Yungblud, the chart-topping singer who set up his own festival, has said he has considered becoming a politician.
The 27-year-old artist – whose real name is Dominic Richard Harrison – said he wanted to “provide some good somewhere” in future, having worked with fans in recent years to make gigs more affordable.
“This whole community was built on human connection, about how people live and what people struggle with,” he told BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
Asked if he had thought about going further by entering politics, he said: “I have actually thought about that, I know it’s crazy… I think that has actually crossed my mind – Yungblud the politician.”
Last year, he launched his own festival, BludFest, in Milton Keynes, which was criticised by some after long queues and a lack of water caused fans to pass out and miss the concert.
With tickets sold for £73.25 for this year’s festival in the Buckinghamshire city, Yungblud said he felt more expensive events had become “a thing of privilege” that “do not represent real people”.
“I cannot play a festival where it’s like 800 quid a ticket,” he said, adding that artists like Coldplay were welcome to join the event.
The pop-punk musician, known for songs including Cotton Candy and Fleabag, has had two number one albums in the UK chart with Weird! in 2020 and his self-titled album in 2022.
But in the interview, he reflected on how difficult it was to be a young person today with “so much anger” and hate in the comments of social media videos.
Asked what his hardest moment had been, he said: “I’ll never forget, someone came to me in a pub in east London and just was like, ‘your music is terrible and I don’t believe you and I hate it’.”
He said he was left feeling “like a wounded animal” where you “try and lick yourself and bring yourself back to it”.
Whereas back then, aged 22, he responded with a tentative “oh, yeah, cool like”, now he feels confident not to “give them the power of a reaction”.
Ahead of the release next month of his new album, Idols, he said one of the themes behind it was to “embrace my masculinity, which is a crazy thing to say in 2025”.
“Honestly I am so proud of what we’ve created,” he said of his young fanbase.
