Harry Styles Solo Album Debuts at Number 1
Harley Weir
Harry Styles released his debut solo album, Harry Styles, on May 12th of this year and it’s what we’ve been listening to for over a week now. The album has a song and a sound for everyone – regardless of what your taste in music is. He set out to make this album something that he wanted to listen to, to fill it with songs and music that he liked – and he achieved that goal.
From songs like ‘Kiwi’ and ‘Carolina’ to ‘Two Ghosts’ and ‘Meet Me In The Hallway’ the album is packed full of emotion and feeling, experience and love, all of that and a mix of storytelling too. His talent is on full display and he’s done a bit of soul-baring in the process. He said he wanted this album to tell a story, without telling everyone everything about him. It was the challenge he set for himself when he was piecing the album together. He succeeded.
Music is universal, and it’s also open for interpretation, some artists let their songs do the talking for them and Harry is one of those artists. He writes from the heart, but he also writes to create – he lets you take from it what makes sense in your life and he puts so much of himself into his music that everyone can relate to what he sings.
For all of those reasons, and more, fans were eagerly anticipating his album debut and also the number in which it would debut. Fans worked hard to get it to the number 1 spot, and Billboard announced today that Harry Styles did debut at number 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart.
Billboard also included this statement about records Harry broke with his number 1 debut.
‘With Styles’ start of 193,000, he earns the biggest debut sales week for a U.K. male artist’s first full-length album since Nielsen Music began tracking sales in 1991. He surpasses the previous record holder, Sam Smith, who saw his In the Lonely Hour album launch with 166,000 copies sold at No. 2 back in 2014.
In addition, Styles is just the second U.K. male artist to bow at No. 1 with a debut album in the 61-year history of the Billboard 200. He follows his former One Direction bandmate, Zayn, who entered at No. 1 with Mind of Mine on the chart dated April 16, 2016 (with 157,000 units and 112,000 in traditional album sales).‘
Needless to say, Harry’s album achieved things he himself didn’t even expect. He said, in interviews, that as long as he was able to put together songs that meant something to him, that he’d be happy. He didn’t have to get to number 1 or be wildly successful with it, he wanted it to mean something instead. Looks like he got both, and we aren’t surprised. We’ve been fans of Harry for years now, we know his talent far surpasses what people thought of him, and his bandmates, in the past.
Congratulations Harry, it’s a well-deserved number 1 spot.
‘…but I knew him’
