Harry Styles crowned ‘consent king’ after releasing new video ‘dedicated to touching’ and it’s all just a bit overwhelming
Harry Styles on the beach for Watermelon Sugar. (Ashley Buenrostro/Sony Music)
Harry Styles has finally released the “Watermelon Sugar” video and it’s everything. In fact, it’s more than everything.
The video opens with a message that “this video is dedicated to touching” and it feels like Harry Styles has seen into our sad, thirsty queer souls.
“Watermelon Sugar” and its video are the follow-up to “Adore You”, both from the singer’s second album Fine Line, which was released in December 2019.
The Bradley & Pablo-directed clip was shot in Malibu in January, and opens, of course, on the beach.
Coffee, orange juice and a croissant sit on a table, laid for one, and then Styles — dressed in a vintage, orange-mesh vest, of course — steps into the frame with a slice of watermelon and starts singing.
And then Harry Styles, lesbian icon himself, runs a pink-polished fingertip, painfully slowly, along the top of the watermelon slice.
Clips of harry styles from the watermelon sugar mv which I cannot believe actually is real. Starting with this. The AUDACITY. pic.twitter.com/LrivsSE0WR
— ???.? (@harrymoonchild) May 19, 2020
The ocean; the sand; Harry Styles; being outside… it’s a potent combination.
The video is a sun-soaked, vintage-tinged and chaotic tangle of people on the beach, watermelon and strawberry juice running down their faces as he sings: “Tastes likes strawberries.”
At one point, Styles sits in the middle of the group of beautiful models and they press watermelon slices and their mouths into his cheeks.
Harry Styles, ‘Consent King’ in ‘Watermelon Sugar’.
Whilst they sit together, Harry Styles strokes the hair of one of the models, Ephrata, who later kisses him on the cheek.
In an Instagram Live, Ephrata explained that when he was directed to touch her hair on the “Watermelon Sugar” video set, Styles asked for her consent first.
“The people were telling him to touch my hair and play with it and he was like, ‘Wait, wait, wait, pause — can I even touch your hair? Is that even okay?’ Ephrata said.
“And I was like ‘Yeah, that’s so nice. That was really sweet.'”
She went on to say that later in the shoot, when she was told to kiss Styles on the cheek, she did the same back.
“I felt like I had to ask, too,” she said. “I was like ‘Are you sure?’ and he was like ‘Yes, go ahead!'”
Because of this, Ephrata called Styles the “consent king” – and Aalany McMahan, another model who appeared in the shoot and in the Instagram Live, agreed, saying that “he [Harry] was huge on the consent.”
Everything is just cinematic and aesthetically pleasing! #WatermelonSugar pic.twitter.com/zliUKMwfa9— ??? ? ??????????? ?????. (@zarrycuppicake) May 19, 2020
The “Watermelon Sugar” video has been viewed more than nine million times since its release yesterday, making it Styles’ career best.
