why can't I connect to mysql via PHP?

I created a user in PHPMyAdmin

CREATE USER 'username'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY  '***';

GRANT SELECT , 
INSERT ,

UPDATE ,
DELETE ,
FILE ON * . * TO  'username'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY  '***' WITH MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_UPDATES_PER_HOUR 0 MAX_USER_CONNECTIONS 0 ;

then attempted to connect with

<?php
$link = mysql_connect('localhost', 'username', 'password');
if (!$link) {
    die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
echo 'Connected successfully';
mysql_close($link);
?>

but I get

Could not connect: Access denied for user 'username'@'localhost' (using password: YES)

What am I doing wrong?