The Beauty of Harry Styles' "Harry's House"

May 20, 2022 – The Lease Began

On this day, Harry Styles released his Grammy Award winning album, Harry’s House (Columbia Records). Not only did it shatter records, but it also shattered people’s worlds.

I was one of those people.

I wasn’t a huge Harry fan before, but after this album? God, I was. Calling myself a fan doesn’t even feel like enough. He’s helped me through so much, helped me discover things about myself that I might never have otherwise. I love him, and I love this album more than I can put into words. So, let’s dive into what makes Harry’s House so special both to me and to so many others.

Notable Things This Album Accomplished:

• Won 3 Grammys, including Album of the Year (2023)

• Won British Album of the Year at the BRIT Awards

• Won Album of the Year at the 2022 MTV Music Awards

• Debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200

• As It Was spent 15 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100

• Most importantly, it won Nickelodeon’s Kids’ Choice Award for Favorite Album (Harry’s biggest achievement, obviously.)

This album is, in my opinion, the perfect representation of what Harry Styles means to his fans. It launched him into another level of fame about as big as a celebrity can get. And strangely enough, we can thank COVID-19 for it. If the pandemic hadn’t put his Fine Line tour on hold, Harry’s House might never have come to be. The album is full of the sparkly, energetic music that Harry is known for. But beyond that, it feels like what the title suggests it feels like home. Harry wrote most of this album with his friends, drinking wine, and taking psychedelics. And somehow, that created something that resonates deeply with so many people.

This image released by Columbia Records shows Harry Styles’ third studio album, “Harry’s House." (Columbia Records via AP)

Home: The Heart of This Album

Home: the place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. - Oxford Languages Dictionary

That’s the key word for this album.

The saying home is where the heart is couldn’t be more fitting. Whether it’s a fun, upbeat song like Daylight, Late Night Talking, or Daydreaming, or a slower, more emotional track like Matilda, Boyfriends, or Keep Driving, they all seem to revolve around this theme of finding yourself finding love, finding family, and ultimately, finding home.

And that’s why this album connects with so many people. For a lot of Harry’s fans, the idea of home is complicated. Some don’t know what home feels like. Some don’t feel safe in their own homes. And yet, Harry has always been a safe space for his fans.

He’s shown us that being yourself is okay. Whether it’s wearing a dress on the cover of Vogue, rocking flamboyant outfits on stage, painting his nails, or playing LGBTQ+ characters in films, he’s given people a sense of belonging. Fans see him embracing himself unapologetically, and it inspires them to do the same.

To me, this album feels like Harry’s gift to his fans his way of offering his heart to anyone who needs it. Or maybe, in this case, he’s handing out keys to his house for anyone looking for a place to call home.

What This Album Means to Me

Harry’s House represents my own personal growth. I’ve taken my own meaning from it, and it has guided me through some of the hardest moments in my life.

This album didn’t just teach me how to love others it taught me how to love myself.

The way I dress, the way I present myself, what I’m passionate about, and what I love about myself all of it has been influenced in some way by this album. There were things I used to be afraid of doing, like wearing something more feminine, that I no longer care about. I’m now fully out of the closet, and while I won’t credit just this album for that, it definitely played a role along with Harry’s other music and the space he’s created for his fans.

Some songs on this album mean so much to me that I can’t listen to them without tearing up. If I could say one thing about this album, it would probably sound like a broken record at this point, but…

This album is home to me. And if you ever need one, it’s here for you, too.

Anthony Pham (2023)