Directioners have long been wondering what’s up with since Zayn left the outfit and went solo. No one was sure if One Direction’s break was a hiatus or legitimate breakup, and even Simon Cowell, who discovered the band, didn’t know what was going to happen after their 2015 album. Cowell told Billboard, “I don’t know if it’s a hiatus or a breakup, to be honest. In a weird way, I don’t want to know.”
One Direction may be on a hiatus, but Harry Styles is officially following Zayne’s lead and going solo. According to E! News, the boy bander signed a recording contract with Columbia Records, the same label that released One Direction’s music. No deals of the term are known, nor is there an official timeline for the release — but seriously, we could not be more excited to hear it all. We’re buzzing!
Rumors of Styles’ solo project spawned last year when he registered four solo songs with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). In March, he joined Full Stop Management. According to Simon Cowell, a break from the band was in the works for quite a while.
“They had achieved so much in a short period of time, and I didn’t want them to get jaded. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to trust people more, particularly artists. They’ll decide when they want to come back together,” he said.
In addition to going solo, Styles is trying his hand at acting. The songwriter is currently filming Dunkirk (Warner Bros.), a World War II drama by Christopher Nolan (and sadly, they made him cut his glorious hair for the part).
