2020s teen heartthrob ‘Yungblud’ was given the opportunity to sing a few songs on BBC’s acclaimed Radio One. In addition to his own material, he decided to share a cover of the Verve’s classic 1997 hit “Bittersweet Symphony”. One could say he rose to the occasion as he was backed by an entire orchestra with a  complete string section, two keyboardists and two guitars including his own. Yungblud matches this army of session musicians by giving the most decadent and dramatic vocal performance he can muster. 

Ultimately, the cover matches the pomp and melodrama of the original song and maybe even manages to take it a step further. According to NME, Yungblud said of the cover “I think we really wanted to try and make something classic, and give it that thing that’s five-dimensional with emotion. And this song… honestly, I feel so lucky we get to play this on [the] radio right now. I can’t believe it.” Only time will tell, if this appearance will reach the stature Yungblud would like to see it achieve but he definitely managed to produce a piece of work that is absolutely dripping with emotion. 

This appearance was part of a scheme to promote his upcoming album Idols which is dropping in two parts, the first of which is set to release June 20th. Yungblud clearly feels very confident about the new direction he’s taking his music in as he said in the same interview with NME “It’ll be a great ‘Urban Hymns’ or ’Screamadelica’. I know the old dudes are going to leather me in the comments for that, but I don’t give a fuck because I’m going to go there. If you listen to it, then it’s that from a new perspective.” And we all know nothing says ‘I dont give a fuck’ like preempting criticism of your album before it’s even out. To find out if Yungblud is trending in the direction of the classic artists he wants to emulate check out his cover here: