Harry Styles is so good in the music industry . He looks great , dresses interestingly, speaks cute and well. He has cool friends , talented collaborators and the hottest girlfriends.

After leaving One Direction, he had everything it took to become a great pop star. Except for one thing: He didn’t have any good songs… But Watermelon Sugar changed all that.

Great expectations

Harry Edward Styles was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, England. His parents split up when he was young, but he says his childhood was great because his parents were always supportive.

Styles wasn’t the kind of kid who loved the stage. He loved karaoke and briefly led a high school band. When he was 16, his mother suggested he audition for The X Factor , the show that would become so influential in British pop. And he did.

On the show, he chose to sing Train’s Hey, Soul Sister . Not very well. When judge Simon Cowell asked him to sing another song, Styles tried an a cappella version of Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely . This time it was better, but he’s clearly not the type of singer to wow listeners.

Harry Styles’ single cover “Watermelon Sugar”

Perhaps what was more appealing about Styles was how easy he seemed to be talking to the very difficult Cowell. Styles didn’t seem shy at all. He carried himself with the confidence of a superstar.

Anyway, Styles passed the audition but was eliminated in the training. He was then put in a group with other cute guys who were also eliminated. They became One Direction – the boy band that took the world by storm. And Styles was the most famous member of the group.

Styles later said that he didn’t have the freedom to do what he wanted in One Direction. However, it was clear that he was happy with his position. He was always at the center of the songs and comfortable with the scrutiny of his personal life. He may not have been overly committed to One Direction, but he knew it was a means to greater things.

Indeed, after One Direction disbanded in 2016, Styles’ solo career was wide open. He quickly signed a contract and released his self-titled debut solo album in 2017.

For this album, Styles drew inspiration from 1970s pop giants like Elton John, David Bowie, and Fleetwood Mac. With its classic sound and grand statements, Styles’ target audience was clearly not teenage girls anymore, but their parents.

The album isn’t bad, but it’s not the leap one would expect from the most famous member of the most famous band, like Justin Timberlake did with his debut solo album Justified .

While Harry Styles has sold well, going double platinum in the US, only “ Sign Of The Times” has achieved any real chart success. Styles’s chart fortunes have been partly influenced by his status as a teen idol: Radio stations don’t want to risk playing an artist who might turn off adult audiences. They want Styles to prove himself.

Harry Styles’  song ” Watermelon”:

But on the surface, Styles’ career is still going strong. In 2017, he made his film debut in Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Dunkirk – the best chance a young actor could hope for in a screen debut. A year later, he started modeling for Gucci.

In late 2019, Styles released his second solo album, Fine Line. At the time, Styles said that on his first album, he “played it safe because I didn’t want to do anything wrong.” But in reality, Fine Line wasn’t much different from Harry Styles , and was even more subdued musically.

One Direction have never had a No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100. Audiences hoped Styles would do it. But in the end, it was the humble member Zayn who got the first No. 1, while Styles was still struggling with his direction.

Summer Heatstroke

Before reaching his first No. 1 in the US, Harry Styles was already a household name. Both as a member of One Direction and as a solo artist, he had created a series of resounding hits in the US and around the world.

But “ Watermelon Sugar ,” the song that finally propelled Styles to No. 1, was no flashy pop event. It had been hovering around the top 10 for months, finally sneaking to No. 1 in a week without a hit. It had been out for nine months! In a summer full of ephemeral products, that was pretty cool.

Styles wrote “Watermelon Sugar” while touring for his debut album in 2017, during a day off in his Nashville studio. He also collaborated with Kid Harpoon, Tyler Johnson and Mitch Rowland.

“We had an idea, we had a chorus melody and it was quite repetitive,” Styles tells the story behind Watermelon Sugar . “Richard Brautigan’s book In Watermelon Sugar  was sitting on the table, and I was like, ‘That sounds good!

Harry Styles performs “Watermelon Sugar” at the 2021 Grammys

And so the song’s chorus is simply the same three words over and over again: “Watermelon sugar high.” Excited, Styles and his collaborators wrote “Watermelon Sugar” quickly, but it took a while to flesh it out.

 “At first, I loved it,” Styles later confessed. “But then, for a long time, I really hated it. It kept coming back and it was so frustrating.” He compared the feeling to the excitement of meeting someone for the first time, but then…

Styles isn’t exaggerating. Watermelon Sugar is repetitive. It sounds more like a rhythm section than a complete song. But the rhythm section is exhilarating. The instruments are all in place: acoustic guitar strums, electric guitar riffs, booming percussion, snappy horns, a self-possessed bass line. A summertime hangover.

The lyrics are interesting too. At a concert years later, Styles said that Watermelon Sugar was about “the sweetness of life” but also “the sublimity of women”.

Styles’ beautiful falsetto adds to the song’s appeal. The playful, lively quality suits Styles better than the dark, classic melodies. It seems to be his nature, and he’s done it many times on One Direction records.

Styles promoted Fine Line with the release of ” Lights Up ” (which peaked at No. 17). A month later, he was both host and musical guest on Saturday Night Live , where he performed “Watermelon Sugar” for the first time, and the song was released that same night. The song debuted at No. 60, to little attention, and within weeks, it had fallen off the Hot 100.

Another single, Adore You , was released to greater fanfare and featured a notable music video. Adore You slowly climbed the Hot 100, reaching No. 6. American radio began to take notice of Styles.

That put Watermelon Sugar back on the Hot 100. Then, Styles’ team seized the opportunity to push it higher: releasing a catchy music video, selling the single on vinyl, cassette, and discounting the digital version. Another event that couldn’t be ignored at the time: 3 songs by Styles’ ex-girlfriend Taylor Swift made it into the top 10, and Styles was even more mentioned.

Watermelon Sugar may not be the most dazzling fireworks, but it does help break the ice on Styles’ solo career. Styles is finally where he belongs – a handsome, boundary-pushing, sly dude who seems to have been born into the music industry.