Harry Styles addressed “queerbaiting” allegations, by kissing Ben Marshall during his SNL opening monologue.
The 32-year-old singer – who was host and musical guest for Saturday’s (14.03.26) show - addressed criticism that he has indulged in “queerbaiting”, which the Oxford English dictionary describes as “the practice of trying to attract LGBTQ+ audiences or customers in a deceptive or superficial way”.
Harry said: “People seemed to pay a lot of attention to the clothes I was wearing and some people accused me of something called ‘queerbaiting.’ But did it ever occur to you: You don’t know everything about me, Dad! I ran it past him, he was fine with it.”
Harry insisted that any confusion comes from his love of kissing.
He went on: “What’s better than kissing all the time? Which I don’t actually do - I don’t kiss all the time. Sometimes, kissing can be great, you know, if you’re really good at it, and you’re a good person.”
As Marshall appeared on stage, Styles continued: “Or if you have a tight little bum. C’mon, Ben, everyone knows there’s nothing little about that thang. You’re holding damn wagon back there.”
He added: “Whatever, come here,” before leaning in for a kiss with Marshall and telling the audience: “Now that’s queerbaiting.”
During his opening monologue, Harry also addressed speculation about the sexual meaning in his songs and insisted he just really “likes sex”.
He said: “I finished my last tour in 2023, and after that I took a bunch of time off. I’d spent half my life in music, touring, creating albums and making songs about fruit that people think are about sex. I just really like fruit, guys. I like sex too.
So, when you’re on holiday, it’s like five in the afternoon, you’re all covered in sand, you and your partner are all sweaty and hot, and you stumble back to the room and you just wanna… papaya.”
And, Harry told the audience how he used AI to come up with the title for his new album Kiss All The Time, Disco Occasionally.
He said: “I did a prompt on ChatGPT that said, ‘Give me the most Italian phrase to ever exist,’ and it came back with Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally.”
