Harry Styles Explains Why He Was In Rome For Pope Leo’s Election

Harry Styles is one for random little side quests, and now that he’s back in music mode, he’s finally explaining one of his recent excursions. In a new interview with BBC Radio 1, the singer confirmed that he was in the crowd at St. Peter’s Square in Rome during the conclave election in May, when Pope Leo XIV was announced as the late Pope Francis’ successor.

Speaking to host Greg James, Styles confirmed his identity in the viral photo from the Vatican and revealed that he didn’t set out to watch the new Pope being introduced to the world. “I was getting a haircut in Rome, and then I just heard all these people start shouting, ‘Habemus papam, habemus papam’ [‘We have a pope’], and people just running down the street,” he recalled.

Even his stylist got excited about the development. “So the guy cutting my hair stopped cutting my hair, and he was like: ‘Habemus papam. There’s a new pope. There’s a new pope,’” he said. “So we finished up, and then I was like, ‘Oh, I’m like, five minutes’ walk,’ so I walked over there. It was... it was wild.”

Styles did not explain why he was in Rome, with James quipping, “long way to go” for a haircut, nor why he was wearing a hat that read “techno is my boyfriend,” especially after getting his hair done. However, he did agree with James that it was one of the few times that he was genuinely upstaged at an event. “I was like, ‘Who is this getting all this attention?’” he joked.

Harry’s Side Quests

Styles’ interview was to promote his new song “Aperture,” the first single from his upcoming album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally. However, while making this album, he embarked on numerous side quests around the world, which went viral and tickled his fans.

Along with the new Pope’s introduction, Styles also ran a marathon in Tokyo (finishing in three and a half hours), attended festivals like Glastonbury (where he gave a random interview and was seen kissing a mystery woman), helped a fan parallel park, and went clubbing in Berlin. The latter ended up inspiring his new album the most, as he told Capital Breakfast in a separate interview.

“I spent a lot of time in Berlin last year, and I was meeting a lot of fun and interesting people and hearing a lot of different kinds of music,” he recalled. “That was influencing the music I was making. And I was just kind of loving what I felt like.... That was kind of the goal, to make an album that I could enjoy playing as much as I enjoyed making it.”