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Harry Styles Solo In 2016, One Direction Singer Signs New Recording Contract Without 1D

By Colin Fredericson
Published on: 09:16 PST, Jun 24, 2016

Harry Styles’ solo career is official. In 2016 he’s his own man. Rumors have swirled for ages, from even before One Direction’s break, that he was planning a solo outing. He was viewed as the one most likely to be successful if any more 1D members went solo after Zayn Malik. Now he gets a chance to showcase his full star potential, and to try to match Zayn in solo success levels. Harry is arguably the most talented of the group, so a solo career was destined to come around sooner or later.

In further testament that this was a good move for Styles in 2016, as Us Weekly reports, fans aren’t mad. Yet another member of the original five members of 1D is breaking off for solo territory, but probably due to the enormous success that Zayn has been having, fans seem less fearful of a complete disintegration of One Direction as a group. Harry has the potential to become one of the great pop singers of today, and the only way to do that is to take a chance and step out alone.

At 22 years old and five albums deep into his One Direction group career, the timing may be just about right for a Harry Styles solo single to appear on the musical radar and challenge all those other pop stars for domination. Not just Zayn Malik but Ariana Grande, Adele, Justin Timberlake, and even Pharrell Williams better keep an eye out for this guy. He just might jump over them on the music charts rather swiftly, if those predictions about his developing talent prove true.

Styles hinted that he was going solo by as early as last year, as Billboard reports, when four songs registered under his name were submitted to ASCAP for copyright holdings. He and other songwriters wrote the songs together, but he is credited as the sole performer. The song titles are “5378 Miles,” “Already Home,” “Coco,” and “Endlessly.” With the combination of news of his new contract with Columbia Records, the song registrations make sense and a picture starts to come together.

Currently, Styles is working on his acting career. Harry is heading to movie screens by next summer, when filmmaker Christopher Nolan releases his World War II epic, Dunkirk. The movie’s title refers to Dunkirk, France, the sight of a major evacuation of British Troops when Germany advanced on France and surrounded the Allied Powers. For the movie, Harry has been spotted looking full 1940s retro in soldier gear. There’s no telling if he is planning to make his solo music debut on the soundtrack to the movie.

Unless One Direction can remain a trio consisting of Niall Horan, Liam Payne, and Louis Tomlinson, this news marks the likely end of the group. Of course, the three remaining singers just might be enough to carry One Direction into the future, but they would have to be willing to make up in style and energy for the two members that left for solo careers. As talented as all of these young men are, without both Zayn and Harry the feel of 1D is totally different. It could hardly be looked at as the same group.

Harry hasn’t actually stated that he’s leaving One Direction. When Zayn decided to go solo, he made a clean split. At this point it’s unclear if Harry Styles’ solo career could run alongside his One Direction work. It’s possible, but not likely, he could keep both. Zayn took a different route. He first announced he was going solo, and then settled on a recording contract months later. It worked out well for him in the end. In 2016, Harry Styles has solo stardom dreams and is seeking to do the same thing.

[Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for iHeartMedia]

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