Harry Styles: the explosive artist who crosses music, film and criticism for queerbaiting

After two years of postponement due to the pandemic, Harry Styles will appear on December 1 in Chile as a world star. Added to his already constant records in the music industry is an ascending acting career that has led him to work with directors such as Christopher Nolan and his own ex-partner, Olivia Wilde.

After more than two years of rescheduling due to the covid-19 pandemic, Harry Styles Finally, it will be presented in Chile this December 1st in a unique show at the Bicentennial Stadium in La Florida, where tickets have already been sold out for months.

The delay in the visit, however, may be an incentive considering the explosive last years of the British singer, where he not only established himself on the international music circuit, but also extended his work to other genres and media.

This year, Styles released the acclaimed films “My Policeman” and “Don’t Worry Darling”the latter directed by who until weeks ago was her partner, Olivia Wildeand in the midst of a harsh saga of transcendence about internal disputes between the actors of the cast, led by “Florence Pugh” and “Chris Pine”.

“I went to Venice to present the movie and spit on Chris Pine,” Styles joked when he resumed his tour love on tour in the United States, after a video of the two was broadcast at the Venice Mostra with the musician making the obsessive gesture over Pine’s head. In the end it was an optical effect, but also a sample of the existing tension in the cast.

His debut in the big film leagues, however, occurred in 2017 at the hands of the influential British director Christopher Nolan in “Dunkirk”where he had a praised role.

“I don’t think he was aware of how famous Harry was,” Nolan told The Hollywood Reporter. “I mean, my daughter had talked about him. My kids talked about it, but I wasn’t really aware of it. So the truth is that I hired because he fit the role wonderfully, and he really earned his place at the table, ”reflected the filmmaker.

The actor Mark Rylance, his partner in “Dunkirk”, also said he was unaware of the relevance of the artist, whom he recognized thanks to his niece. “She was more excited than anything I’ve ever done because she was going to be acting alongside Harry Styles,” he recalled.

In 2021, Harry was also part of the cast of “Eternals”one of the latest Marvel mega-premieres, where he made his official foray into superhero movies always in parallel to his rising musical career, which at that time was fine-tuning the last details of the release of his third solo album.

Harry Styles’ house

On May 20, it reached digital and physical platforms. “Harry’s House”after two years of recording in the middle of the covid-19 pandemic. “As It Was”the first single from the album, debuted at number one on the Billboard 100 and on the main UK charts.

In the US, the song spent 15 non-consecutive weeks at number one, and another 14 in the top three, making it the track that has spent the longest time on the podium in the chart’s history.

The promotional tour of the album (and of its previous and award-winning record, “Fine Line”), in turn, has also been a commercial success. Proof of this was the award he received (at a distance) in the last installment of the MTV Europe Music Awardswhere he took the award for Best Direct.

“Late Night Talking” and “Music for a Sushi Restaurant”, the hit singles from “Harry’s House”, and also a nod to One Direction (the band that made him a world celebrity) are part of the show that brings him to Chile this 1 December, which could not schedule a second date (in Argentina, Styles will perform twice at the Monumental Stadium of River Plate).

Queerbaiting icon?

The permanent media exposure, multiplied on movie screens or in live mega-concerts, is always accompanied by criticism, and the case of Harry Styles was no exception.

After demonstrating in favor of the respect, freedoms and rights of the community LGBTQI+and replicate in his wardrobe nods to the breakdown of gender paradigms in fashion (his scarves with feathers are already part of his iconography), the accusations for queerbaiting (use of aesthetics from the LGBTQI+ world without specifically belonging to it) had an echo in English.

After a controversy that lasted for a year, it was the singer himself who came out against the accusations, expressing his point of view. “From time to time people tell me: “You’ve only publicly dated women,’ but I don’t think I’ve dated anyone publicly”he commented in dialogue with the magazine rolling stones.

“If someone takes a photo of you being with someone, that does not mean that they have made my relationship public or anything like that,” he added about the rumors and questions about the alleged appropriation. The answer came in line with another fundamental principle for the artist: his aversion to “labels” in his love relationships, which in the case of Olivia Wilde he carried out until the end of the relationship.