EXCLUSIVE: Harry Styles was the understated boy who started out on The X Factor and became part of a record-breaking band, but it’s lucky his nerves didn’t get the better of him

We were backstage at The X Factor’s results show in 2010. Rebecca Ferguson had already been catapulted to tabloid attention and Cheryl Cole was gearing up for a nervewracking solo performance of her latest single, Promise This. Meanwhile, Matt Cardle and One Direction were rehearsing.

At that time, I was consultant editor on the official X Factor magazine and the instructions to me from management were crystal clear, “Do NOT come back without exclusive photos of One Direction.” Even then, 16-year-old Harry Styles had something about him, despite not being an instant hit with the show’s judges.

At school, Harry was the lead singer in the band White Eskimo, performing with his mates, yet his version of Train’s Hey, Soul Sister wasn’t enough to impress at The X Factor auditions. Harry was very much a typical teenager, who’d just finished his GCSEs and was about to study “law, sociology, business and… something else, I’m not sure yet,” as he told the judges. On Saturdays, he worked in a bakery.

A vocal coach on The X Factor admitted that Harry Styles would get really nervous before singing (Image: Ken McKay/REX/Shutterstock)

When Simon Cowell asked for something a cappella, Harry performed Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely but Louis Walsh still gave him a no, saying he didn’t have “enough experience or confidence yet”. Simon disagreed, saying, “I think with a bit of vocal coaching, you actually could be very good.”

Guest judge Nicole Scherzinger – with a little help from resident choreographer and creative director Brian Friedman – went on to pluck Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne and Harry from bootcamp and put together her boyband prototype.

By the time The X Factor was down to its final four acts, One Direction were already stars. Rounding them up for a photo shoot involved herding them into a small room and persuading their mums to sit outside. Harry was quiet, hiding behind his fringe, but he was also massively charismatic. There was also a very cheeky X Factor magazine interview that never saw the light of day because the boys got a little carried away with saucy comments about threatening to date each other’s mums.

Harry Styles was always the quieter member of the band but incredibly charismatic (Image: REX/Ken McKay/TalkbackThames)

The X Factor’s vocal coach, Yvie Burnett, remembers Harry’s nerves often threatened to get the better of him, as the pressure to turn in perfect performances week after week grew.

“He got on with everybody but I remember him being really under-confident, considering he always looked amazing and was a charming young man,” she tells OK!. “He used to have a sick bucket by the side of the stage because his nerves were so bad. It was quite surprising, but he didn’t have that ability to just enjoy it.”

Fans’ interest in One Direction was already established. “I was in a car with him on the way back from rehearsals and we couldn’t get back into the X Factor studio because the fans were surrounding us,” says Yvie. “That level of craziness was always there, so that made his nerves even worse – as he adjusted from not being anyone to becoming so famous that every girl in the country wanted to marry Harry Styles.”

‘Every girl in the country wanted to marry Harry Styles’ was the overriding UK vibe (Image: Getty Images)

Coming third on The X Factor was actually a blessing for the One Direction boys, giving them a much needed break (Image: Getty Images North America)

Coming third on The X Factor, behind winner Matt and runner-up Rebecca, gave One Direction the break they were looking for. Savan Kotecha, who’d also written for Justin Bieber and Britney Spears, penned the band’s first hit, What Makes You Beautiful. Its perky pop was just what they needed, but Savan actually wrote it about his wife. Harry, who still performs the song solo, texted Savan straightaway to tell him it was perfect.

The single went to No1 in the UK and the album Up All Night followed. Harry was already emerging as the most popular member, if doll sales are to be believed. In 2011, Harry’s Hasbro figurine accounted for 35% of sales, even if he was overtaken by Niall and Louis the following year.

In 2012, One Direction’s second album, Take Me Home, reached No1 in more than 35 countries across the globe and broke iTunes records for pre-orders. A few months later, the band was considered big enough to do the official Comic Relief single, which was released in February 2013 – a mash-up of One Way Or Another and Teenage Kicks.

Then they were immortalised in wax at Madame Tussauds. Although not quite immortalised because One Direction were eventually retired from duty in 2020. By that time Harry was a global superstar and he was soon reinstated with a new look, along with six other waxwork versions of the performer around the world, including one in Hollywood. Launching the waxworks in July last year, Madame Tussauds’ global brand director Angela Jobson said the singer had “left a timeless mark on popular culture”.

Madame Tussauds’ global brand director Angela Jobson said that Harry Styles had ‘left a timeless mark on popular culture’ (Image: PA)

One Direction’s biographer in the early days, Jordan Paramor, spotted Harry’s star quality. “Even as a teenager, Harry had an undefinable ‘something’ that made it clear he was going to be a huge star,” she said.

“As the band became more established, he’d developed a quiet inner confidence and he was so self-assured and comfortable with who he was. He also had the kind of charisma that walked into a room before he did. If there is such a thing as ‘the X factor’, he had it in droves. He’s incredibly charming, funny and very easy company. And, most importantly, a genuinely decent guy with no edge.

“If I had to sum him up in one word, I would say ‘magnetic’. So few people are blessed with that quality and it’s not something you can learn.”

The early One Direction years saw them mature in the public eye and they were determined to do things their own way.

As they headlined London’s O2 Arena, there was an unusual lack of boyband costume changes or gimmicks because the music was enough. “We kind of feel like we know who we are,” said Harry at the time. “We like pop music, but instead of using synths, we like using our hands. Guitars. Drums…”

In 2013, they teamed up with acclaimed director Morgan Spurlock for their own movie, One Direction: This Is Us, which showed them both at home and on the road.

Harry Styles might have needed a sick bucket by his side for nerves at the beginning, but he soon went on to dizzying confidence heights (Image: Dumfries Standard)

“One Direction had some big songs and were rapidly becoming this supergroup,” the movie’s producer Adam Milano said.

“The boys were always funny. We knew it needed to have that kind of levity.” Harry described the film as “a thank you to fans for sticking with us”. He added, “We wanted to show them the real us because social media and interviews don’t really give you the chance to get to know someone.”

All the attention from fans and the media was something Harry learned to deal with, but his mum, Anne Twist, still worried as his every move became a headline. “You sort of feel so proud, you feel like your heart could burst sometimes,” she said. “But in the back of your mind, there’s always that feeling that you’ve got to be kind of ready to pick up the pieces if it stops.”

But there was no stopping One Direction’s snowballing fame. They were the undisputed kings of teen magazines, but also graced the cover of GQ, and for Glamour’s cover they posed with model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley.

Their third album, Midnight Memories, was the best-selling album of 2013 globally. It takes something special for a British boyband to break America, but One Direction had it, winning a total of six Billboard Awards.

On tour, Harry was shocked by the reaction of fans, comparing it to Beatlemania. “Stepping off the plane, the girls, the madness. It was exactly the same as when we got there – just 50 years earlier,” he said.

Despite their success in the US, behind the scenes Zayn wasn’t sure whether he wanted to continue with the band and in March 2015 they became a four piece. As the band announced their “indefinite hiatus” in 2016, Zayn and Niall released solo singles, leaving Harry to ponder his next move.

Harry Styles used his time in One Direction as a fantastic grounding for fame before heading solo (Image: WireImage)

With close friendships, high pressure and huge popularity, Harry’s time in One Direction gave him a good grounding in fame, as Yvie Burnett notes. “Harry had his apprenticeship with the boys and he learned things like getting used to the sound on stage and choreography, as well as how rehearsals and TV shows go. He had all that going on, without the pressure of being the only one, so you couldn’t imagine better training for being a solo artist. He was so ready,” she said.

Harry’s enduring kindness was also instilled in him in his X Factor days. “Louis Walsh always ingrained that in every act he worked with,” said Yvie. “He’d say, ‘Be nice to everyone all the time and you’ll never go wrong.’ And Harry hasn’t forgotten that. Everyone wants him to succeed and that adds to his charm.”

Yvie also sweetly remembers the last time she ran into Harry, backstage at last year’s Brit Awards. “He walked past me and I went, ‘Excuse me, don’t you walk past me.’ He turned around and came running up and we had a big hug. He’s remained as friendly, open and lovely as ever. Now he has more confidence, without being cocky, but underneath that he’s still the boy next door.” But by 2017, it was time for that boy next door to move on.