Grammy winning superstar Harry Styles finally brings Love On Tour to Australia this month

In the frustrating three-year wait for Harry Styles to bring his Love On Tour shows here, his solo success has eclipsed his One Direction past.

One day you’re at the Grammys winning Album of the Year; the next you’re jumping around in sequined overalls on a massive stadium stage in front of tens of thousands of screaming Australian fans.

Cheers and tears have soundtracked Harry Styles’ life since he became an overnight pop superstar in 2010 with the launch of the manufactured boy band One Direction.

But they are even louder now, if a little less shrill, as Styles has evolved to become part of an elite club of stream kings and queens, and multi-millionaire box office earners, which includes mates, former lovers and chart rivals from Ed Sheeran and Taylor Swift to Drake and The Weeknd.

Harry Styles sporting his disco Chewbacca look for his Grammys performance of As It Was. Picture: AFP.

When he arrives in Perth on his private jet in just over a week ahead of the Australian leg of his Love On Tour – we’ve been waiting three years for this – Styles will be on track to finish 2023 with one of the highest grossing tours in the world.

After his original Australian arena tour scheduled for November 2020 languished in pandemic postponement limbo for two years, Styles cancelled it and upgraded to stadiums; his star power had only got brighter with the release of his third record Harry’s House last year and he could take the risk of upsizing to outdoor venues.

Styles has commanded the world’s most iconic concert biggest stages from Coachella to Madison Square Garden. Picture: Getty.

“It might have looked risky on paper but Harry’s fanbase has grown exponentially since One Direction and now he’s got the mums, big sisters, brothers, he’s got the whole family rather than just teens,” an industry insider said.

He also has the Grammy voters, whether the ardent fans of his pop star rivals like it or not.

Always touted as the Most Likely To Have A Stellar Solo Career, he is the first boy band survivor and graduate of the reality television star-making factory to win the Grammys’ coveted album trophy.

In a flurry of feathers and sequins, Styles has been on an upward trajectory since One Direction called time out in 2015 just months after Zayn Malik sensationally quit the group mid tour.

His next moves would set him up for his glittering future as a movie star, a fashion player, a credible songwriter, a social justice advocate, a concert box office behemoth and a reluctant celebrity.

Helping in his quest for world domination has been his mate and manager Jeffrey Azoff, the music industry executive who sat next to him during the Grammys, and also helms the careers of Lizzo, Cardi B and now U2.

Olivia Wilde, Chris Pine, Harry Styles and Gemma Chan attend the Campari Passion For Film 2022 Award during the 79th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2022 in Venice, Italy. Picture: Getty Images

It was Jeffrey’s wedding in 2021 where Styles confirmed his relationship with his Don’t Worry Darling director Olivia Wilde, who is now his ex-girlfriend.

Styles and Azoff devised a brilliant strategy to launch his post One Direction career and immediately establish the former teen heart-throb as a reputable artist.

Just three months after releasing his debut single Sign of the Times in April 2017, which topped the Australian and UK charts, he made his feature film debut in the Christopher Nolan war epic Dunkirk.

Styles made his feature film debut in Dunkirk after One Direction called time out. Picture: Warner Bros Pictures

Film critics were impressed with Styles’ subtle performance in Dunkirk while music commentators applauded his debut solo single as a bold and mature attempt to pay homage to the influence of David Bowie and 1970s rock rather than lazily chasing the pop trends of the late 2010s.

It didn’t hurt that Stevie Nicks, the first of many Styles celebrity champions, happened to be one of the most revered and worshipped songwriters of the times.

“Mick (Fleetwood) and I have actually adopted Harry Styles; he’s the very tall and handsome 23-year-old son we never had,” Nicks told News Corp Australia in 2017. “We just love him; he’s really talented and he’s a nice guy with beautiful manners.”

Styles has maintained a love affair with Australian fans since his One Direction days. Picture: NCA

The self-titled debut album dropped in May 2017 as streaming became the dominant music format; Sign of The Times remains one of his most popular tracks on Spotify with 1.2 billion plays.

But it was his second album Fine Line which would catapult Styles to pop culture glory. That record spent its 164th week in the ARIA top 50 – at No. 20 last week – demonstrating the mighty muscle flexed by stream king and queens such as Style, Taylor Swift, Adele and Ed Sheeran to hold sway on the pop charts with their old records even as they release new ones.

Fine Line brimmed with Styles’ burgeoning confidence as a songwriter backed by a close-knit creative team who remained on board for the Grammy winning Harry’s House album.

Styles with his co-writing mates Kid Harpoon and Tyler Johnson. Picture: Getty

That team includes bandmate Michael Rowland, American producer Tyler Johnson and British hit maker Kid Harpoon, who revealed at the awards this week he calls the superstar Gary.

“Obviously I love the first album. I think when I listen to it now I feel like I was a little bit scared of getting it wrong … and played it safe in a lot of places,” he told me in 2020.

“And I think with this one, it sounds so much more free and the making of it was more joyous and that’s been from the music to the videos, the album cover and all the artwork and stuff.

“That I guess has been the best part for me, that I’ve probably just been having more fun and having that freedom. And obviously standing behind the music you are putting it out makes it more enjoyable.”

Fine Line also gave Styles the freedom to express gender-fluid sexuality, as evidenced by his playful videos for the hits Light’s Up and Watermelon Sugar.

But those clips, his painted fingernails, pearls and feather boas on red carpets, and that internet-breaking British Vogue cover in late 2020 featuring Styles in a lacy Gucci dress and tuxedo jacket drew both applause and outrage.

It continued the ongoing speculation about his sexuality – even as he dated actor and director Wilde.

He was also accused of queer baiting for bucking gendered fashion stereotypes, with Pose star Billy Porter, who is a red carpet sensation with his dramatic gowns, among those who were not happy about that Vogue cover.

“I’m not dragging Harry Styles, but he is the one you’re going to try and use to represent this new conversation?” Porter said in the UK Sunday Times.

The Love On Top concerts moved tickets and hearts. Picture: Getty

But the backlash was in stark contrast to the vibe at Styles’ concerts when his Love On Tour resumed last year. Fans regarded the musical gatherings as a safe space to come out – even on stage – and the performer has used his considerable platform in front of tens of thousands of people to champion the LGBTQ+ community.

Styles has politely declined to engage in public discussion about his sexuality.

“I’ve never talked about my life away from work publicly and found that it’s benefited me positively,” he said in Rolling Stone last year.

“There’s always going to be a version of a narrative, and I think I just decided I wasn’t going to spend the time trying to correct it or redirect it in some way.”

Great pop stars have always created, if not courted, controversy with their art. But at the heart of any superstar’s success is the strength of the artist’s connection with their fans.

Harry’s House confirmed the relationship which started with One Direction in 2010 continues to flourish in 2023 as his audience stretches beyond those teen early adopters to their mothers and grandmothers, to the queer community and his artist peers. Even Taylor Swift publicly demonstrated her affection and admiration for her ex at the Grammys.

Pop exes Styles and Taylor Swift hung out during the Grammys ceremony. Picture: Getty

Fans are also just wild about Harry and Lizzo, their friendship bringing absolute joy whether on stage or in a selfie.

His followers also lost it when he brought Shania Twain, whose music his mother used to play him in the car when he was a boy, onstage at Coachella last year.

American blues and roots legend Ben Harper is a huge fanboy and remains infectiously excited about being tapped to play guitar on the track Boyfriends and then open for Styles at his run of Los Angeles shows late last year.

“What a thrill. Because you get calls, and then there’s calls,” Harper says.

“I happen to feel that Harry’s House is one of the best records of the last two or three decades.

“So as someone who loves to session as much as I love to record my own work, that was a very exciting call to get.”

And while songs such as last year’s biggest hit on the planet As It Was continue to generate millions of streams a day, it is on stage where the pop superstar’s power is at its zenith.

Styles’ stage wardrobe is never predictable. Picture: Getty

It may be several years yet before his clout at the cinema box office matches Styles’ concert ticket gross.

His ongoing Love On Tour world extravaganza finally arrives in Australian stadiums this month after its arena run was cancelled during the pandemic shutdowns of live entertainment.

Styles has netted more than $485 million and sold 2.6 million tickets since the tour kicked off in September 2021. It winds up in Italy in July this year.

The Australian leg, which will feature British indie rockers and fellow Grammy winners Wet Leg as the opening act, kicks off at Perth’s HBF Park on February 20.

Styles also performs at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on February 24 and 25, Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium on February 28 and finally Sydney’s Accor Stadium on March 3 and 4.

Originally published as Grammy winning superstar Harry Styles finally brings Love On Tour to Australia this month