Dominic Richard Harrison (born 5 August 1997), known professionally as Yungblud (stylized in all caps), is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. In 2018, he released his debut EP, Yungblud, followed by the full-length album 21st Century Liability shortly after. The following year, Yungblud released another EP, The Underrated Youth. His second album, Weird!, was released in late 2020 and peaked atop the UK Albums Chart, and reached number 75 on the US Billboard 200.
Early life
Dominic Richard Harrison was born on 5 August 1997, in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, to parents Samantha Harrison and Justin Harrison. He studied at Arts Educational Schools, London and appeared in Emmerdale and The Lodge before beginning his music career.
Career
2017–2018: Yungblud
On 7 April 2017, Harrison released his debut single “King Charles”, which Tenement TV branded “a protest song for the disenfranchised working classes”, along with a music video for it on YouTube, On 15 September 2017, he released “I Love You, Will You Marry Me”, he explained to Triple J the song is “a comment on corporate companies trying to make money out of something as precious as love”. On 10 November 2017, he released “Tin Pan Boy”, a song about the construction project on Tin Pan Alley, a musical hotspot place in London; in January 2017, a deal was sealed to refurbish new buildings within the area. On 13 December 2017, he released the music video on YouTube. On 19 January 2018, Harrison released his debut EP, Yungblud (stylised in all caps) through UK indie label Locomotion Recordings, the EP features the previously released singles “King Charles”, “I Love You, Will You Marry Me” and “Tin Pan Boy”.
2018–2019: 21st Century Liability and The Underrated Youth
Harrison performing at Rock im Park in 2018
On 19 January 2018, he released “Polygraph Eyes” from the EP, a song about sexual assault against girls; speaking to PILERATS, he explained “I used to go out in the north at 14 with a fake ID, and see these drunk girls stumbling out of nightclubs with boys that weren’t nearly as drunk as they were…I didn’t realise that it was wrong until I’d grown up, until I moved down to London and saw the world from a real perspective.”. Speaking to Harper’s Bazaar, he stated that “it needs to be spoken about from a male perspective, to dilute and smash the shit of this lad mentality that’s been so vastly accepted.”. He released the lyric video for the single on 20 February 2018 to YouTube. From 12 to 30 March 2018, he supported K.Flay on her “Everywhere Is Somewhere” tour.
On 14 March 2018, he released the music video for “Polygraph Eyes” to YouTube. On 10 May 2018, he announced that “Tin Pan Boy”, from the EP, and “Falling Skies” featuring Charlotte Lawrence would be on Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why Soundtrack for Season 2, and on 18 May 2018, the soundtrack for 13 Reasons Why was released. On 28 May 2018, he released a visualiser video, featuring him and Lawrence on a couch with special effects in the background, on YouTube for “Falling Skies”. On 14 August, he released the official music video featuring Lawrence for the song on YouTube. On 6 July, Harrison released his follow up LP, 21st Century Liability. On 10 August he released an EP, containing seven acoustic versions of songs from 21st Century Liability, called Yungblud (Unplugged) (with his name stylised in all caps). From 20 September 2018 to 20 April 2019 (Paaspop Festival ended the tour) he toured for his debut album, with Arrested Youth joining his American dates and Carlie Hanson joining the UK and Europe dates.
On 17 January 2019, he released the single “Loner” along with the music video to YouTube. “Loner” was co-written by Harrison with Karl Michael, Matt Schwartz, and Robbie McDade. On 14 February 2019, he released the single “11 Minutes” with Halsey and Travis Barker, a song that “tells the story of a perfect tragedy that reflects modern love within our society”. The music video premiered on YouTube 21 February 2019. He released his first live album Yungblud (Live in Atlanta) (with his name stylised in all caps) 22 March 2019. On 3 May 2019, he began his “Don’t Wanna Be a Loner” tour, the tour concluded with mostly festivals, ending 31 August 2019. “Parents”, originally titled “Parents Ain’t Always Right” was the first single released from The Underrated Youth EP. It was released 24 May 2019, and described by Yungblud as “A tribute to individualism”, stating “You are the best judge of how to become the best you. Don’t conform to the outside world’s perception of who you should be if it means losing yourself in the process”. “I Think I’m Okay” (stylised as “I Think I’m OKAY”) was released by Machine Gun Kelly, Harrison, and Travis Barker on 7 June 2019, the music video was released 14 June 2019. On 23 July 2019 he attended the premiere for Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw. On 26 July 2019, the soundtrack was released, the first song on the soundtrack is his cover of Jim Croce’s “Time in a Bottle”. On 29 July 2019, the single “Hope For the Underrated Youth” premiered on BBC Radio 1 during Annie Mac’s Future Sounds as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World.
On 18 August 2019, he announced the single “Die a Little” along with a release date for 23 August 2019. On 24 September 2019, the music video for “Hope For the Underrated Youth”, directed by Andrew Sandler, premiered on YouTube. “Original Me” featuring Dan Reynolds from Imagine Dragons, was announced by both artists on 4 October 2019, through their social media and was released 8 October 2019. On 9 October 2019, Harrison announced via Twitter that a video for “Original Me” would be released. The video premiered to YouTube 10 October 2019. “The Underrated Youth” EP was originally scheduled for release 11 October 2019, however, Harrison pushed back the date, asking his fans for more time on the EP because an unspecified song was not right. He later confirmed the song to be “Casual Sabotage” while tattooing a fan. The EP was then officially released 18 October 2019. Harrison announced on 17 May 2019 he was releasing a comic book entitled “Twisted Tales of the Ritalin Club”, which he had been working on for a year prior to the announcement. He partnered with Z2 Comics for the release of the comic book, the deluxe version was made available to purchase from their site only and the regular version of the comic book was made available to purchase from Amazon, as well as other places afterwards. He attended MCM Comic Con on 25 October 2019, he did a Q&A with fans, talked about upcoming projects and signed copies of his graphic novel.
Harrison and Reynolds announced on 21 October 2019 that they would be performing “Original Me” on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. On 31 October 2019 he premiered the music video, also directed by Andrew Sandler, for “Die a Little” on YouTube, stating “realizing and accepting the dark part of your mind that is trying to get out”, “People who don’t understand what you are going through will try to interfere and generalize what you’re feeling. That can end up with them getting as hurt as you. This video is a call out to take mental health seriously”. The song appeared on the soundtrack for the third season of 13 Reasons Why, making it the third time a song written and performed by him is on the 13 Reasons Why soundtrack.
In an interview with Capital FM, Blackbear revealed that he had a collaboration with Harrison and Marshmello. The collaboration was revealed to be a song called “Tongue Tied” and was announced to be released 13 November. “Tongue Tied” was released 13 November alongside the music video, starring Joey King, on YouTube.
2019–2020: Weird!
He was nominated for four NME awards: “Best British Solo Act”, “Best Music Video” for “Original Me”, “Best Solo Act in the World” and “Best Collaboration” also for “Original Me”. He won “Best Music Video” for “Original Me”. On 4 March 2020, Harrison announced he cancelled his Asia tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Coachella’s organisers then announced that they postponed the music festival from April to October also due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After his shows got cancelled, he came up with the Yungblud show, so he could give his fans a concert experience.
On 22 April 2020, he released “Weird!”
On 16 July “Strawberry Lipstick” was released. Weird!, originally set to be released on 13 November 2020, got pushed back to 4 December 2020.
2021-present: YB3
On 9 January 2021, he participated in the online event “A Bowie Celebration: Just for One Day”, covering David Bowie’s “Life on Mars?”. On 18 February 2021, the live cover was chosen as a soundtrack for NASA’s Perseverance rover landing on Mars.
Influences
Harrison cites rock, pop, and hip hop artists such as: Arctic Monkeys and Alex Turner, The Beatles, The Cure and Robert Smith, Nirvana, The Clash, Soundgarden, My Chemical Romance, Marilyn Manson, Lady Gaga, Lorde, Post Malone, Kanye West and Eminem as influences .
Activism
On 24 March 2018, Yungblud attended the March For Our Lives rally, a student-led demonstration rally against gun violence, and live-streamed the event.
On 30 May 2020, Yungblud attended the George Floyd protests for Black Lives Matter in California. He and Halsey helped give first aid to some of the protesters.
Personal life
Health issues
Harrison was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age, which made him a troublesome student. He was suspended from school after a dare from his friend to “moon” his maths teacher. In August 2018, he admitted through a tweet that he suffers from insomnia. In February 2020, he spoke to the Evening Standard and admitted that he had attempted suicide twice after going through a series of positive and negative events in his career.
Relationships and sexuality
He described himself as sexually fluid in an interview with Attitude Magazine in August 2019. In another interview with the magazine in December 2020, he described himself as pansexual and polyamorous.
He was in a relationship with American singer Halsey for several months; Halsey confirmed their breakup in October 2019. Almost a year later, on Jessie Ware’s Table Manners Podcast, in November 2020, Yungblud stated they broke up because they worked better as friends.
Discography
- 21st Century Liability (2018)
- Weird! (2020)
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Emmerdale | Matt | 1 episode |
| 2016 | The Lodge | Oz | 6 episodes |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | MTV PUSH: Ones to Watch | N/A | Himself | Won |
| 2019 | NME Awards | Best Music Video | “Original Me” (ft. Dan Reynolds) | Won |
| Best British Solo Act | Himself | Nominated | ||
| Best Solo Act in the World | Himself | |||
| Best Collaboration | “Original Me” (ft. Dan Reynolds) | |||
| 2020 | MTV Europe Music Awards | Best New Act | Himself | Nominated |
| Best Push Act | Won | |||
| Attitude Awards | Gamechanger | Won | ||
| 2021 | Brit Awards | British Male Solo Artist | Pending |