The sanguine present of Rock’n’Roll: Yungblud concert

Yungblud’s Idols Tour ends in Italy, one of the countries that believed in Dominic Harrison’s artistic path from the beginning. The event is double and therefore more special than usual: an intimate first evening at the Magazzini Generali in Milan, on 30 October, and the grand finale at the ChorusLife Arena in Bergamo, on the coveted Halloween evening.

Idols: Up Close and Personal

Let’s start from the Magazzini and what should have been one of the few special events last June, with the “In Conversation With” format. A series of four evenings, strategically called “experiences”, which were supposed to pamper the public with intimate encounters and at the same time promote this new phase of the Doncaster artist’s career in style.
However, the Milanese date was postponed due to that perfect storm which in the future will certainly be remembered as the definitive turning point for Yungblud: Ozzy Osbourne strongly wanted him on stage at Villa Park in Birmingham for “Back to the Beginning”, Black Sabbath’s farewell concert. His cover of “Changes” went around the world, conquering some metalheads and some hard and pure rockers (against some new haters in proportional balance) and causing people to talk insistently about “passing the baton”. The rest, as they say, is history.

The recovery of the special date takes place the evening before the final show of the tour. The result, however, is a strange dichotomy: on the one hand you have the feeling of having an even rarer and unique opportunity, because in the meantime Yungblud has actually made a further leap into global stardom; on the other hand, the entire content of the showcase loses its bite. In June there would have been the absolute freshness of the newly released songs, the preview of a documentary not yet officially announced and the sensation of seeing with one’s own eyes an artistic change in full swing. In October all this is already consolidated and the Dominic who goes on stage, in an elegant black suit and a red carpet smile, is already the consolidated evolution of the self that a few years ago won over the “weirdos” all over Italy.

He compensates with the live preview of “Wild Woman”, the new single taken from the EP written with Aerosmith which is soon to be released, but also with great emotion and gratitude, everything he has always reserved for what he defines as “his Italian family”. Cries, thanks, promises. He responds with passion to every question collected in advance from the public and finally puts together a short, very composed set, with an attitude that is almost too well-groomed to be exhaustively representative of his world, but which tastes like a simple gourmet appetizer of what is to come.

Idols World Tour – The grand finale

However, if we want an answer to the question that has been resounding for months – is Yungblud the true contemporary rock star? – should at least be looked for at the ChorusLife Arena in Bergamo, on 31 October 2025. Not in poses, not in interviews, not in podcasts. Live, on stage, Yungblud’s natural habitat.
Putting aside the pretentiousness of the question itself, it is undeniable that the English artist has given new vigor to the rotting topic of rock dying, not dying or resurrecting. It’s no longer just boomers with their horns raised, millennial rappers who want to set a tone or bands born in the wrong decade who talk about rock and its styles. With more credibility than our Måneskin and with more mainstream appeal than the New York Geese, Yungblud is gathering several generations under the banner of the most discussed genre of all time. To do this it takes a bit of everything, because it combines the ambition of sacred monsters with the awareness of those who know their time well. For better or for worse.

The chatter, however, stops when you have to deal with “Hello Heaven, Hello”, Yungblud’s rock opera which in its nine-odd minutes lays the foundations for a new beginning from which Dominic seems to already be building an empire. Live the song is even more extraordinary, so much so that it gives the impression of witnessing the consolidation of a new generational anthem. Something that doesn’t happen very often anymore and perhaps this is also why it’s so electrifying.
The other new songs confirm the intentions expressed by Dominic and confirmed by the common feeling: that “Idols” is a new debut rather than a fourth album. It has its vitality and urgency, which comes through loud and clear even live. So much so that the artist was forced to leave only the essential pieces from the first three albums in the setlist, all singles, perhaps because the rest would risk being disfigured. The result is a very solid set list, a premature greatest hits without surprises in which the double title track and the super ballad “Zombie” stand out.

“My Only Angel”, a single featuring Aerosmith, was also good. Even better was his cover of Black Sabbath’s “Changes,” which he promised to play at every concert for the rest of his life. A moment of dutiful tribute to his “godfather”, mentor and friend Ozzy Osbourne who, before leaving us, wanted to place an important seal on their bond, born well before last summer but consolidated in an investiture impossible to ignore.

Phenomenology of a star

“My name is Yungblud and I’m fucking crazy,” is the mantra of the evening. All proven: the madness that erupts from his eyes is uncontainable. Brazen, dynamite, rough, sometimes annoyingly theatrical. He doesn’t care about criticism and doesn’t seem willing to mask his narcissism to please refined palates. What for many are plastic poses, for him are visceral expression. What for many is forced eclecticism, for him is a liberating movement. It seems he has also learned to casually manage the burden that comes from being the spokesperson for the “different” and the marginalized, a sort of Gerard Way for Gen Z, with even more attention to inclusiveness and, precisely for this reason, exposed to accusations of appropriation, of obsessive search for consensus. Also in this case the phenomenon and the artist meet and clash in a dichotomy which, rather than representing a limit, seems to become a definition.

And who, more than almost anyone else in the world, has grasped and welcomed these contradictions with devotion? The Italian public, which believed in Yungblud from the beginning and gave rise to a fandom that is still a point of reference for the project today, becoming a fundamental piece of a star’s phenomenology. “I will always return to Italy, forever, you are my family”. A potential cliché that coming out of his mouth seems so true that it warms even the most cynical hearts.

To those who accuse Yungblud of being a poser and a marketing product, he responds with a capital concert. Without LED walls, without visuals, without scenography. He doesn’t even fall into the temptation of using the Halloween occasion to go overboard with glam. He just brings a great band, some flames, his (increasingly) powerful voice and unparalleled physicality to the stage. In addition to a repertoire that must necessarily be taken increasingly seriously.
So it doesn’t matter whether Yungblud is or isn’t the definitive contemporary rock star, what matters is that this boy is part of the sanguine present of Rock’n’Roll.