We’ve been waiting since he was spotted in Italy filming it and finally, on the 26th October, Harry Styles blessed us with the music video for ‘Golden’ ✨ , the fifth single from his second album Fine Line, following radio hits ‘Lights Up’, ‘Falling’, ‘Adore You’ and ‘Watermelon Sugar’, that also earned him his first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in August.
Matching the song title, the sunny video, filmed in Italy, opens with Harry running through a tunnel – that might symbolize the “dark” times he faced in ‘Lights Up’ music video at the beginning of the Fine Line era – and sees him bathed in golden-hour light while sprinting through empty paths and open roads, driving a vintage convertible along the Amalfi Coast, with his hair blowing in the wind.
He plays in the water like the baby Tarzan he’s always been, shows off his tan and his curls (R.I.P.), and involves unaware innocent people like the local postman, the onlookers from the balconies (yeah, that’s kinda an Italian thing sorry not sorry) or the lady who, in one of the last scenes, cutely waves at him from inside the car he playfully leans on with the most precious of the smiles on his face.
The countdown started on the 20th October, the inaugural World Gold Day ( yes, Harry is THAT extra), when the doyouknowwhoyouare.com website was updated for the occasion: yellow background and the same special message to everyone who entered their name!
Harry changing the DYKWYA site to ‘Gold’ on World Gold Day is such a Harry thing indeed ✨ pic.twitter.com/pzkgnobX6P
— Harry Styles Updates. (@TheHarryNews) October 20, 2020
“Wait! Don’t forget your name! -H” got us all so emotional because it’s just such a Harry thing to do 💛
Since then, everyday we got a little something: the day after, the Eroda website was updated with some Golden references and the twitter account tweeted a sun emoji.
Then, we got the youaresogolden.com website where you can get customized postcards from the places the clip was filmed at…maybe the pictures were taken by Harry himself? We will probably never know but a girl can dream.
On Friday, we got the official cover of the single featuring an ethereal shirtless Harry showing off his tattoos, wearing high-waisted, wide-legged patterned pants and a yellow rain hat while standing on the rocks with the beautiful Italian sea in the background. I mean we found out the picture digging in the website code before it was actually released, but I’m pretty sure it was one of the many easter eggs H loves so much so no biggie!
GOLDEN. pic.twitter.com/NmLxXjKaud
— HSHQ (@HSHQ) October 23, 2020
We also got the sun emoji next to the hashtags related to the song, which trended worldwide, a hidden video on HSHQ Instagram account featuring a GOLDEN Retriever swimming and finally on SUNday we were gifted the official teaser, which collected millions of views in few hours, and the announcement of the date of release. Not the time though, because we love the pain.
GOLDEN.
OFFICIAL VIDEO. OCT 26 2020. pic.twitter.com/IYCJxOIZS7
— HSHQ (@HSHQ) October 25, 2020
On Monday, Harry announced the video was out on his social media sharing a picture from the behind the scenes and his tweet got over 1 million likes while his Instagram post almost 7 million; his numbers have grown so much during this era, he’s SO big and the best is yet to come!
GOLDEN. OUT NOW.https://t.co/HlUqLOcmDx pic.twitter.com/VDFY3A1mnt
— Harry Styles. (@Harry_Styles) October 26, 2020
The music video reached over 10 million views so fast (over 25 as I’m writing!), making it Styles’ biggest music video debut on YouTube to date! Legends behaviour!
In his video interview with Zane Lowe back in November, Styles said: “My favorite memory from making this album was the day we wrote ‘Golden’. We were all sat in the kitchen at Shangri-La, having dinner, and we played it on one guitar while everyone sang around the table. It just felt really good. We wrote it on day two of being at Shangri-La, and immediately, as soon as we’d done it, it was like, ‘Oh, this is track one.’ I used to drive to the studio, and it’s the perfect Pacific Coast Highway song. It’s like driving down the coast is what the song is for. It feels so Malibu to me.”
Yet, staying true to his ever-increasing love for Italy, he picked Maiori instead and my Italian self can’t help but brag about it! 🇮🇹
Recently, he has stated: “It’s one of the first songs when I was making the album and it’s always been a source of joy for me. And I wanted to make a video that encapsulated that. I’d like to think it will maybe cheer a couple of people up. Cheered me up.”
It also definitely managed to cheer us up, confirming that, no matter how hard life can get sometimes, “loving YOU Harry Styles is the antidote, Golden!”🎵
H started this era asking us, and himself, “Do you know who you are?” and (even if we don’t talk about that hoping that if we ignore it, it won’t happen) he most likely just ended it telling us “You’re so Golden” and I think that’s beautiful.
So, which was your favourite part and why is it this one?
Let us know in the comments!
