MUMBAI: Harry Styles has released his new song Lights Up, which marks his first new music in two years, and the eagerly awaited first taste of his upcoming sophomore album.

It’s a new statement from an artist who has always delivered the unexpected. And it’s a new chapter in the story he’s been building for the past ten years—a musical journey unlike any other in pop.

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Born in England in 1994, Styles grew up in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, and became an overnight sensation when he joined the seventh season of the U.K. talent competition The X Factor in 2010. The band One Direction conquered the world, touring and scoring hits at a frantic pace, while he began to evolve and mature as a songwriter and performer. Styles went his own way when he dropped his first solo single, in the spring of 2017: the six-minute piano epic Sign of the Times. It took the world by surprise, eventually getting acclaimed by Rolling Stone as the Song of the Year for 2017. Sign of the Times was just the beginning. Styles released his self-titled debut Harry Styles in May 2017, entering the Billboard 200 at Number 1. The album completely avoided pop clichés, establishing Styles’ artistic voice with an expansive sound influenced by Seventies West Coast singer-songwriter rock.

With deeply personal songs like Ever Since New York, Sweet Creature, and Carolina, it confirmed Styles as an artist schooled in the classic favorites of his childhood - Queen, The Beatles, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac—yet breaking new ground. The album made history in the U.S. with the biggest debut sales week for a U.K. male artist’s debut album since Nielsen Music began tracking sales in 1991, topping official charts at #1 in more than 55 countries, while “Sign of the Times” went double platinum and won the 2018 BRIT for British Artist Video of the Year, topping the U.K. singles chart and reaching Number Four in the U.S. He began his epochal solo tour in 2017, with a lean four-piece band and the mantra “treat people with kindness.”

With Lights Up, he continues his creative evolution, asking the question he’s really kept asking his entire career: “Do you know who you are?” And with this artist, the answer to this question will always keep changing.