Boyish good looks, a smooth, melodic voice, tightly choreographed dance moves and vertiginous, perfectly styled hair: Hrvy is the whole pop star package. Little wonder, then, that in the short years since his track “Personal” exploded on YouTube in 2017, the 21-year-old singer-songwriter has amassed an army of fans (4.8 million on Instagram alone), while his latest pop dance banger “Me Because Of You” featured on the winter edition of Love Island. Just think of him as Britain's answer to Shawn Mendes or a gen-Z Justin Bieber.

Hrvy, aka Harvey Leigh Cantwell, started his career as a TV presenter, has since toured with acts as varied as The Vamps and Little Mix and regularly collaborates with other artists. By far the most notable of all these has to be last year's “Don't Need Your Love” with South Korean boy band NCT Dream, which, with 20m streams on YouTube, is one of their most popular videos. Now, Hrvy's gearing up to release new material, so GQ took the opportunity to sit down and find out more his first times.

The first time you realised you wanted to be a musician…

Probably when I was 13 and all my mates were playing football. I couldn't play to save my life and I thought, “This definitely ain't for me.” So, I went back home and was trying to find something I loved doing and I realised music was the thing that I loved. I started singing covers, but on my own because I was embarrassed. Then I started recording them, but not putting them anywhere, but my friends found them and told me to put them on Facebook. So I posted them and it kind of went from there.

The first time you played in front of a live audience…

My first real proper show was when I was 15, it was supporting Jessie J for the first time and it was in a stadium. So I went from singing in my kitchen, playing in front of no one, to playing in front of a massive, massive crowd. They said I could only do one song and we ended up doing a big mash-up that lasted like seven minutes.

The first time you went viral…

The first time I went “proper” viral was when I was 16 and I posted a singing video of me doing “Titanium” on Facebook. At the time it got 250,000 likes, but the views were like millions and millions strong. It was crazy, I was getting DMs from people all around the world for the first time and I just thought it was incredible.

The first time you got silly drunk...

When I was 15, could’ve been 16, underage, I know, but if we’re being honest… It was in my house, so a safe environment, I was with my two other mates and we found a bottle of Baileys and other spirits. We were trying to do shots, but the Baileys tasted disgusting – I just thought that’s how Baileys tasted and that’s just how alcohol tasted. Can’t remember the night, was sick all over my carpets. My mum came down the next morning and we had to strip the living room and redo the carpets. Turns out the Baileys was six or seven years out of date, and it's got milk in it, so it curdled. That was the reason why I was so violently ill on top of me being so drunk and never to this day have I gotten that drunk, ever. That still haunts me.

The first time you fell properly in love…

I don’t know if I have been properly in love. Yeah, if I’m being honest, I don’t think I’ve ever properly been in love. I might’ve been “kind of” in love.

The first time you met NCT Dream…

I met them before we did the track. I went to South Korea and management set it up. I actually ended up getting on with all of them. They were all really cool. Renjun was probably the strongest English speaker, so I got along with him really well, because I could have a lot more conversation with him. But they were all really, really cool guys and it was just such a sick time. I am a Dreamy now, I love them. I always have.

The first time you were given any real excellent advice…

Probably from Shawn Mendes when he was telling me to warm up every single day. Do it in the shower, because it's when your voice is most loose.

Your first teenage celebrity crush was…

Miranda Cosgrove. I used to love her show, iCarly, and I always wanted to be on the internet because of her. I used to do my own little iCarly show in my bedroom, thinking I was like a big internet star.

The first time you made money out of your music…

When I was 15 and I signed my first record deal, they gave me a little advance and I thought I was balling.

The first time you blew your paycheque frivolously…

Last year, I got my mum a Louis Vuitton handbag and purse and I thought that was really cute, and then recently my car.

The first time a politician made you mad…

Well, I would say Trump. But also the whole Brexit thing because it has made it a lot harder for me to be able to travel around Europe and do tours. So that's annoyed me a lot.

The first piece of merch you ever created…

On The Vamps tour, which was the first time I had designed merch properly. We couldn’t come up with a design, so I went into my notes and I drew “This is my merch – HRVY”, screenshotted it, sent it to them and they took it. That was my first proper merch and that’s what it said: “This is my merch” in my handwriting. I thought it was quite genius actually, I'm not going to lie.

The first time you met a fan IRL…

It would have been when I was 15, in my local shopping mall, Bluewater. I’m normally in the food court, right next to KFC. That’s where a lot of the young kids used to hang out. I remember walking in there and suddenly getting quite a lot of attention.

The first time you won at anything…

Year Six sports day. My mum's got a video somewhere. It was some kind of short-distance sprint, not quite 100 metres because we were only eleven. I was so happy.

The first record you ever bought…

Every Christmas I’d get all of the Now!s. I can’t remember which exact Now! was my first, but I loved them because they had so many different songs on. My first would have featured Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears – people like that.

The first thing you’d do if you became prime minister…

Take away Brexit.

Head to GQ's Vero channel to see HRVY's TV, book, film and music recommendations, plus his favourite spot in London. Follow GQ on Vero for exclusive music content and commentary, all the latest music lifestyle news and insider access into the GQ world, from behind-the-scenes insight to recommendations from our editors and high-profile talent.

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