...to his successful solo endeavours.

He's won something like 132 awards.

How old is this kid?

This talented star has amassed a legion of passionate followers...

So excited!

..who eagerly support him

in every step of his musical journey.

We're going to chart Harry's meteoric rise from young teen...

Scrawny little kid from Cheshire who went through X Factor.

..to the worldwide pop star that we know today.

One of the greatest artists of our generation.

We're so excited!

We love you, Harry!

..to a boy from Cheshire?

Harry Styles grew up in the rural village

of Holmes Chapel, Cheshire.

This small village, which overlooks the Dane Valley,

has become an unlikely pilgrimage for Harry's most devoted fans.

So, we have arrived in Holmes Chapel.

Say hi, Kayla. Hi!

A lot of the superfans of Harry's

are known as either Harries or Stylers,

and they're remarkably loyal.

Fans come flocking from all over the world

to walk in the steps of the boy that was to become a global phenomenon.

He was, like, dating this girl in London,

so he would save up all his wages

and he would go to the train station, like, after work,

and go into London to see her every week.

This whole journey that we did would've been what he did.

Harry was born to Anne Cox and Desmond Styles in 1994.

His parents divorced when he was just seven years old,

and subsequently, he lived with his mother and older sister, Gemma.

This is Harry's hometown street of his childhood home.

I think the nice, endearing thing about Harry is the fact

that he really is quite normal,

you know, he goes back to his mum, like all of us do.

He's kind of a mummy's boy.

They've clearly got a brilliant relationship.

And we've seen so much footage over the years of them, you know,

larking around in the back garden.

Oi, you bugger!

Very typical British lad at home with your parents.

He just seems silly, warm, just kind of goofy.

What a team.

Oh, he's very close to his mum, you know. You can see it.

You know, somebody who is quite clearly

a fine and, you know, thoughtful person.

Harry seemed to be a typical teenager.

With lots of friends and enjoying music,

it was there he started singing, too.

Through a family friend, he was encouraged to sing in a pub.

One of his very first chances to show his talent to the world

was singing karaoke.

New York, New York by Frank Sinatra,

which is just a very rogue song for a young boy to sing.

You look at a lot of his influences,

from Bowie to Elvis to Frank Sinatra,

it's interesting that even at such a young age,

he had a rich musical knowledge and interest.

I just think, imagine being in that pub,

seeing a little boy singing that in the corner

and not realising that he's gonna grow up to be Harry Styles.

Harry's singing talents were first put to the test

during a high school talent contest.

We've arrived at Harry's high school.

This is where White Eskimo was formed.

So, he forms a band called White Eskimo.

They spent two weeks in rehearsals before his mum submitted them

to a battle-of-the-bands style competition.

He was just really naturally comfortable

when it came to being on a stage.

They then won, thanks to Harry's showmanship.

They won £100 and the chance to go to a festival in Gooseberry,

which is up there with winning the X Factor, I'd say.

Your formative years, you're trying to find out

who you are and what you like,

and when you do find out bits and pieces of your personality,

you put it out there.

And I think most audiences can tell when somebody has something.

He was very popular, cos he started to get booked as a wedding singer.

And his bookings just kept coming in and in and in.

Performers are born, you know?

You can learn your craft, but I think they're born.

And, you know, I think Harry's one of those people.

When I just watch him when he's a lot younger,

it just reminds me exactly of what he's like now.

And when everyone's just getting all excited over his performance,

it's crazy to see him now and then him then.

So, White Eskimo was obviously really integral

for the building of the Harry Styles that we know today.

Those influences have culminated into the mega hits

that are on the album Harry's House,

such as Late Night Talking,

which is a complex romantic love song.

It's a shiny R&B synth-infused track

showing how physical love can transform.

Anne was the one that sent the audition tape

to the X Factor without Harry's knowledge.

When that decision was made for him, he stepped up.

That's when the moment comes.

The world of pop music was about to change forever,

but it nearly didn't happen.

NARRATOR: Holmes Chapel has become a pilgrimage site

for One Direction fans wanting to get a better insight

into the sleepy village Harry grew up in.

Every single place, we just talked to the cute store owners,

and they told me stories about Harry.

She was like, "He's a nice bloke."

He had a Saturday-boy job, he started in a bakery,

and he was the guy that was selling you a Viennese swirl.

We were like, "Where is it?" And then we turned the corner!

With the telephone booth in front.

That's my screensaver. Forever. OK.

Never changing. Cool.

Oh, my God. I'm not even ready to go inside.

Beth, you're gonna need to take a few deep breaths. It's OK.

Superfan Beth has come to Mandeville's Bakery

to walk in Harry's steps,

like thousands of devoted fans do every year.

I don't know what to get. I'm so overwhelmed.

I should be like, "Whatever they're eating, I want that."

Also, why is Niall just like...?

When I walked in the bakery, I was, like, shaking. I, like...

They had merch, and they had a wooden spoon

that said the name of the bakery.

I've never loved anything more than this spoon.

And I was so excited, and I was like,

"Look at this wooden spoon," I was showing my friend.

And she was like, "You're shaking."

I got to try... I got a chocolate cupcake.

Carrot cake, which I am really excited about,

because I've weirdly never had a carrot cake.

Also, carrot cake is Harry's favourite.

He made a carrot cake for Stevie Nicks.

Hold on now.

This is really good.

Harry was the archetypal boy next door,

yet with his ambition, talent and with the help of his mum, Anne,

he was thrust from working in a bakery

to being a star on what was then

the biggest music TV show in the country.

So, Anne, Harry's mum, they seem to have a really close relationship,

absolute parent goals.

Anne has been incredibly supportive throughout Harry's career.

She was the one that sent the audition tape

to the X Factor without Harry's knowledge.

It's quite a daring of his mother to send in...

SHE CHUCKLES

..an audition tape on his behalf without his knowledge.

A few weeks later, they then get an acceptance letter

from the X Factor,

and Harry agrees to go and audition.

Watching Harry arrive at the audition for X Factor,

being interviewed by Dermot O'Leary with his family,

you know, you can already see

there's this, like, huge amount of confidence.

Kind of the cheeky chappy, the boy next door,

classically, they've always done really well in that competition.

It was just a really good thing to look back on

and just realise that there was a sparkle in the eye

even before he got on stage.

People tell me that I'm a good singer,

it's usually my mum. So...

And they always say that, don't they?

Obviously, he wanted to do it,

but he might not have put himself in that position.

But then when that decision was made for him, he stepped up.

'Singing's what I wanna do.'

And if people who can make that happen for me

don't think that I should be doing that,

then it's a major setback in my plans.

You should not underestimate that process

of getting into a talent show, getting through auditions.

These judges will have sat through so many auditions,

again and again and again.

We used to watch hundreds and hundreds of people

that could sort of hit a note, had an OK voice,

but didn't have that star quality.

Harry at his X Factor audition, coming on the stage,

he's confident, not arrogant, which is a clear winner.

He sings his song, and the one person

that seems to be hard to impress is Simon, as it always is,

but he's there on the end of the judges table.

He seems a bit standoffish.

OK. Harry, how old are you?

I'm 16. Sixteen.

OK, so, tell me a bit about you.

Erm, I work in a bakery.

What do you do in the bakery?

I, like, serve the cakes in the shop bit.

OK.

I mean, how many 16-year-olds are gonna come up on stage and say,

"Yeah, I work in a bakery."

Simon loves that about him.

Nicole and Louis are both on board because this guy is engaging.

And what's popular at the moment?

Sorry? What's popular?

In the shop? Yeah.

Erm, the Viennese fancy's always a favourite.

Yeah, I like them. What else?

Erm, millionaire shortbread.

Big seller. I like that.

And it seems that Simon has a glint in his eye,

a little wry smile.

He seems to be aware of, "There's something here,"

and you can see his little grin and the money signs.

And what's on the way down?

Doughnuts?

White coburg.

What's... What's that?

White coburg? It's, like, a white loaf, and it's a circle.

And it's got, like, a cross on the top. OK.

And that's going down? Yeah.

And what about doughnuts?

Oh, doughnuts are good. Yeah. Yeah.

LAUGHTER

Go into that audition space and be fun and amenable,

you know, that's the gift.

They'd just transferred it to the huge audition process.

You know, it wasn't just in a little room.

There's zero nerves. You know, he just walks out there.

He's got kind of the cockiness, but not too much, he's not too much.

He's having a good chat,

as if he was just in a room without a thousand people watching.

With the star he is today, you'd be forgiven for thinking

Harry sailed through the X Factor auditions.

In fact, that wasn't the case.

He almost fell at the first hurdle.

It doesn't go according to plan. It kind of sounded pitchy and flat.

What Harry did was sing what he thought he should sing.

It was upbeat, it was, you know, pop infused,

and it didn't quite work.

But the one thing I seem to remember is,

although he's singing out of tune,

watch him as he walks across the stage performing,

put the song out of your mind, and just watch the way

he engages with, I don't know, somebody in the audience,

and he forgets the judges are there for that picosecond,

and he just hones in on someone,

and he gives them the most incredible smile,

and his eyes linger for just that second a little bit too long.

And then he moves back to the judges.

For me, that's the defining moment.

That's the moment where you think,

"Actually, this boy has got something really, really special."

And I reckon that's the moment Simon Cowell suddenly sat up

and thought, "Hmm, he can't sing, but he's got something.

"We need to hear him sing another song."

Can I hear something just you, without any music?

I'll do Isn't She Lovely by Stevie Wonder.

OK. Good luck.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

That's when the moment comes.

That's when we see the sparkle of what Harry Styles could do.

# Isn't she lovely?

# Isn't she wonderful?

# Isn't she precious?

# Less than one minute old

# And I never thought Through love we'd be

# Making one as lovely as she... #

# But isn't she lovely?

# Made from love. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

You have to be special to try and do a cover like Stevie Wonder.

And I think what it was, with his performance,

that it was heartfelt. That's the bravery of being 16.

He'd sung a song that he loves,

and so, you know, it was his bridge to the judges, and it worked.

I'm really glad that we had the opportunity

to hear you a cappella, cos we could really hear

how great your voice is. Thank you.

For 16 years old, you have a beautiful voice.

Thank you.

You can see how much Harry's success means to his mum.

Very early embryonic success was just being there.

Harry made it through to boot camp,

but he wasn't selected to the next stage.

Simon delivered the bad news,

but he seemed at odds with the decision.

That's it, guys. I'm really, really sorry.

In that moment,

it must have felt like all his dreams were slipping away.

I'm really gutted.

Harry's really unhappy, he didn't make it.

He's crying into his beanie hat backstage.

It seems to be the end of the road.

Simon's not stupid, you know,

he's run his empire for a very long time.

He can spot talent, and he clearly saw something in Harry

that he knew was worth fighting for.

The judges look around and realise it's been a bumper crop of talent,

and they're gonna do something that they've never done before.

Harry, Liam, Niall, Louis and Zayn were all solo artists

throughout the audition process,

but the X Factor judges decided to put a boy band together.

People are very disparaging about acts

that are apparently put together,

but Spice Girls were, the Monkees were in the '60s,

Bay City Rollers were in the '70s.

At some point, these bands have got to start.

The real test is have you got the talent,

and have the people that you're working with

got the vision to make it really work?

Nicole knows her stuff,

because she knows what it is to be a performer.

We see her pick out who she think's going to be magic five,

and, erm, she didn't get it wrong, did she?

She got it quite, quite right!

I liked him. Yes.

Absolutely. We liked him. Put him with him.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 100%. Nicole's right.

Absolutely. And him. Yeah, yeah.

Yes! Because they look good together.

They're the cutest boy band ever!

Five lads, all of them can sing,

seems they get on, a little bit cheeky,

let's put them together.

You know, it looks like it's just an easy pick,

but, hey, it's the blend of voices,

and then obviously, aesthetically, what they look like together.

Simon Cowell has moments of complete clarity.

When it comes to putting together bands or artists,

he is on the money.

That's the category I want, just them.

This is the guy that turned down the Spice Girls

and also didn't sign Take That.

He's got this opportunity, this huge TV show.

One Direction was born, much to Simon's obvious relief.

SCREAMING

And it seems that they've captured lightning in a bottle.

So, they've never formed a boy band on the show before.

So it's a brand-new concept.

So everyone was kind of curious to see if it was gonna work.

Now was his time.

Here were these five lads, all from very different backgrounds,

but if you look at them, and if you look at Take That

and the Spice Girls, there's similarities.

Boy next door,

not too overly groomed, very natural.

Girls can relate to them. Boys are gonna like them, as well.

Very accessible. And suddenly...

Rebecca.

And then they're out. And that's a shock.

Because Simon knows in his heart of hearts that there's something there.

Couldn't believe it. Like, I remember watching that live final,

and when they didn't get called, just being like, "What?

"But it's One Direction. What do you mean they haven't won?!"

One Direction, they don't come first.

They actually came third.

So here's the moral of the story.

You don't always have to win to get on top.

Simon, who had backed the boys throughout the competition,

immediately signed One Direction to his entertainment company, Syco.

One Direction came at a time where we hadn't had a good boy band

or any sort of band in the UK for quite some time.

They had a lot of solo pop stars

and a lot of rap stars making waves in the US,

but we hadn't had a good boy band in forever.

The individual has to bring something

that makes the collective interesting,

because everybody's got their one for a different reason.

That's why you have five, because you draw in so much more people.

There are all these different characters.

So you can like Harry,

or you might like Zayn for something completely different.

You can find one person in One Direction

that you resonate with.

Not winning that programme gives Simon Cowell,

and One Direction, all of them, the time -

the time they need to develop into where they wanna be.

They weren't suddenly thrust, as a winner,

to be in the chart the following Sunday.

One Direction's first single, What Makes You Beautiful,

was a smash hit, reaching number one in the UK

and going platinum internationally.

The poppy, kitsch style and positive lyrics

were in contrast to the more serious indie rock

that was popular at the time.

What Makes You Beautiful was just what was needed right then.

I remember hearing it, and just something overtook me.

And it seems to have captured something,

both in the UK, Europe and around the world,

and it becomes one of the biggest-selling singles of the year.

It was a number one record because it was that band,

but it was also an incredibly catchy, uplifting, pure pop song.

We were going into a new age of social media.

A lot of young people were, like, on Facebook and Bebo and Myspace.

When you have that one song that goes,

and then you have a follow-up song, and you have a follow-up song,

and also, you have the machine of Simon Cowell behind you,

you kind of can't not succeed.

You know, you can have hit records, but to have a career,

you've got to be able to get on stage and do what you do.

And you don't know yourself, really, at 16.

So it's easier to be in a band situation, I think, at 16.

Before long, One Direction were playing sell-out concerts

around the world,

with an army of loyal fans supporting their every step.

They just had the songs, the band mates,

the styling, the fan base.

With the album Up All Night,

Harry and One Direction were taking the world by storm.

With chart-topping albums, book deals and sell-out tours,

the boys were everywhere.

1D were huge everywhere around the world,

but in America, it was something else.

And Harry was just the icing on the cake.

He's obviously learnt his craft

through those years in One Direction.

The roller-coaster of global fame risked coming to an abrupt halt

when the unthinkable happened.

NARRATOR: One Direction skyrocketed into the limelight

from their time on X Factor,

despite not even winning the competition.

With Simon Cowell as their mentor on and off the show,

One Direction soon became bona fide international pop stars.

And just to reflect on how big they were,

that first album, Up All Night - double platinum,

number one in 16 countries around the world,

a phenomenal British export.

And the second, Take Me Home in 2012,

was the band's best-selling album,

with almost 6 million copies sold worldwide.

We definitely thought it was the right time for a boy band

to go really big in the UK and Europe,

but for them to go all around the world was a bit of a shock.

1D were huge everywhere around the world,

but in America, it was something else.

These guys sold out stadiums

of 60,000, 70,000 and 80,000.

I can remember going to the Staples Center in New York,

and I sat in that stadium

and I went, "Wow."

I've never seen hysteria like it. That's the honest truth.

Teenagers have always latched on to pop stars and icons.

You know, there's a bit of a wider world now,

with YouTubers that people follow, but it's healthy.

I loved Up All Night, but Take Me Home

I feel like was the album that defined

such a huge chunk of my childhood, and we would just dance around to,

like, Live While We're Young and Last First Kiss.

You're 12 years old.

That's something people are attracted to, just, like,

surrounding yourself with that kind of positive light

and energy and just fun.

I think in particular, for me, Little Things was a big song.

I have scars from being a cancer survivor,

and so I covered up a lot of my scarring

with long sleeves or leggings.

I felt like I had all of these imperfections

and all of these things that... that nobody wanted to see.

I think that song was super powerful for me,

because the whole song is really just validating.

I think the vulnerable thoughts

that women and girls have about themselves,

and they're really just saying all those little things are perfect.

The boys were charming. They were great with social media.

They really cared about their fans.

All that was going out there,

all these young people were like, "We love this band."

One Direction's first two albums had sold over 12 million copies,

which meant the next album, Midnight Memories,

had a lot to live up to.

Their third album has hit number one in both UK and America.

Their fourth album does the same thing,

number one in the UK and America.

One Direction are absolutely killing it.

However, at this point, something dreadful happens

that changes the course of the band forever.

Things started to sour.

That's when we saw the first cracks appearing

in kind of quite a short career for One Direction,

where one of them just didn't wanna be part of the ride any more.

Probably, One Direction were the first band of the social media era,

so that had massive upside, it has some downside, too.

So when, suddenly, the penny drops,

everybody, especially in America,

just piled on it, and it created this Twitter storm.

Tween hearts broke in unison today, as more than 8 million tweets

mentioned a certain member of a boy band.

Zayn left One Direction.

At 4pm on a day in March,

Zayn leaves One Direction.

There's 8 million tweets when the band split,

and that crosses over from being pop culture and entertainment

into mainstream news.

And it was in America, which is an extraordinary thing.

They were already a big band that the kids knew about,

now everybody knew about them.

With a new direction for One Direction,

the devastated expressions on the faces of fans,

well, they say it all.

Zayn Malik announced his departure from the group.

Let's remember this was devastating news for some people.

They were in hysterics, their world had imploded.

And I think some of the news crews got it straight away.

And then I think other areas of the media,

perhaps slightly older people,

really just couldn't see it, like,

"OK, OK, he left the band. Who cares?"

Today, Zayn Malik took a, uh, different direction

and quit the biggest boy band on the planet.

Zayn explains...

But their fans truly cared. They really, really cared.

Bad time in Maia's life.

Bad time in Maia's life, when Zayn left the band.

Did not take it well.

It was like... It was genuine drama.

I was like, "Oh, my gosh," and I looked at my friend,

and I was like, "Zayn is leaving."

I went in the bathroom and went in a stall, and I cried.

That was, like, a visceral part of my childhood

is when Zayn left, just thinking,

"I don't know what I'm gonna do now."

So they went from a five piece to a four piece.

This wasn't the same. Things had changed at that point.

The dynamics have changed, even in the symmetry.

You've got two people on the side, one person in the middle.

Now you've got four people. It just doesn't quite feel the same.

I remember them promising they were gonna stay together

as a four piece, and we all believed it.

I still hold a little bit of resentment with Zayn.

I just think the chapter of One Direction,

they had had such a successful chapter,

they could have continued to do so.

Thank you very much, Sheffield. We're really appreciate...

So, Zayn leaves.

They then go on and release, in my opinion,

their best album, Made In The AM.

Shortly after, they announced that they were going on hiatus.

And I think that one hit me harder than Zayn leaving.

I think the hiatus hit me harder because I think I knew

it was going to be a while until we saw them again all together.

And their last tour date is October the 31st 2015,

in Sheffield Arena.

We love you, and have a safe trip home.

There was a feeling at that performance,

and in that room, that this was a goodbye.

It was Halloween.

There was people dressed up as zombie brides, covered in blood,

just bawling their eyes out.

Boys, please join us.

Band, get down!

Thank you, Sheffield! Thank you, Sheffield!

One Direction, last gig, Sheffield. End of an enormous tour.

Then absolutely nothing. The fans are heartbroken.

I think I was in denial.

They were a lifeline, you know,

during some really hard, confusing years for everybody,

you know, adolescence.

Then that's, you know, when everyone started their solo careers.

And I think seeing Zayn do it first maybe helped everybody say,

"You know what? If he can do it, we can do that and grow."

And so I think it was ultimately the right move for everybody,

even though it was really hard at the time.

I forgive Zayn. I forgive Zayn now.

He went on to have a very nice career,

but at the time, I was very cross at him.

After the meltdown of the world's biggest boyband,

One Direction, in 2015,

Harry Styles was forced to rethink his music career.

He's a few years older, he's got more experience.

He's meeting incredible people along the way -

creative types, his fans.

He's finding who he is, he doesn't have to worry

about the other four now, he can be him.

He also decides to go on his own solo journey,

and that's when things really start to change for Harry.

So, you've had this first stab at fame and fortune

and this music career being in a band.

But you know what? You can never get a second chance

to make a first impression as a solo artist,

and it's much, much harder.

He very quickly went underground,

started working with the right producers.

He was in LA a lot.

What he's doing is he's building a new team.

He's surrounding himself with people that he can work with

but he can learn from.

And I think by choosing to work with

some of the biggest hit-makers of contemporary music,

he's shown not just an ambition to get the best people

writing the best songs,

he clearly has wanted to learn and develop his songwriting craft.

And he gave himself time as an artist to think,

"Actually, what is it I want out of this next stage in my career?"

We knew very early on

that Harry Styles was gonna be a solo act.

While the fans were waiting for news on Harry's impending solo career,

they were able to support each other as a community.

That support is still as strong today.

I love that when you put on a piece of merch,

and you're in a city, like, someone can reach out to you

and say, "Harry Styles," and it's a really quick indicator

that you share something.

Harry's music just kind of creates a connection between people,

and you can create, like, so many friendships.

We'll run into people, or we'll coordinate,

and stay at their houses,

and it really has become real friendship.

I was living in Switzerland, and I took the train into Paris.

I went completely alone, didn't know anyone in the country of France,

but I got off the train,

and immediately, a girl ran up to me and was like, "Harry, Harry!"

Because I had my Harry tote bag, an instant friendship.

I mean, I met my best friend through him,

my friend I'm currently living with now,

that I wouldn't have known her had I not known him.

I've met my two best friends at a show.

And after that, we stayed in contact.

And now, five years later, we're best friends,

travelling around the world and having a good time.

We're all having the same outfits.

It's like we're coming together as a group, like, it's so nice.

A feeling of community, I guess. Yeah.

While the fans were eagerly awaiting Harry's next move,

he surprised everyone with a completely different role.

He made his acting debut

in Christopher Nolan's epic war movie Dunkirk,

starring as Alex, a young soldier.

Before this, the only acting that Harry had done

was on a few bit parts on the Disney Channel in One Direction,

so it seemed a bit odd and a bit of a shock

to see him cast in, even before it was released,

what was billed as an Oscar-winning film.

I remember going to Dunkirk and just like, oh, my God,

everyone screamed when he came on the screen,

and I was just laughing because I was just like...

There was two different audiences in that theatre -

people who were confused as to why we were screaming,

and people who were very much clearly there to scream.

In Dunkirk, Harry plays Alex, a young squaddie, an army recruit,

and he's stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk in World War Two.

It was a genius move by the director, Christopher Nolan,

to have Harry Styles in a movie,

but not just to have him in the movie,

to have him in a role that he could perform

and sort of underperform.

He wasn't there as a star, he was a squaddie on the beach.

And I suppose, in a way, that would bring a new audience to the film,

but it would also remind that new audience

just how challenging war is.

In a startling scene, Harry turns on a fellow crewmate.

A bloody frog!

A cowardly, little queue-jumping frog.

Who's Gibson, eh?

You know, Dunkirk was... was beautiful,

and I know it wasn't, you know,

a huge role with lots of talking parts.

He did a phenomenal job with that portrayal.

For his role in Dunkirk,

Harry was nominated for Best Newcomer

and Best Breakthrough Performance at the UK National Film Awards.

To see him smash that character out of the park and do it so well

just proved to us that he was always willing to take risks.

He was born to be a performer, and he was gonna do it,

whether we thought it was a good idea or not.

In 2017, Harry returns to the international stage

with a new sound and a new image.

So, the first thing that Harry does is release Sign Of The Times.

It wasn't instantaneous for me, personally,

but, you know, it is a slow burner.

You know, it was something to ruminate on.

Harry Styles was always meant to be this individual from the jump,

and he's just now finally living the true version of

who he was always meant to be.

The song was so melancholy but also hopeful.

He did a beautiful job picking that first single.

That first solo single is inspired

by a mother's last words of love to her child.

It's a surprising subject matter,

but that it involves a mother and her child isn't surprising

because his mother is a major factor in his life.

He's developed his music, he's made it more sophisticated.

It was obviously brilliantly polished

because of the kind of people he was working with

and also what he'd learnt.

That might've surprised the fans, but it really did delight them, too.

You knew it was gonna be big.

When you heard it, you were like, "Oh, this is different."

He gave them something that they weren't expecting.

So now it's like, "Yeah, I can do anything I want to do musically."

A lot of people try to switch up their style a little bit,

they don't quite connect.

However, he's actually good.

Sign Of The Times, today, it has 1.1 billion views on YouTube.

Clearly a massive song.

Which, considering it's essentially

a five-minute alternative rock ballad,

is an incredible feat.

Harry's writing talent extended to an album, too.

Then he releases a debut album called Harry Styles,

and it's a lot more rockier than One Direction.

He's getting more fashionable.

It was about him as an individual, and that's why you go solo,

because it is about you as an individual,

and he was able to express that fully and in...

with... with all of his being.

And I think that that shows, that shows.

And it's called Harry Styles, so that's an indication of,

you know, "It's about me."

And rightly so, you know, rightly so.

He's been doing it since he was 16.

I actually think this version of Harry is better than any version.

Harry's life changes again.

What Harry has achieved coming out of the band

is absolutely extraordinary.

It's an acknowledgement that he is the next generation.

He's a one-man phenomenon, from music to fashion.

I think we should hire him to fly the flag for Britain.

Good evening, Birmingham!

My name is Harry. It's nice to see you all.

Thank you so much for being here tonight.

Thank you for spending some time with us.

CHEERING

I have ten songs. I have one album.

We're gonna play some old ones. We're gonna play some new ones.

We're gonna play some ones that you haven't heard before.

And if you know any of the words tonight, please do join in

and make it more fun for everyone.

Gone are the days of the bubble-gum pop.

Gone are the days of the cheesy sweaters

and the curly hair.

Harry is very much now

in his rock-punk alternative era.

Emerging out of One Direction, solo album,

number one literally everywhere.

It reached number one in Australia, Canada, Ireland,

the United Kingdom and the United States.

That's pretty amazing.

To come out of this enormous juggernaut,

a band who did 300-plus live shows,

had multiple hit albums,

and then to land with a debut album like he did

is absolutely extraordinary.

Harry decides to go on the road.

Harry Styles: Live On Tour.

He's playing more smaller, intimate venues

than he played with One Direction,

but they are, like, very big gigs still for a single artist,

and he goes to, like, 90 different places.

He's obviously learnt his craft

through those years in One Direction,

and so when he steps out,

he really, truly understands what it is to be a pop prince.

He's dressing a bit more quirky, he's playing the guitar,

it sounds and it looks a lot more different,

and it's quite a shock to his fans

and to the people who have listened to him in the past.

When you're on stage,

especially when, you know, the other members are gone,

you have to understand that the stage is a big place,

and you have to make it seem like it's a small space.

You have to bring your personality even more.

Harry has talked about the outfits that he wears on stage

for his global tours

as his "super-power outfits".

On stage, you have to have clothes that you can move around in

that you feel comfortable to just, you know, get stuck in,

but also, you wanna bring something that's visual.

And he's a young person,

and music and fashion, it's always been hand in hand.

With that first solo album, principally,

it would've been One Direction fans who tried it,

but he grows, and he develops a whole new audience.

Harry gained a wide new variety of superfans.

Stevie Nicks gets in touch and asks him to come on stage with her.

I mean, that's incredible. One album, one solo album.

But also remember that he is fresh,

he's young, he's energetic, he's dynamic.

Everyone knows Fleetwood Mac.

They're always selling albums, they're always selling out tours.

And for some scrawny little kid from Cheshire,

who went through the pub and went through X Factor,

to now be rubbing shoulders with the elites that are Fleetwood Mac,

it just shows that he really is living out his dream.

And that must have felt a light year away from One Direction.

I think it's an acknowledgment that he is the next generation.

What a compliment.

They've gone to awards ceremonies together,

and they're really close friends.

And he said that she gives him lots of support and advice

about shawls and blouses.

I have this vision of Harry rifling through her fabulous wardrobe.

There's always pressure - for any artist, actually,

especially when your first album is so successful.

And I think with Harry, you know,

he's continued to have great people around him

and moved forward with them.

Now he's confident, now he really knows where he wants to go.

And then we get album number two, Fine Line.

And I just think that is genius, a work of absolute art.

Fine Line, such a big record.

Opening week of release, it went straight to number one

in the UK and in America, a remarkable achievement.

First British solo act to do it, too.

Harry's first two singles,

Lights Up and Adore You, were extremely popular,

but heartfelt titles were still to come.

The 2020 Brits performance was remarkable.

It was super emotionally charged.

Caroline Flack had just died three days earlier,

with whom he was close, and yet, he still turned up,

and he still did it.

Falling is an incredibly moving and tender piece of music

that was inspired by the breakdown of a relationship.

You have to take your hat off to somebody who can work through

that kind of emotional trauma

and still be there for the fans and everybody else beyond.

It's quite amazing, really.

Now with two successful albums, a new world tour was planned.

I've got to go to Amsterdam at some point!

But catastrophe was just around the corner.

As we know, in 2020, we were hit with the COVID outbreak,

which put the entire world to a standstill.

You know, the album Fine Line was gorgeous and beautiful,

and not being able to go to tour

and having to wait, I think is scary.

And this was the beautiful moment where Harry decided that,

"OK, I can't tour, I can't go on the road,

"I can't do what I love,

"but I'ma use my star power, my influence, to sell merchandise."

However, he decided that he's gonna give that to charity.

Again, Harry thinking on his feet,

and that power of his fan base actually doing some good.

It's really an important part of his...

well, Harry Styles, that he supports the causes.

I think that's great.

What I really like about Harry, especially as a guy, I think,

Harry just shows fashion doesn't have gender.

You can just wear whatever you want.

After appearing on US television,

Harry then inspired a new generation

of knitwear producers during COVID lockdown.

Harry originally performed on the Today show

wearing the patchwork cardigan.

Woohoo! Thank you.

And it became a cultural moment.

Hey, this is my Harry Styles cardigan.

This is a, uh, like, replica version

that I got from a very talented person on Etsy,

because I cannot crochet, I wish I could.

It's not what you expect from a global pop-star phenomenon.

The cardigan is a work of art.

It's charming, and Harry looks like Prince Charming in it.

It's quirky,

and a lot of his fans, and also die-hard knitters,

wanted to make it.

And so JW Anderson very kindly gave away the pattern free online,

and lots of people had a go.

And they've posted the pictures online,

extending this cultural moment.

And you can also go and admire it in the V&A,

which is the museum to go and see culture and fashion as it happens.

Harry Styles is also leading a new vanguard of fashion design.

It says, "I'm confident."

It says, "I will wear what I want in the way that I want,

"and I will express myself.

"And if you have an issue, I don't really care.

"And if you try to be shady about my sexuality, I really don't care."

And for me, that is a person

that's stepped into themselves and owns themselves.

He shows a feminine side to masculinity

instead of what we often hear about, is toxic masculinity.

You know, Harry's really opened the door to different performers,

taking a lot more risks.

We've not had a male star that's got that kind of

androgynous feel about him, probably since David Bowie.

In a lesson on men's styling, Harry demonstrates his flair

for making any look his own on Carpool Karaoke.

Do you think you could pull this off?

See, even that...

Actually, I don't even know if you're pulling that one off.

That's the only one I'm not sure. Wait, wait.

AUDIENCE CHEERING

And he's done it. He's done it. There's nothing the man can't wear.

James Corden, black string vest. Hmm.

Some might say itchy. Harry Styles...

Sorry, James, he looked gorgeous.

If you look at the evolution of Harry Styles,

if you look at him when he auditioned,

he wore a T-shirt, and he accessorised it with a scarf.

Absolutely extraordinary for a young man to do that.

When he was in One Direction, he always stood out.

He said that it started with his mum,

because she adored making fancy-dress costumes.

It's like that video of him being really little, performing as Elvis,

like, he's always been a performer from day one,

and not really cared about having the sparkles on or the glitter.

That's kind of what makes him.

A performer is born, you know, they're already formed.

And you can tell that because his whole impersonation of Elvis,

and he struts, then he waits for the audience's reaction.

And that's the whole thing about timing.

I mean, even just watching him in school plays,

even if he didn't have a very big part,

he would do something that was small,

but people remembered that and generally laughed.

And so from a young age, you understand

you're not up there to please yourself,

you're up there to please an audience.

And so you take expressing yourself

not just through your music, but through the way that you dress.

And I think that Harry Styles does that very, very well.

I think he's channelling Bowie

and Marc Bolan with the feather boas.

They were all wearing flower-power, really feminine shirts.

And Harry loves that era.

One of the best images I saw of Harry was when he first came out

in the blouse with the pearl earrings.

I didn't see that coming at all, and I absolutely loved him for it.

Men did it in the Renaissance.

They were really camp and very effeminate.

And they were the peacocks, not the women of the day.

My favourite look of Harry Styles

is his Vogue cover, the first one he did.

It's because he was wearing a dress,

which I don't think anybody really expected.

December 2020, Harry wears this dress in American Vogue.

He also becomes the first male in history to feature on the cover.

He just looked amazing.

It could easily have backfired,

but we now live in a world where we're embracing that,

and he carries it off, it's genuine.

It's him, and he will continue doing it.

The Vogue cover is about creating a talking point.

Harry is very comfortable with gender fluidity,

which reflects the times we live in.

When he's wearing the dress, like,

he is not the first pop star to wear a dress.

Outkast did it. Kurt Cobain did it.

It's an important moment in fashion and in the history of magazines,

and it reflects Harry's status as a global icon,

both in terms of fashion and his music.

With Harry, whatever you put him in -

sequins, dresses, bows in hair,

ribbons, pearls, he carries it off.

It was one of their most successful covers

because it's a man wearing a sort of Gone With The Wind dress.

We haven't had that much excitement

since Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind.

It's all very romantic,

and it also heralds the new romanticism,

which is everywhere in fashion.

Personally, I think Harry Styles is THE best dressed man

in the United Kingdom.

Everyone's always excited to see what Harry's wearing.

When he opened the Grammys,

and he sang Watermelon Sugar, and he was in the leather outfit,

he wore a green boa.

And then all of a sudden, at his concerts,

everyone was wearing these boas.

I think that everyone kind of coined Watermelon Sugar as,

like, the song of the summer.

In 2021, Watermelon Sugar won Harry his first Grammy

for Pop Solo Performance.

It was also the perfect melodic summer pop song

that celebrates the sweetness of life

and weaves in multiple themes.

You know, that song is a song

that could be interpreted in many different ways.

Whichever way that you wanna read into it,

you can read into it.

It's a real songwriter trick, eh?

You think you're singing about one thing,

and then you realise it's something completely different.

Yeah, very creative and very instant.

I really like that song.

What he pushes out into the world is fun and fearlessness.

I don't think we can underestimate how brave it is for him to do that.

He does it in a way that makes people think,

"That's what I should be doing."

Harry embraces a global audience with a personal message.

NARRATOR: At his concerts,

Harry takes a personal interest in his audience's well-being.

He has so much love and admiration for people.

He wants his music, his image,

he wants it to be accessible to everybody.

Harry goes out of his way to interact with his fans,

and I think that's a value

that we don't see in a lot of artists these days.

What's your name?

Trace. Yeah!

Trace?

Yes, yes!

And your sign says, "I skipped my grandma's birthday for this."

CHEERING

"By the way, she thinks you're Harry Potter."

LAUGHTER

He often counsels fans during concerts.

It's quite extraordinary, really.

He's not the bad boy of the music world.

He is Prince Charming.

Dump him, dump him!

His fans absolutely love him for it.

We love you, Harry.

We love you, Harry Styles. We love you, Harry.

He's really open to talking.

He wants to bring them in and make them part of his show,

and that's what makes them so special.

He's just that relatable young man that you could see as a friend,

as a brother, as somebody that you grew up with.

And when you have that relatability,

it makes it a lot easier to connect with the music.

Occasionally, it's not only inside the concerts people meet Harry.

When we arrived in Paris, we went through a park,

and I looked to my left, and then Harry stood next to me,

and he was like, "Hey, how are you?"

"Wait, have we met before?"

And I was like, "I went to a few shows."

And, yeah, Harry remembered me,

and we had a nice conversation with each other,

and at the end, we took a picture.

Harry's ethos is inclusivity, which he requests everyone accepts.

Harry said on a number of occasions that he loves everyone -

Black, white, gay, straight, transgender.

I don't think we can underestimate how brave it is for him to do that.

In this day and age, people are very quick to tear people down

when they stand up and put their head above the parapet,

and Harry's never been afraid to do that.

And that's something that I definitely respect.

He's standing up for equality.

It goes with what he's said all along.

That's his creed.

CHEERING

I'm actually gay,

and I had a really, really hard time coming out.

And I think Harry inspired me to be open

and to live my life the way I wanted.

And he wore the 96 shirt of Michael Sam,

the first openly gay footballer to be drafted into the NFL.

From the way he dresses to the causes that he embraces -

LGBTQ, Black Lives Matter -

he does it in a way that makes people think,

"That's what I should be doing," you know, it doesn't feel false.

He wants to really break down the concept of identity

and what people perceive as identity.

And it just goes back to being the individual that Harry Styles is.

There's an openness, there's an acceptance.

His shows are a safe space.

And, you know, especially when you're young,

to be accepted is everything that you want.

He advocates for the LGBTQ+ community,

and he actually created T-shirts, the profits of which

went to supporting charities that work within those communities.

Talking about gender and non-binary is very much a topic of our times.

It's a topic for raging debate.

Harry has joined that conversation

in order to appeal to a wide audience, as well,

and for them to feel listened to.

He supports a lot of charities,

but the one that I think is really important to remember

is his support of Planned Parenthood,

and access to reproductive health care for anyone and everyone.

That's something we don't normally expect

our male pop stars to be standing up for.

But he's there, and he's doing it.

He's quite brave to be that political,

to also be himself, because it is quite scary.

There's always an element of rejection.

And I like to think that

that's probably stemmed from his relationship with his mum.

No matter how big and famous you become,

you'll always be my baby.

I love you very much. I love you, too.

And I think that maketh the man.

And he's brought that love, care and attention

that he's obviously had as a child and growing up

to his fans and to the wider audience.

I think that's what his mother's done.

She's infused him with a sense of self that is unshakable.

And, you know, that's what the best mothers do.

Harry has, for ages, always said, "Treat people with kindness."

He wrote a song about it.

Harry used this feel-good anthem from his second album

as a campaign message.

Especially because there's, like, hard times right now,

and we need someone who puts us...

who brings us together with his music,

and Harry is just a perfect example of that.

Yeah. Just brings love. Yeah. Just love.

Love and positivity. Yes.

The audience takes the message to heart

and produces their own tributes.

So, I was walking around here in Amsterdam,

and I got stopped by these two girls,

and they gave me these two Harry Styles bracelets.

Um, yeah, they were very friendly.

The thing that happened now is the girl just came to me

and gave me this,

and as I saw it inside, it looks like a valentine.

In April 2021, Harry expands his iconic status

by taking a leading role in the movie My Policeman,

a story about a gay romance

in an era when homosexuality was illegal,

depicted by this tender scene on a beach.

For a policeman, that's very romantic.

My Policeman seemed to me an ideal film for Harry,

because it makes sense that he would take a role which is about tragedy,

where a man went to jail for his sexuality.

He got big leading roles in both

Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman.

And I'm not gonna lie, like, I was excited.

I was just so excited. I thought his acting was good.

It was very hard for me to see him differently from Harry.

Don't Worry Darling was directed by Olivia Wilde,

who he was romantically connected to, and starred Florence Pugh.

Lockdown is over, touring is back.

From midnight to 2am, this opens.

It was a completely different sound for him, to be honest.

It was a lot more vulnerable.

Arguable one of the biggest festivals in the world.

That's a beautiful thing.

Harry breaks new ground again in more ways than one.

I think seeing Harry Styles live is such an incredible experience

and something that I've been fortunate enough to do,

I think everyone should do.

It's like being at a party with all of your best friends

and the best host ever.

Lockdown is over, touring is back, stadiums are full,

and people are out watching and experiencing live music again.

And Harry just returns back to the peak of the mountain,

back to being the star that he is.

And he headlines arguably one of the biggest festivals in the world.

We see him at Coachella with Lizzo,

and they sing Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive.

He struts his stuff across the stage

in this big, bold, sequinned, feathered outfit.

All just a bit, like, glorious and extra.

You know, it does feel like a real female empowerment song, A,

and, B, an LGBTQ anthem.

And that's a beautiful thing.

And to do it with Lizzo, people can see that,

"OK, this is the new Harry Styles."

This is from the Coachella weekend two.

And mine is from Madison Square Garden, New York.

We made everything ourselves.

May 2022, Harry releases

his long-awaited third studio album, Harry's House,

and, of course, his fans are lining the streets.

From midnight to 2am, this opens, and it sells his new album

and exclusive merchandise.

So, Harry's House comes out.

It was just a completely different sound for him, to be honest.

It was a lot more vulnerable.

We heard a lot more slower, kind of chill songs,

but the public loved it, myself included.

I would say my favourite Harry song is Matilda.

I would say it's just very sentimental and very authentic.

The personal experiences I've faced, and holding on to that trauma,

when he's singing that I know,

you know, that you feel a little dead inside.

You know, that... I felt that, and being able to say,

like, you can let it all go,

I didn't realise I needed something like that within my life,

and I actually got it tattooed.

For a long time, Kiwi was my favourite Harry song

just because of the energy of it.

But with the release of Harry's House,

I think Music For A Sushi Restaurant has overtaken it.

It's just such an unbelievable groove.

You can't not dance around to it.

Harry's House really was this humongous growth.

It has two singles, As It Was and Late Night Talking,

and both are top of the charts for weeks on end.

Yeah, I think As It Was is a good song.

It's immediate, quite upbeat,

but it's quite heartfelt, as well.

As It Was, I think, might be his biggest,

most successful song ever.

It's played all the time, it's in adverts.

It is a phenomenon of a record,

and I think that's just Harry Styles -

big, bold, brave and the very top.

His pure commitment to touring is so admirable.

Harry Styles: Love On Tour.

We love you, Harry.

Even after his heavy days of One Direction,

he seems to care about his fans enough

that he will make sure that he will go to most countries and tour.

Good evening, people of Los Angeles!

Prague!

Krakow!

Good evening, people of Munich!

CHEERING, SCREAMING

And the surrounding area.

Harry Styles was in New Zealand.

Then he says the words, "Tutira Mai Nga Iwi",

everybody in the crowd just started freaking out.

Because when you're a Kiwi, everybody sings along.

A special show was Wembley.

During Sign Of The Times, it started raining,

and it was a magical moment.

Playing Wembley Stadium,

that is such a massive achievement for a solo artist.

And he just stood there in the rain,

and you could see him trying to take it in

and try to... to hold it close and never let it go.

I did not think I would be playing this place.

Thank you so much.

Styles's Love on Tour has reached an amazing milestone

with over $400 million in ticket sales.

The concert is way different than just watching it online.

Like, just being in the room and the vibe

and just the love... The love.

..the love from everybody in the room, as well.

Before we do anything else,

I just wanna take a second to thank you.

The people of the UK, the people of England,

for birthing me.

Also...

..for all support over the years,

over the last 13 years of my life, the support you've given me.

Thank you so, so much.

Since 2020, Harry Styles has been nominated for something like...

I think it's, like, 313 awards globally,

and he's won something like 132 awards.

I mean, how old is this kid?

I think one of the biggest highlights in Harry's career

was winning the Grammy

for Album of the Year for Harry's House.

There's a lady that gave him the Grammy this year,

in LA who... Love Harry!

Yes! ..who was selected as a superfan

and flown from Sudbury, Ontario

to give him that award, and she's 82.

And the Grammy goes to...

In 2023, Harry won a Grammy for Album of the Year,

surely one of his biggest career highlights.

You can read it.

H-Harry Styles!

I think you're a special fan being able to announce

that he won Album of the Year and saying, like,

"You have accomplished things that are even greater

"than One Direction had accomplished."

I do think Harry was shocked when he won Album of the Year,

and you could kind of see it all over his face.

I don't think he expected that.

It was a strong field of competitors.

It was not, by any means, a given that he was going to win.

They did a cutaway of Adele's face,

and she just looked so thrilled for him.

I'm just so, er...

This doesn't happen to people like me very often.

And this is so, so nice. Thank you very, very much.

It's almost impossible to come out of a boy band

and go on to this kind of Harry-Styles-level success.

I think, ultimately, Harry is not going anywhere.

I mean, you only have to look at Harry at the Brit Awards this year.

The man that just does not stop... Harry Styles.

Congratulations, Harry,

picking up his second Brit of the night.

I'm not sure necessarily that he does it for the awards.

I would suspect he does it for the music and for the craft,

though he's always very gracious when he accepts them.

I wanna thank Niall, Louis, Liam and Zayn,

cos I wouldn't be here without you...

And it goes on stage, and he thanks the fans,

he thanks One Direction,

and then in one of the most wholesome moments ever...

I wanna my family for being the most supportive,

understanding, patient,

loving family I could have ever asked for.

Erm, I want to thank my mum for signing me up for X Factor

without telling me.

And I love the fact that he's still his mum's boy.

You know, I've heard it said

that Harry Styles thinks of himself as a feminist,

and being brought up by a strong mother,

it would seem that's understandable.

And for him to dedicate his Brit Award says a lot.

This was the second year that Best Female

and Best Male Artist were combined into one single category,

but only men had been nominated.

So he dedicated his award to the female artists,

and he says their name, that weren't actually nominated.

I'm really, really grateful for this,

and I'm very aware of my privilege up here tonight.

So this award is for Rina, Charli, Florence, Mabel and Becky.

Thank you so much.

I think that dedicating his Brit shines a light on the fact

that when things are amalgamated in such a way, women lose out.

And how lovely that he's thinking all the time about other people

and being fair.

I went to the Brits, and I watched him win

every single award that he was nominated for.

It was just, like, the best experience.

Harry Styles.

# We've been doing All this late night talking... #

Well, this is well and truly Harry's House.

Congratulations. His third studio album,

that debuted at number one on the UK album charts.

To achieve that level of respect is vindicating

for those of us who knew all along that he is that special.

He's a wonder boy, isn't he?

And he's only been going solo since, what, 2017?

Now I'm just trying to think,

does anybody have a track record like that?

Off the top of my head? Nobody.