There’s no denying it: The Harry Styles renaissance is in full swing.
Two months since he first teased his return to music, Styles has seemingly remained booked and busy, packing his schedule with award show appearances, an album rollout, a world tour, an awards show performance, and now, a return to late-night television. Styles’s latest announcement came on Monday, when NBC revealed that the Grammy-winning singer would serve as both host and musical guest of Saturday Night Live on March 14.
This isn’t the first time the 32-year-old pop star has pulled double duty on the sketch comedy series. Styles last appeared on the SNL stage in November 2019, prior to the release of his sophomore solo album, Fine Line. He’s performed as a musical guest four times before that: Three times with One Direction and once solo.
But fans won’t need to wait until March to see Styles perform on television again. He’ll be attending the 2026 BRIT Awards this weekend, where he’ll perform live for the first time since concluding his Love On Tour in July 2023.
After completing his 22-month-long tour, the Harry’s House pop star felt compelled to enjoy life separate from the fame — and of the job he’d grown so entwined with. More than two years away from music, Styles is back — and he’s ready to embark on a brand new era. A reset was necessary not only for his mental health but for his artistry, as he told the Times, “In having time away from everything, it’s allowed me to have conversations with myself on a deeper level that I didn’t have time to explore before.”
“I’d always thought, or hoped, that I was the kind of person who didn’t need the dopamine hits that doing this job often gives you. But I hadn’t actually removed myself from it and it’s hard to eliminate the doubt that maybe if it all went away, I’d really miss it,” he told the newspaper in a recently published story. “That’s always been a fear for me. So living my life in a way where I could really like who I am away from this world has been so powerful for me. Without question that has influenced the work I’m now making because it came from a place of pure freedom.”
Speculation that a musical renaissance was on the horizon began in January, when Styles’s fans noticed that a cryptic website, webelongtogether.co, copyrighted by Sony Entertainment, had seemingly emerged out of nowhere. There was little to decode from the website, which featured a looped video clip of fans in a packed crowd. While the video itself never explicitly referenced Styles, fans were convinced that this particular snippet came from his surprise “Forever, Forever” music video, released last December. It’s also worth noting that the full-length music video ends with the phrase, “We Belong Together.”
In addition to seeing posters and digital billboards featuring the same image of the crowd pop up in cities across the globe, fans who signed up for updates on webelongtogether.co also received a mysterious audio clip from Styles himself. The six-second voice memo features the pop star singing the line, “We belong together,” as the final cryptic clue ahead of his big announcement.
Styles put an end to the chatter in mid-January, when he unveiled the name and release date for his highly anticipated fourth solo album: Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. out March 6. As part of its global rollout, secret album listening parties have been taking place across 40 cities, with the final party scheduled for the night the record debuts.
Given the timing of his BRIT Awards performance and Saturday Night Live episode, fans can expect Styles to perform tracks from the new record, like its euphoric leading single, “Aperture.” As the album’s title suggests, disco influences and dance-floor dispositions are very much present on the electro-heavy, synth-pop track.
For Styles, “Aperture” is a song of celebration. It was also the last track to come together on the album.
“I think getting this song at the end, it was kind of when we were feeling freest and just really having a lot of fun at that point. It kind of felt like the mission statement of what the album was about,” he told BBC Radio 1 in January. “I had a couple years away from a lot of work stuff, and had a lot of big realizations and just generally opening up more to the world, and I think, allowing more positive things to come into my life. … [“Aperture”] was kind of this perfect little bow on that.”
As if a new album, new single and new music video weren’t enough, Styles sent shockwaves through his fandom when he announced his controversially-priced “Together, Together” world tour. Similar to his “Love On Tour,” the former One Directioner is set to play a handful of shows in several of the cities he’s set to visit.
Styles performs at Coachella in 2022.
(Kevin Mazur via Getty Images)
He’ll kick things off in Amsterdam, where he’ll do six nights in May, before returning to his native London for six more shows in June. After performing two shows apiece in São Paulo and Mexico in July, Styles will touch down in New York City, where he’ll play an ambitious 30 shows at Madison Square Garden between August and October. The tour will conclude in mid-December, after Styles plays four shows in Australia.
“Going into this next chapter I’m very excited for the tour, but if we were only doing two shows and my niece and sister were there watching me, that would be as fulfilling as I need it to be,” he told the Times. “And, when I listen back to the album, I can hear that I was having fun during this time. It’s fulfilling to make something you’re proud of.”
That Styles had even stepped away from music feels like a distant memory. His fans, who affectionately describe themselves as “Harries,” were once clamoring for a (musical) sign of life from the pop singer. Now they’re repeatedly being fed.