Harry Styles has hinted he is about to end his four-year musical drought, with a series of cryptic billboards appearing in cities around the world including New York, Manchester, Palermo, São Paulo and Berlin.

The posters bear the message “we belong together” superimposed over a photo of a stadium of fans, taken from the last date of Styles’ 2022-23 world tour.

A website with the same branding launched simultaneously. Clicking on the page opens a WhatsApp group chat called “HSHQ” – Harry Styles Headquarters.

Fans believe that all this activity points to Styles gearing up to announce his fourth album, after a brief detour into marathon running last year.

The star, who was propelled to fame as part of One Direction, was spotted at both the Tokyo and Berlin Marathons last year – clocking up an impressive time of 2 hours 59 minutes in the latter race in September.

He was also seen in St. Peter’s Square for the announcement of the new pope and then, according to the Mirror, with actress Zoe Kravitz in his Cheshire hometown over Christmas.

But he is believed to have been working on new music since his Love On Tour concerts wrapped up three years ago.

The new album would be his first since 2022’s Brit and Grammy Award-winning Harry’s House, which spawned singles As It Was, Late Night Talking and Music For A Sushi Restaurant.

Sessions for the record were initially confirmed in August 2024, when Styles was seen arriving at London’s RAK Studios.

Last year, Australian radio hosts Fifi, Fev and Nick claimed it was finished and that Styles wrote it entirely “on a typewriter” – although their sources seemed dubious, at best.

The New York Post has also reported that Styles has signed a deal for a residency at the city’s iconic Madison Square Garden, where he played for 15 nights on his most recent tour.

There have also been rumours that the star will play a residency at Manchester’s Co-op Live arena. Styles is a significant investor in the venue, which opened in 2024 and will host this year’s Brit Awards.

Styles first hinted at his comeback on 27 December, when he posted an eight-minute video on YouTube, titled Forever, Forever.

The clip began with fans preparing for the final date of his world tour, which took place in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in July 2023.

They were shown practicing dance moves and exchanging friendship bracelets outside the stadium, but also shedding tears as they prepared to say goodbye to their idol.

“Some sadness because it is the last show… then he will disappear,” one fan said.

“We won’t see him dancing on stages anymore,” added another.

The video then cut to Styles on stage, sitting at a piano wearing a sparkly open vest and matching trousers.

“I wrote this for you,” he said in Italian, before launching into a moving instrumental ballad that he had written especially for the occasion.

As he ended the performance and waved “grazie” to his fans, the words We Belong Together flashed up on the screen – tying the video directly to the new poster campaign.

The phrase “we belong together” feels very in character for Styles – who launched his last album with the slogan “treat people with kindness”.

It’s also the name of a Mariah Carey song, so maybe he’s been training to hit her infamous whistle notes in his time off?

Either way, fans are ravenous for more information.

“It’s happening?!” said one, kicking off a long discussion on a Reddit forum dedicated to Styles.

There, people speculated that a new logo – 12 arrows emanating from the centre of a circle – could mean there will be 12 tracks on the new record.

Some of the posters also carry extra text, which could be song titles or lyrics.

Among them are “let the light in” (Berlin), “it’s all waiting there” (Naples) and “here we go again” (Manchester).

Nothing has been confirmed yet – and there’s always the possibility that Styles is simply teasing the release of a concert film.

Whatever happens, though, fans are ready.