Yungblud now considers himself a part of the LGBTQ community
The recipient of the Attitude Gamechanger Award says his queer fans and ex-girlfriend Halsey helped open his eyes to his own sexuality.
Yungblud credits his LGBTQ fans for helping him to figure out his own sexuality, as he collects the Gamechanger Award at the 2020 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar.
Britain’s biggest pop-punk star, real name Dominic Harrison, says he has learnt so much from the community, and now feels comfortable describing himself as pansexual and polyamorous.
“I probably would say now, I am polyamorous. Before I didn’t f***ing know what I was,” he starts. “I was meeting people and learning… by meeting them and talking about sexuality and gender, I [was] going, ‘Oh my f***ing God, maybe I’m this, if I’m going to be f***ing close to anything on the spectrum.’”
Attitude Gamechanger Award winner Yunglud opens up about his sexuality in the Attitude Awards issue (Photography: Zoe McConnell)
In a characteristically frank interview in the Attitude Awards issue, out to download and to order globally from 1 December, Dom – who previously labelled his sexual leanings as “more straight… [but] I’m very fluid about it” – proclaims that “everything has f***ing changed.”
“I’m still quite weird about going, ‘This is what I am,’ to the world because I’ve never really said it,” he admits. “I was excited about this interview to talk about that.”
Asked if he now considers himself to be a part of the LGBTQ community, the ‘Cotton Candy’ hitmaker responds: “I know it’s such a massive statement to me, but probably, yeah, I think I would. I haven’t said that yet because I don’t want some mad article everywhere going: ‘Yungblud comes out as f***ing pan[sexual]!’
“I wasn’t into that idea – like, my sexuality is mine and I’m proud of it. But, as I say, I probably would say that, yeah, because I f***ing don’t know, I love everyone, I’m attracted to everyone.”
Dom – who headlined Attitude’s ninth annual awards ceremony at the Roundhouse in London, with three electric performances – adds that he has experimented and “hooked up” with men.
“I’ve never dated someone publicly who’s a guy, but I’ve definitely f***ing like hooked up with people and been into it and loved it,” he says. “What’s crazy is, I didn’t preconceive that, but when that happened, I was like, ‘Oh!’ and it’s confusing because you’re like, ‘Holy s***, you’re beautiful and I f***ing had a great time and it’s magic.”
Yungblud wears top by Feng Chen Wang, shirt by Dsquared2, belt worn across the body by Moschino, beret by Underground (Photography: Zoe McConnell)
“You’ve got to lose yourself in a load of people to figure who you are sexually… f*** me, bruv, two years [ago], I f***ing hated olives, now I love olives!”
The 23-year-old Doncaster lad used to date bisexual American singer Halsey, and he stresses that he “owe[s] a lot to that girl, in terms of my growth and my sexuality, in terms of everything.”
“She taught me so much, even about my sexuality,” he insists. “The conversations we would have at night, she has such knowledge because she’s been openly bisexual for years… it’s so funny when you’re dating someone, yet [you] owe them a lot towards your sexuality; even though she is not a man, she made me go, ‘Oh my God, I probably like am into that.’”
“I met someone, and she changed my whole perception of what love could be. It didn’t work out in the end because we’re better as friends and I think that’s what it was – we’re, kind of, very the same, so that was weird for us.”
Shaking up the music business with his anarchic spirit and gender stereotypes-smashing style, Dom represents all the ‘misfits’ out there, and he reveals that his upcoming album, weird! (released 4 December), features a song called ‘mars’ (out now), which is directly inspired by a touching encounter with a trans fan he met at a show in Maryland, America.
“Her parents didn’t want to, or didn’t have any desire to accept her, or accept the idea that she had never been their son, she’d in fact been their daughter, and she was their daughter and always had been… She said that it got to a point where her dad was like, ‘You have a f***ing dick, you’re not a girl, you’re a boy,’ and she was, like – it was eating her up because her mum and dad didn’t understand, [and] school was hard,” he recalls.
(Photography: Markus Bidaux)
He continues: “She was, like, ‘If I get [my] parents to this show, it might change something’… She saved up and her parents came, they saw the kids and other kids like her, and everyone just uplifting each other for being who they were, and she said they took her for a burger afterwards and they accepted her for what she wanted to do, and they accepted her as their daughter.”
“They realised that it wasn’t a phase, that their daughter wasn’t a freak or a nutcase, or need locking up in a psychiatric ward… It was insane to think that something we did changed someone’s existence,” Dom muses. “I wanted the song to be this peace of – no matter who you are, if you feel like you’re living on another planet, there’s oxygen there.”
Watch the 2020 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, powered by Jaguar on YouTube now.
The Attitude Awards issue featuring all 14 winners will be available from 1 December to download and to order globally.
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