While his One Direction colleague Zayn Malik, who was actually planned to be the next Michael Jackson, already crashed after an unbelievable high with the prophetically titled second album ICARUS FALLS, only to bury his solo career in 2021 with the also appropriately christened record NOBODY IS LISTENING, Harry Styles was in 2022 to the record-breaking megastar.
15
Once he played to a full house in New York’s prestigious Madison Square Garden (capacity: 20,000).
also
15
He then supplied the US West Coast with guest performances at the Kia Forum (visitor capacity: 17,500) in Inglewood, California.
15
For weeks, his single “As It Was” topped the US charts. He even overtook historical leaders such as Whitney Houston and “I Will Always Love You” (14 weeks) and Elton John with “Candle In The Wind 1997”, the most successful single in history. Now only above him are Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” at 19 weeks, Mariah Cary and Boyz II Mens “One Sweet Day” and Luis Fonsi’s and Daddy Yankees “Despacito” at 16 weeks each.
10
“As It Was” stayed at number two on the US charts for several more weeks.
10
weeks “As It Was” reigned supreme in the UK charts – more than any other single this year.
521,500
album-equivalent units sold his third album HARRY’S HOUSE in its US launch week – the strongest first-week sales of the year.
with
113,000
units he repeated this record in the UK.
4
One week after the release of his album at the end of May, he had songs in the top ten in the USA at the same time: In addition to the title defender “As It Was” (#1), the tracks “Late Night Talking” (#4), “Music For A Sushi Restaurant” made their debut. (#8) and “Matilda” (#9) in the top ten. Of all British acts, he is now second only to The Beatles, who had five singles in the US top ten in 1964.
38%
reached the film “Don’t Worry Darling” on the tomatometer of the leading film criticism aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Although the psychological thriller became a box office hit with box office earnings of 79 million US dollars, main actor Styles in particular had to take a scolding for his acting performance.
1/2
Second that made the internet tear up its mouth: During the premiere of “Don’t Worry Darling” at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in 2022, Styles is said to have spat on supporting actor Chris Pine. The alleged video evidence was viewed and commented on millions of times. Styles later denied the incident on stage by ironically substantiating it. Filming was generally overshadowed by conflict: Styles was the replacement for Shia LaBeouf, whom director Olivia Wilde had fired for being sleazy. Next, Wilde fell out with leading lady Florence Pugh while she was romantically involved with Styles.
1
unidentified flying object hit him square in the groin while he was discussing the city’s “untimely cold” weather on the 5th of six Chicago appointments. “Well that’s unfortunate,” he commented on the painful situation.
48%
received his second film of 2022, the romance My Policeman on Rotten Tomatoes. Again, his performance was heavily criticized. Despite the sweeping quiff parallel, our advice: Don’t do another Elvis, Harry!
This list first appeared in the Musikexpress issue 01/2023 as part of our annual review special 2022.