MUMBAI: Harry Styles is soaring up the pop charts and may even end Ed Sheeran’s dominance at No. 1. He becomes the latest One Direction star to have a solo career.

The debut solo single by Styles, “Sign Of The Times” (Erskine Records/ Columbia) is another piece of evidence that members of one-time “boy bands” can mature beyond teen success to have serious commercial clout. Styles is defying critics and cynics as he morphs into the fourth singer with “1-D,” including both past and present members, to go it alone in the studio.

Styles, 23, could also be the second to score a chart-topping single, following Zayn Malik. Zayn left the band and entered at the top of the U.K. Official Singles Chart in January 2016 with “Pillowtalk.”