Following a suggestion from his mother, Harry Styles auditioned as a solo contestant for the 2010 series of the British singing TV competition The X Factor. He failed to make it beyond boot camp, but guest judge Nicole Scherzinger suggested the 16-year-old singer team up with Niall Horan, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik for the Groups category. Styles suggested the name One Direction to his bandmates, and they reached the final, finishing in third place.
One Direction became one of the best-selling boy groups of all time. At the peak of their fame, Styles stayed for 20 months at the Hampstead Heath family home of television producer Ben Winston. He slept on a mattress in an attic, living there in secrecy as his fans stood outside a North London house he didn't actually live in. "No one ever found out, really," Winston recalled to Rolling Stone. "Even when we went out for a meal, it's such a sweet family neighborhood, no one dreamed it was actually him. But he made our house a home. And when he moved out, we were gutted."
When One Direction went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016. Styles embarked on a solo career. He released his first single, "Sign of the Times," in April 2017.
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