Updated Monday, May 22, to include information about the re-air date for "Homeward Bound: A GRAMMY Salute To The Songs Of Paul Simon."

"Homeward Bound: A GRAMMY Salute To The Songs Of Paul Simon" will re-air on Wednesday, May 31, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network, and will be available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.

Paul Simon is a living legend. For nearly six decades, the New Yorker has gifted his songs to the world. An innovator — not just a folk singer — Simon’s curiosity led to constantly discovering new soundscapes. He incorporated these rhythms and instrumentation into his melodies, and then added poetic lyrics to create character-driven narratives.

These compositions are like old friends; they linger long after the needle lifts or the stream ends. Generations have sung Simon’s songs — finding joy in their playful rhythms and sorrow in their beauty.   

The accolades and awards are endless: a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, a 16-time GRAMMY winner, multiple recordings in the GRAMMY Hall of Fame and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy to name just a few.

In a clip from "Homeward Bound: A GRAMMY Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon," which will re-air on Wednesday, May 31, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on the CBS Television Network, Elton John calls him "one of the greatest songwriters of all time" — high praise from an artist with 35 GRAMMY nominations and five wins. Simon’s contemporaries are not the songwriter’s only fans: The writer of iconic songs such as "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Graceland," "The Boxer," and "50 Ways to Lose Your Lover," has generations of artists as worshippers of his art who continue to discover his deep catalog.

Singer-songwriters, pop stars, country artists and rappers all claim Simon as a musical mentor. For example, Kid Cudi sampled "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover" on his debut mixtape A Kid Named Cudi in the referentially titled  "50 Ways to Make a Record." In a Forbes Q&A, Canadian songwriter Donovan Woods cites "Obvious Child" as his all-time favorite.  

In advance of the GRAMMY salute to Simon next week, here are five artists that credit the songwriter as a key to their musical education.  

Read More: How To Watch "Homeward Bound: A GRAMMY Salute To The Songs Of Paul Simon"

Harry Styles

Listen to Harry Styles’ turn of phrase and poetic lyrics, and hints of Simon’s influence are evident. Even back in his One Direction days, Styles cited Simon as a touchstone. In an MTV interview, following the release of the boy band’s 2015 bestseller Made in the A.M., Styles said his favorite track was "Walking in the Wind" since it was inspired by Simon. 

"I’m a big Paul Simon fan and I think the inspiration behind it is Graceland," Styles said. "The way in which the verse is so conversational and informal, and it’s not like melody melody melody — it’s like spoken word, and kind of drifts and peaks and troughs. I love that album and when I listen to it I love hearing the influence from that in his song."

In a 2019 Rolling Stone interview, Styles again gave a nod to Simon. "I wish I had written '50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,'" he said. "That’s the greatest verse melody ever written, in my opinion. So minimal, but so good — that drum roll."

Conor Oberst

In a 2011 New York magazine profile on Paul Simon, the singer-songwriter from Omaha, Nebraska, is quoted talking about what a major influence the writer of "The Boxer" is on his art. "I grew up with my folks listening to him," Oberst told writer Alan Light. "But as I got into songwriting, I realized how profound what he does actually is. His work over the years is a treasure trove of ideas."

Listen to Oberst’s cover of "Kodachrome," recorded with his alt-country band the Mystic Valley Band, which he once performed at the Austin City Limits Festival in 2008, telling the audience it was a popular sing-along on the tour bus.  

Vampire Weekend

These New York indie rockers burst onto the scene in the mid-2000, and comparisons to Simon abounded beginning with their 2008 self-titled debut. Listen to "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" from their debut; the Simon influence is undeniable — especially his Graceland period. 

In a 2019 interview with Radio X, frontman Ezra Koenig was asked about a show that would stay with him forever. He paused, then answered Simon’s Homeward Bound Farewell Tour in 2018. "He is such a legend…We’ve been compared to him many times and he is an influence. We are from the same part of the country…I have a lot to look up to and find in common with him." 

Shawn Colvin

The three-time GRAMMY winner Shawn Colvin considers Simon a key piece of her songwriting education. Colvin’s father played guitar and taught her early on; he also played many of the singer-songwriters of the day that included the boy from New York. 

Particularly at the start of her career, Colvin always performed "Kathy’s Song" in her sets. In a 2015 interview, the songwriter cited Simon as one of her mentors. "Joni Mitchell was a big time [influence on] me, but also James Taylor, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan to an extent," she said. 

Lorde

The expressive and introspective New Zealand singer-songwriter considers Simon the benchmark for excellence in her craft — a bar she reaches for each day. In a 2017 profile in The Guardian she revealed the following goal:. "I want to be really, really good one day. I think I’m pretty good now. I think I’ve made a good start. But I want to be Paul Simon."   Four years later, Lorde named Simon’s "Graceland" as the song she wishes she’d written in this Vogue 73 vide interview. 

Listen to Lorde and Jack Antonoff (Bleachers) perform a stripped down duet of "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard" at the 2017 Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. 

8 Highlights From "Homeward Bound: A GRAMMY Salute To The Songs Of Paul Simon"

Over 10 years after Lorde released her breakout hit, "Royals," its opening line presents a profound sense of irony: "I've never seen a diamond in the flesh."

In the song, Lorde depicts a disillusionment with the lifestyle and status associated with diamonds — one based on excess, ostentation, and a departure from reality. But her scorned sentiment is so relatable that "Royals" itself has become a diamond.

In December of 2017, the single reached the rarely achieved diamond certification from the Recording Industry Association of America for selling 10 million units. The single now has over 1 billion streams on Spotify, and when it was in the throes of release, topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks, before earning two GRAMMYs: Song Of The Year and Best Pop Solo Performance at the 2014 ceremony.

"Royals" was the lead single for Pure Heroine, Lorde's debut album, which turns 10 this month. Like its first hit, the album demonstrated Lorde's foresight into the next generation of pop star — so much so that none other than David Bowie had proclaimed her as "the future of music."

In many ways, the title Pure Heroine is apposite to Lorde herself. In the early 2010s, she was a heroine with a pure message — a message of honesty and humanity that resonated with everyone, from fans to her fellow musicians. Even critics were intrigued: "In a moment when too many new artists seem afraid to offend or go off script, Lorde is an exciting contradiction," Pitchfork wrote in their review of Pure Heroine.

Going "off script" permeates everything about Pure Heroine, but it also goes beyond the album and into what Lorde represented for music and humanity at large. 

As Pure Heroine turns 10, here are five aspects of Lorde's rise that demonstrate that she helped create the blueprint for the modern superstar.

Defiance Of Industry Expectations

Lorde has been signed to Universal Music Group since she was 12 years old, after being discovered because of a performance at a talent show. However, she didn't let such a grand association play a role in her approach to her music.

"I've been dealing with the world's biggest record company for so long so I've never had that 'Holy Shit' moment with it being a major label or anything," Lorde told Spin in 2013. "It's just something I grew up with."

Even prior to the album, Lorde was prescient in her defiance of the industry when she released her 2012 EP, The Love Club, on Soundcloud for free. Per The Guardian, she told UMG, "Leave it alone — don't promote it, no ads, let it grow organically." This ended up working in her favor when singer/songwriter Grimes reposted Lorde's Soundcloud after "some random" alerted her to it. 

And when the time came for Lorde to make her first album, Universal initially suggested doing a series of soul covers, but she refused. "They got straight away that I was a bit weird, that I would not be doing anything I didn't want to do, and they completely went with that," she told The Guardian in 2013. 

What Lorde considered "a bit weird" in 2013 is now, rightfully, considered brave and forward-thinking because it was all in service to her simply being herself, regardless of what anyone in the industry expected of her. 

That mentality also bled into her appearance. "I'm not the sort of artist that TMZ can write about like, 'She stepped out with no makeup today!' Because 80 percent of the time I'm not wearing any makeup," Lorde told The Fader in 2013.

She also didn't care for the comparisons to other massive artists like her: "I read a piece the other day that said, 'Why Lorde is this generation's Nirvana,' and I was like, PLEASE DON'T! Don't do that to me! They meant it as a compliment, obviously, but what's the point in even making the parallel?" she said to Rookie in 2014.

Lorde has only ever wanted to do things her way, and that not only fueled the magic of Pure Heroine, but her career as a whole.

A Simple One Writer, One Producer Formula

One thing Lorde wanted to do on her debut album was write all of her own lyrics, even though she had never written a song before in her life. And she clearly aimed to have as much creative control as possible, opting to work with only one producer on the album, Joel Little.

Little and Lorde are the only two credits for both writing and production throughout Pure Heroine, a stark contrast to other albums released in 2013 including Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines, Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, and Beyoncé's self-titled, all of which followed the modern pop standard of gathering numerous songwriters and producers together on an album.

Now, 10 years on from Pure Heroine, some of the biggest artists and albums follow the Pure Heroine approach. For example, on both of Billie Eilish's studio albums, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP WHERE DO WE GO? (2019) and Happier Than Ever (2022) the only credits are herself and her brother, Finneas.

Another is Olivia Rodrigo, who — other than an occasional extra producer or songwriter and a few interpolation credits to artists like Hayley Williams and Taylor Swift — wrote and produced the entirety of her two studio albums, SOUR (2021) and GUTS (2023) alongside producer Daniel Nigro.

A more intimate creative process makes sense given the candid nature of these artists' music, and the central topic of Lorde's honesty in Pure Heroine can be summed up by the pre-chorus in "Royals": "Cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece/ Jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash/ We don't care, we aren't caught up in your love affair."

Ten years ago, the de facto motto of pop music was "the bigger the better," emphasized by songs like "Love Me" from Lil' Wayne and Drake, "F—in' Problems" from A$AP Rocky, 2 Chainz, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake, and "Suit & Tie" from Justin Timberlake and JAY-Z. Then in comes a teenager from New Zealand who literally says "We don't care." She didn't care about the lifestyle pop music purported — and without a boardroom of writers and producers, her message rang out unimpeded.

A DIY Social Media Approach

Given her rise was in the early 2010s, Lorde was also one of the first stars of her generation to engage in the never-ending battle of social media — and, naturally, she only engaged with it as she saw fit.

"I would get an email from one of the record companies saying, 'Just realized that you're not social-networking to your fullest potential. Here's how! Use lots of hashtags! Only focus on the music, Do 'follow sprees' and constantly reply to fans!'" Lorde recalled to Rookie in 2014. "I was like, 'You've just got to trust me. Everyone will hate me in two months if I do that.'"

Yet another gem of foresight from the young Kiwi, given that numerous Gen-Z notables — from the country breakout star Bailey Zimmerman to the hip-hop/electronic crossover artist PinkPantheress — launched their careers from TikTok by posting DIY clips of their creative processes.

As of late, Lorde's Instagram account is rather bare. There are two posts: the cover of her latest album, 2021's Solar Power, and a carousel of her swimming with a cryptic caption about "a light on inside."

However, there is a highlight on her profile entitled "INSTITUTE" which gives a glimpse into the last year or so of touring. Within these slides Lorde's authentic approach to social sharing is unambiguous. There are numerous high-quality performance shots, of course, but there are also images of "TOUR BUS SHELLFISH" alongside shots of porcupines and her eating sushi in the bath.

In the timeline of Lorde's social media, there are examples that demonstrate even less concern with curation and presentation. She even started an account dedicated to onion rings in 2017 (though it unfortunately hasn't had a post since 2021). 

While she was certainly public about her feelings towards social media, there are also hints of that disdain throughout Pure Heroine. Like on the album's second single, "Tennis Court": "It's a new artform showing people how little we care."

Honesty In Lyrics And Beyond

One thing Lorde surely does care about is her audience, which is likely a major reason why the songs on Pure Heroine speak to inner value. She is on their side, and one simple method of demonstrating this is the shift from "I" to "We."

"This dream isn't feeling sweet/ We're reeling through the midnight streets/ And I've never felt more alone/It feels so scary, getting old," Lorde sings on "Ribs," recounting one of the aspects of life she finds most stressful: aging.

As "Ribs" suggests, the 10 songs on Pure Heroine are for real people in the real world — people who are complex and have varying life experiences. One minute, Lorde is celebrating her elevated status ("Getting pumped up on the little bright things I bought/ But I know they'll never own me," Lorde sings on opener "Tennis Court") and next, she's lamenting her declining ability to be carefree as she gets older ("I'm kind of over gettin' told to throw my hands up in the air/ So there/ I'm kind of older than I was when I reveled without a care/ So there," she quips in "Team," the album's third single).

This kind of honesty also extends beyond lyrics for Lorde, who, since the time of Pure Heroine, has been unfiltered in her opinions on topics including her fellow pop stars.

"I think a lot of women in this industry maybe aren't doing so well for the girls," Lorde told Fader in 2013. "She's great, but I listened to that Lana Del Rey record and the whole time I was just thinking it's so unhealthy for young girls to be listening to, you know: 'I'm nothing without you.'"

In that vein, you won't find a single breakup song on Pure Heroine, but instead, honesty in the form of her love/hate relationship with her sudden explosion into fame on "Still Sane": "All business, all day keeps me up a level/All work and no play, lonely on that new s—, yeah."

But even as she acknowledges her rising profile, through "White Teeth Teens" she maintains she hasn't lost sight of who she truly is, that she is still on the side of her people: "I'll let you in on something big/I am not a white teeth teen/I tried to join, but never did/The way they are, the way they seem/Is something else, it's in the blood."

And even when she does broach the topic of heartbreak on songs like "Liability," from Pure Heroine's 2017 successor, Melodrama, Lorde goes deep within herself instead of running back to her ex: "So I guess I'll go home/Into the arms of the girl that I love/The only love I haven't screwed up/She's so hard to please, but she's a forest fire."

Pure Heroine set the tone for the kind of honesty Lorde will always bring in her music — one that's more self-reflective than self-pitying.

A Punk Attitude

Lorde was not concerned with the standards of the music industry when she was making Pure Heroine, and there is a genre of music that is celebrated for this same lack of concern: punk.

While it might seem that a major pop star like Lorde and punk rockers like the Sex Pistols and Dead Kennedys have absolutely nothing in common, the ethos of how they approach their music and persona are actually quite similar. Because punk isn't simply not caring; punk is not caring what people tell you to care about.

If Sonic Youth truly didn't care about anything, they wouldn't have written "Youth Against Facism," their scathing indictment of the U.S. government. It's the same reason Anti-Flag wrote the plainly titled "F— Police Brutality." They use music to predicate change.

Lorde's lyrical approach may not be as on-the-nose as punk, but given the state of pop music at the time of Pure Heroine, ideas presented in "Royals" were well against what the general pop sphere was beckoning people to care about it: "My friends and I, we've cracked the code/ We count our dollars on the train to the party/ And everyone who knows us knows/ That we're fine with this, we didn't come from money."

Here, the "code" is being happy and content without the gold teeth and the Grey Goose. That she and her friends (once again, alluding to her fans) have value that goes beyond money.

Although Lorde's November 1996 birthday technically lands her just shy of the Gen-Z cutoff, her values in standing up for the common person is a central tenet of Gen-Z culture. This generation is being forced to pick up the pieces of a climate and an economy ravaged by generations prior, and Gen-Zers are facing that necessary change head-on the same way Lorde faced the necessary change in the music industry at the start of her career.

Just before Pure Heroine reached its 10th birthday on Sept. 27, Lorde took to email to share a candid update on what's been happening in her life in the last year, denoting everything from hints at new music to health struggles, to laments on the decade past.

"I know I'm gonna look back on this year with fondness and a bit of awe, knowing it was the year that locked everything into place, the year that transitioned me from my childhood working decade to the one that comes next — one that even through all this, I'm so excited for. It's just hard when you're in it," Lorde wrote, according to a Tumblr account called "Lorde's Email Archive."

Lorde considers the last 10 years her "childhood working decade." In that decade, she redefined what it meant to be a superstar — who knows what she may redefine in the next decade.

For The Record: How Taylor Swift's 'Speak Now' Changed Her Career — And Proved She'll Always Get The Last Word

At a vibey, wood-paneled listening party in Williamsburg, Rhiannon Giddens felt exposed. Chiefly known as an interpreter and a cultural surveyor — both as a solo artist and for her work with the Carolina Chocolate Drops — the singer had distributed the lyrics to her new album, You're the One.

The assembled were welcoming and supportive; Nonesuch Records president David Bither was there in her corner, and delivered heartfelt remarks at the outset. Still, on a WhatsApp call weeks after, Giddens admitted she felt "awkward as hell." But that's OK, she explains.

"I'm very comfortable doing the things that I've been doing, so it can become a death knell for an artist to be super comfortable," she tells GRAMMY.com. "So I think it was time to step out a little bit and go, 'OK, so this is what happened.'

"But I don't talk about slavery, and I don't talk about civil rights," the two-time GRAMMY winner — and Pulitzer winner — continues. "This is a different way of being, and just as valid."

Giddens is referring to her work in a litany of fields — opera, documentary, ballet, podcasting, and more. Therein, she's aimed to plumb "difficult and unknown chapters of American history" through musical lenses, like the evolution of the banjo from Africa to Appalachia.

Out Aug. 18, You're the One is more eye-to-eye than Giddens' other works; she sings in first person, and deals in themes of romance and devotion, as with the glowing and companionable title track.

There's also a razzing kiss-off ("If You Don't Know How Sweet It Is") — and a brooding, socially conscious moment in the form of "Another Wasted Life," about the suicide of Kalief Browder at Riker's Island.

But despite these more direct expressions, Giddens hasn't simply pivoted from sociological to confessional; that's a binary that can be put to bed.

I'm drawing a little bit more from my experience, but I had to draw from my experience to write other people's stories," she says. "There's emotions that I feel that I then translate into these other stories, so I don't think this record is completely different from that [mode of expression]."

In that way, You're the One isn't a left turn for Giddens; it's another branch on her evermore sprawling tree. Read on for an interview with the singer-now-songwriter about how it came to be, her recent team-ups with Paul Simon and much more.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

At the Brooklyn listening party, was it vulnerable to reveal your songwriting side?

Totally. I felt like I was awkward as hell. I'm very comfortable talking about other people's stories, and that's what I've been drawn to my whole career as an interpreter.

Even as a songwriter, I am inspired by historical stories and wanting to write them. It's one of the reasons why I'm doing this, because the job of the artist is to always grow.

Yeah, it does feel vulnerable. Because it's like, I don't really like talking about myself. It's not like these are all Taylor Swift-type "ripped from my soul and my experience" songs.

But obviously, to write any song you have to pull on experiences, and whatever you do with them — whether you exaggerate them or change them — you're still pulling on yourself more. So, it's been interesting.

What kicked you into gear to do this? To express how you feel, rather than tell other people's stories?

Well, it doesn't express how I feel, though. This is the thing: they're still songs, and it's still a performance.

I'd say I'm drawing a little bit more from my experience, but I had to draw from my experience to write other people's stories. There's emotions that I feel that I then translate into these other stories, so I don't think this record is completely different from that.

There's a couple that are responses to experiences in my life, and then there's a bunch where I'm playing with styles and I'm playing with strong women's voices, and I'm playing with being inspired by all of these artists that have come before me.

So, it's kind of a mixture of these things.

You're right. There doesn't have to a be a binary between diaristic and impersonal.

Yeah, totally. 

And I do feel like I'm a more old-fashioned songwriter in that way — in that I really love form and I really love words, and I really love wordplay, and I really love taking an idea and really kind of running with it rather than more of a personal response to something that happened in my life.

I guess "You're the One" is probably the closest to that. That, I wrote purely out of this feeling that I had when I had my son. And I'd had really bad postpartum depression with my daughter, which kind of puts a curtain in between you and your emotions. It's really tough to get through that.

So when I had another kid and I didn't have that and I felt all of that joy — for both of my children. Obviously, I love them the same.

But I recognized that feeling more after the birth of my son because I recognized, Oh, this is what happens when you don't have postpartum depression. That's amazing. And I felt all of that. But that's probably the only one that's a pure response.

I love how universally applicable it is.

You can do "You're the One" at a wedding. It doesn't necessarily say, You're a baby.

That's what I think is really interesting about songs; as long as the emotion is pure, that forms the core of it. It can then represent so many different things, depending on how it's written. I love those stories of a song: somebody writes it because of x, and then everybody thinks it's because of y.

What else is sourced from your personal experience?

"If You Don't Know How Sweet It Is" started as a poem when I was kind of teed off at somebody who kind of left my music or whatever. It was a professional relationship that went south, and I kind of went, "Man, you don't know how good it is," and I just kind of wrote this little piece.

Then, I turned it into a marriage song, turned it into more of a Dolly Parton kind of [song] — this is a moment where this woman is fed up with this husband who has taken her for granted. 

So, there's a bunch of [those songs], where I kind of take these emotions that may or may not be really represented. [Any given song] may have come from situations that may or may not be represented in what the final song is.

Tell me how you wanted You're the One to impact people on an aural level.

I was sitting on all these songs that I've written over the last 14 years and haven't had a home. I knew this was my chance to explore other soundworlds. I knew these songs needed more than a banjo, a fiddle and a frame drum. They needed more contemporary sounds.

So, we reached out. My manager suggested Jack Splash, and I knew that he had done Valerie June — and of course, she's in the club; I've known her for a long time. I was like, Well, if he worked with her, he's probably going to have an idea of what to do with me.

I met with him, and I was very quickly like, "Look, I really want you to be creative and I want you to bring your whole box of sounds, but I also want to bring my sounds." I didn't want to say Hey, put all your production on these and whatever. I wanted it to be a mixture of my sounds and his sounds — his musicians and my musicians.

So we did a real old-fashioned recording session where we had everybody there the whole time. It was like six days. "You Louisiana Man" was the first one we did, and that one was like 11 people on the floor, I think, at the same time recording. It was amazing.

I brought my folks, he had his folks, and it was a real beautiful mixture of styles and vibes. I think it's unique. You can't really place it. It's got some retro feel, it's got some modern feel, it's got some old-timey feeling sounds, and that's what I wanted.

That's the platonic ideal, right? The music being made together, in real time.

That's what I think. That's what I like.

Now, I know that there's a type of music that you make that's basically the engineer, the producer's making it, you know what I mean? And the different musicians, like he's the conductor. And that's fine. And it's not to pooh-pooh that, but it's not the way I want to make music.

I was kind of like, "Take my advance. I don't care if I make any money from this. I need us to put the money towards having the bodies in the space."

Because when we're bringing together all these varied things — electric bass, and drums, and organ, and congas, and accordion, and fiddle, and Congolese acoustic guitar — overdubs are not going to work. It's just going to be Jack's sound with a little bit of me on top, or a little bit of accordion or synths or something.

I was like, "That's boring. Can we not do that?" I really wanted us to find a sound that we couldn't have found any other way than being in the room.

Most know you via your interrogations of the history of American music, and your explorations of these wonderful instruments. Where are you at currently with this subject?

The more that I investigate, the more I'm just like: it's so complicated. And the real story is always more interesting than the one that we're fed, but it's always more complicated.

It's multicultural. That's what I'm finding: when you bring people together who want to listen to each other, you find new forms of music. That's just the facts. So, it's the genre thing. I'm going to continue to fight against it.

People always ask me, What is it that I play? And I'm like, "You tell me because I don't care." You know what I mean? "Put whatever box you need to put me in to sell my s—, but I'm not going to self-identify outside of American acoustic music. That's what I do."

I think we look at the wrong categories. I'd rather know: is the music highly produced and electric or is it acoustic? Is the music slow or is it fast? Is the music for dancing or is it songs that don't have a particular dance beat? Is the music based on riffs or is it [not]?

What does R&B mean? What does rock mean? That changes every five minutes, and it doesn't tell anything about what the music actually is. And if it does, it puts it in a box and you may not listen to it because you think what it is.

So I get why they do it, but I just think it's really destructive to innovation and what American music really stands for, which is mixture.

Another person who's very interested in exploring the intricacies of American music is Jason Isbell. Can you talk about working with him on "Yet to Be"?

It was a lot of fun. I wish I could have been there when he did it. I Zoomed in.

He's just so great. And look, we have one of these 21st-century Twitter relationships. We comment on each other's Twitter sometimes. And I have watched him, from afar, be an amazing advocate, a very smart musician and social media person.

I love the way that he interacts with his fans. I love how he's supported Black women musicians, and putting his money where his mouth is. And I just love the way that he moves in the world.

So it just seemed like a really natural fit to get him to sing on this song, and he just knocked it out of the park. It was really, really great.

What do you want You're the One to be a bridge to in your musical life?

I'm just excited to do what I do. I feel very lucky. I get to make the music I want to make with the people that I want to make it with.

I'm not famous. I have a nice-sized, very committed following. I can put on tours and pay my musicians what I should pay them, and earn a living. I just want to keep doing that, and telling stories, and raising other people up, and using my platform for the things that matter to me. 

So if this record can bring me to audiences that maybe wouldn't have given me a second listen, that'd be amazing. Maybe it doesn't. Maybe nobody cares. I just make the songs and see where they go and just keep going with that.

I'm looking to have a really good time on tour with my wonderful musician friends and just keep doing the do. It's a rough world out there right now. So I'm just trying to use my time in front of people for as good of things as I can. So, that's what I got.

I've got to ask about Paul Simon. I'm a devotee. You've sang with him in the recent past, including "Homeward Bound: A GRAMMY Salute to the Songs of Paul Simon."

I didn't really realize how much of a soundtrack his music has been of my life until I was waiting to go on and listening to all the songs going, Oh my god, I know all of these. He's such an amazing songwriter. And working with him for "American Tune" is just one of the highlights of my life.

Not just because it's Paul Simon. I mean, yeah, he's an amazing musician, but the experience that we had working together on that, him changing those words for me to sing it and me kind of taking this song in and going, Wow, this is exactly how I feel right now. It's exactly how people that I know feel, and he wrote it before I was born.

And I think for him to see another artist of a different generation making it her own right in front of his face, [it's impactful], you know what I mean? I cried during the dress rehearsal. I was just feeling it. So that was a really powerful experience and I will always treasure it. 

It was unexpected. It came at the last minute. I respect him a lot for being willing to do it. And as I like to say to people, nobody has the monopoly on doing the right thing and on wanting to comment on what's going on right now.

And yeah, he's an old white guy, but dang, he didn't have to do nothing but sit back and collect his checks. He made a statement with that song, and I don't want to take that away from him. I didn't change those words; he changed those words.

I remember seeing you perform "American Tune" together at Newport Folk 2022. He said something to the effect of, "This will have more resonance if Rhiannon sings with me."

The thing is the words that he changed, particularly the line about the Mayflower. Originally, it was like, "We came here on the Mayflower." And then he changed it to, "We didn't come here on the Mayflower.

99 percent of the people who live in America don't have ancestors that came on the Mayflower. You know what I mean? It's not just about Black people, it's not just about me. It opens up that song for everybody. And I think that that's really important, because we need to come together in any way that we can. It's an incredible song.

I became the focal point for that, obviously, because I was singing the song. But it is never really about me. I don't really like focusing on What does it mean for me to do it?  it really gives that song a whole new life for anybody else who wants to sing it.

I think that's really powerful, and I'm just glad that he was open to doing it. And that we got a chance to not just do it once — but twice.

15 Essential Tracks By Paul Simon: "The Sound of Silence," "The Boxer," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," & More

James Corden may have jokingly made a video for Harry Styles' "Daylight" in three hours, for $300, but that's not the end of the story — Styles has finally finished the job.

On July 19, the three-time GRAMMY winner  — including Album Of The Year at the 2023 GRAMMYs, for his blockbuster third album, Harry's House — unveiled a full-fledged music video for "Daylight."

In the clip, Styles strolls around a traveling carnival — a complex of cherry-red structures — and interacts with its quirky denizens. Midway through, he even takes flight on black and yellow wings, and eventually finds himself astride a horse. At video’s end, Styles walks a tightrope against an azure sky.

Read More: 5 Takeaways From Harry Styles' New Album Harry's House

This is the fifth video from Harry's House, following "As It Was," "Late Night Talking," "Music For a Sushi Restaurant," and "Satellite."

The “Daylight” video arrives just three days before Styles’ final show of his long-running Love On Tour. He’ll close out the nearly two-year trek — which included 15 sold-out nights at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden — in Reggio Emilia, Italy on July 22.

Along with touring, Styles has co-starred in the psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling and romantic drama My Policeman since the release of Harry's House. He also expanded on his fashion ventures, co-releasing a Gucci collection with fashion designer Alessandro Michele in Nov. 2022.

Check out the new video for "Daylight" below and keep checking GRAMMY.com for Harry Styles news!

Harry Styles' Sonic Evolution: How He Grew From Teen Pop Idol To Ever-Evolving Superstar

Looking at everything One Direction achieved in their time together, it's hard to believe that they were only active for six years. What's even harder to fathom is that they've now been on hiatus just as long — but luckily for fans, that time has proven fruitful for Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson.

Each member has released at least one studio album as a solo artist, and they have all dipped into several other ventures within fashion, producing, and mentoring rising stars. Horan is the latest to deliver more solo music, unveiling his third album, The Show, on June 9.

Through all those efforts, the quintet has kept One Direction's legacy not only alive, but thriving. While together, they were a pop phenomenon who sold an approximate 70 million records, but their solo careers have allowed them to showcase their true personalities. With that, lofty achievements came in tow — GRAMMY Awards, sold-out tours, and even more chart-topping hits — as well as the certainty that One Direction will never fully diminish (see Styles' roaring rendition of "What Makes You Beautiful" or Horan's sweet performance of "Story of My Life").

From Malik's introspective Mind of Mine to Horan's latest set, GRAMMY.com breaks down all of One Direction's solo endeavors.

Zayn Malik

Soon after his sudden departure from the group in 2015, Zayn Malik signed with RCA Records. His debut album, Mind of Mine, came out on March 25, 2016 — exactly one year after he left the band.

Mind of Mine sees Malik in a new musical direction, leaning into his R&B roots and soulful voice while also taking a more risqué approach in his songwriting. Despite the stark difference, the album topped several charts upon debut, including the U.S. and the U.K., even helping Malik become the first British male singer to top the Billboard 200 with his first album. (Lead single "Pillowtalk" also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the first time a U.K. artist topped the chart with their first single.)

Malik quickly proved to be a sought-after collaborator, with Chris Brown, Snakehips and M.I.A. all recruiting him for singles in 2016. At the end of that year, he issued his biggest collab to date, "I Don't Wanna Live Forever" with Taylor Swift for the Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack. The song scored Malik his second massive hit on the Hot 100, peaking at No. 2.

As fans eagerly awaited his second album, Malik delivered two more major collabs, "Still Got Time" featuring PartyNextDoor and "Dusk Till Dawn" with Sia. After facing several delays, Icarus Falls arrived in December 2018. Comprising 27 songs across two disks, the album featured six singles ("Let Me," "Entertainer," "Sour Diesel," "Too Much" featuring Timbaland, "Fingers," "No Candle No Light" featuring Nicki Minaj), though none had the impact of "Pillowtalk." 

After working on a few other collaborations — including a cover of "A Whole New World" with Zhavia Ward for 2019's Aladdin remake — Malik's third studio album, the utterly-personal Nobody Is Listening, came out in 2021. He teased the project through singles "Better" and "Vibez," and designed the album artwork himself. Later that year, he shared a now-deleted Dropbox link to Yellow Tape — a collection of three controversial hip-hop songs that showed another side of his musicality.

Malik has also been an influential name in fashion, modeling for brands like Versace and Penshoppe, and designing his own product lines for Giuseppe Zanotti and Versus (Versace). He also wrote an autobiography in 2016, Zayn. 

Though he has been fairly quiet in 2022 and 2023, Malik has shared photos from the studio, and hopped on a posthumous remix of Jimi Hendrix's "Angel" last year. And while he's eight years removed from 1D, he hasn't completely forgotten his time in the band — even sharing an instantly viral clip of him singing his fan-favorite note from "You & I" in 2022. 

Niall Horan

Niall Horan signed with Capitol Records and released his first solo single, "This Town," in September 2016. Followed by "Slow Hands," and "Too Much to Ask," Horan released his debut LP, Flicker, in October 2017 — just as "Slow Hands" hit No. 1 on Billboard's Pop Airplay and Adult Pop Airplay charts. A mix of soft rock and straightforward pop, the album helped Horan become the third 1D member in a row to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart (after Malik and Styles, more on the latter later).

In support of the release, Horan embarked on two world tours: Flicker Sessions, which started in August 2017 and was held in smaller, intimate venues, and 2018's Flicker World Tour, which featured 82 shows across North and Latin America, Europe, Oceania, and Asia.

Horan's second studio album, Heartbreak Weather, led by single "Nice to Meet Ya," came out in March 2020 and topped the charts in the U.K. and Ireland, while reaching number four in the U.S. However, the COVID-19 pandemic stalled his ambitious touring plans, and he decided to use his downtime for collaboration. He teamed up with Anne-Marie for two singles, "Our Song" and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere," and hopped on a version of Ashe's "Moral of the Story," But perhaps his most beloved collab is with his best friend Lewis Capaldi — a bromance that started with Horan's admiration for the singer and developed into live performances together, plenty of interactions on social media, and a Guinness-sponsored TV special, Homecoming: The Road to Mullingar, out in 2022.

In early 2023, Horan became a judge on NBC's "The Voice," and recently confirmed his return to the next season of the show this fall. Two weeks after wrapping his first "Voice" season, Horan released his third studio album, The Show, on June 9. A fruitful experimentation of folk melodies and modern synths, it showcases how much his songwriting has matured since Heartbreak Weather.

Horan will perform at festivals across Europe and Asia in 2023, including Lollapalooza Paris and Summer Sonic Tokyo. He'll kick off The Show: Live on Tour in his native Ireland in February 2024, and will hit cities in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and North America through July 2024.

Louis Tomlinson

Louis Tomlinson was the biggest contributor to One Direction's songwriting, with credits on over 30 songs in their discography. His passion for music production extended to an auxiliary participation on 2015's "The X Factor," which in 2018 turned into a fixed position as a judge and winning mentor on the fifteenth series of the show.

As for Tomlinson's own solo music, he made his debut with the Steve Aoki-assisted single "Just Hold On" in December of 2016. Before releasing his debut LP, Walls, in January of 2020, the singer focused on collaborations and singles. Through a pop-punk verve, Tomlinson began to establish his own post-1D style with singles like 2017's "Just Like You" and the minimalistic "Back To You" with Bebe Rexha — his biggest hit to date, with more than 1 billion combined streams on Spotify and YouTube. Some other singles, like the touching tribute to his late mother, "Two of Us," and the rock-edged "Kill My Mind," were included in Walls.

In 2021, he created and curated The Away From Home Festival, a one-day festival first held in London that year and followed by a 2022 edition in Malaga. In 2023, the event will return for its third run in August at Lido di Camaiore, Italy. Among the lineup are UK rising indie names like Blossoms and The Cribs. 

Tomlinson's second album, Faith in The Future, was released at the end of 2022 and peaked at No. 1 in the U.K., marking his first top-charting album in the country as a soloist. Supported by singles "Bigger Than Me," "Out of My System," and "Silver Tongues," it furthered Tomlinson's explorations into indie rock and Britpop. 

In March of 2023, Tomlinson released All Of Those Voices, a soul-baring documentary where he talked about his fears upon One Direction's hiatus, grief, fatherhood, and the struggles of fame. Currently, Tomlinson is on a World Tour through North America, U.K., and Europe. 

Harry Styles

After signing with Columbia Records, Harry Styles made his solo debut in April 2017 with the power ballad "Sign of the Times." One month later, his eponymous debut album came to life. A commercial and critical success, it topped charts in several countries upon release, including the U.S. and the U.K album tallies.

From the get-go, Styles' solo appeal was apparent. After immediately selling out his first run of solo shows that fall, he plotted a world tour playing arenas in 2018 — all of which sold out. That success translated to the release of his second album, 2019's Fine Line. The album's first-week sales were the biggest ever for a British male soloist since 1991, when Nielsen began tracking sales electronically.

While singles "Adore You" and "Falling" had solid traction, it was "Watermelon Sugar" that solidified his place as a solo superstar. Not only did the track earn Styles his first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100, but it also won the singer his first GRAMMY in 2021 (for Best Pop Solo Performance).

Then came the lauded Harry's House, the album that cemented Styles as a vanguard artist and performer. Lead single "As It Was" foreshadowed the gargantuan success that was to come, topping the Hot 100 for 15 weeks — the longest-running U.S. No. 1 by a U.K. artist. Harry's House debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and was the fourth best-selling album of 2022 with more than 2 million equivalent album units. The album also went on to win Best Pop Vocal Album and the coveted Album Of The Year at the 2023 GRAMMYs.

Styles's ongoing sold-out Love On Tour, which started in 2021 in support of both Fine Line and Harry's House, has also set unprecedented records. Last year, he held mini-residencies in both Los Angeles's Kia Forum and New York's Madison Square Garden, and became the third musical artist to earn a MSG banner after selling out 15 consecutive nights at the venue. 

Styles has also made an impact through his daring fashion sense, modeling for brands like Gucci and becoming the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue in 2019. He has also ventured into acting, appearing in movies like 2017's Dunkirk and 2022's Don't Worry Darling and My Policeman.

Liam Payne

Credited as one of One Direction's main songwriters, Liam Payne started to venture into his own musicality by remixing tracks back in 2014, under the aliases "Payno" and "Big Payno." He signed with Republic Records in October 2016, unveiling his debut solo single, "Strip That Down" (featuring Migos' Quavo) in May 2017. With lyrics that reinforced his new journey ("You know I used to be in 1D"), the track peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100 and spent two weeks atop Billboard's Pop Airplay chart.

Marked by collaborations with artists that range from Rita Ora ("For You", off of Fifty Shades Freed's soundtrack), to A Boogie wit da Hoodie ("Stack It Up"), to J Balvin ("Familiar"), Payne's solo career is one of 1D's most diverse, exploring genres that go from hip-hop to electronic music.

After a 2018 EP, First Time, Payne dropped his debut studio album, the long-awaited LP1, in December 2019. Including all of his previous singles, the record is a portrait of the singer's prolificness and versatility. 

While he has been less active musically in recent years, Payne delivered another dance collab in 2020 ( "Midnight" with Alesso), a couple of Christmas tracks (including the Dixie D'Amelio team-up "Naughty List,"), and a song for the 2021 animated movie Ron's Gone Wrong,  "Sunshine." Outside of music, Payne was also named the first global ambassador for fashion brand Hugo Boss, and designed two of their capsule collections. In a recent interview with iFL TV, Payne mentioned working on a new album for 2023.

It’s still unclear when the much-awaited One Direction reunion will happen, but the quintet's individual forays continue to bloom, and exciting opportunities lie ahead for each of the members. Through their diverse repertoire and newfound artistries — from Styles's buoyant strikes to Tomlinson's rock affinities — one thing is certain: the 1D members might follow multiple directions now, but they aren't stopping anytime soon. 

Harry Styles' Sonic Evolution: How He Grew From Teen Pop Idol To Ever-Evolving Superstar