After a brief intro following Yungblud around the dimly lit underground recording location, the singer finds himself in front of a mic, strumming his guitar before the lights are raised to show the rest of a four piece band behind him, all visibly playing their instruments and without a backup dancer in sight. The authenticity of Yungblud’s music and performance is certainly a strong factor in is appeal and something which his audience likely values very highly.

Although one of the lesser know singles from Yungblud’s ‘weird!’ album released December 2020, ‘mars,’ has become a cult favourite amongst his fans with the official video reaching over 3.5 million views on Youtube since its upload on the 27th of November, shortly before the album release.

Despite all of the difficulties that musicians have faced in 2020, Yungblud has gone above and beyond to make the year a success, from hosting his own chat show to producing hit singles and profoundly impactful music videos which force listeners and viewers to call everything into question and challenge deeply held beliefs. The hard work has paid off and in December 2020 Yungblud achieved his first ever UK number one album when ‘weird!’ has finally released after months of mounting excitement amongst fans.

 The wave of success following the release of ‘weird!’ has placed Yungblud on a firmly upward trajectory and he has found him self in demand for TV appearances on some of the biggest shows out there, from New Years Eve performing ‘Cotton Candy,’ live on Top of the Pops, surely a dream that appearance any young musician has entertained at one time or another, to performances on hit shows like Kimmel’s over in the states where his audience also seems to be growing.

Although many of us had hoped that life in the UK would be starting to go back to normal for the New Year, we are instead looking at another three months of lockdown which means no gigs until the spring at least. Fortunately Yungblud, like many other British artists such as Dua Lipa who’s ‘Future Nostalgia,’ album has now been out for more than a year now with no tour, seem to have foreseen this and postponed any gigs in 2021 until the summer.

There does of course remain a large question mark over the status of live music in the government’s priorities for 2021 with many large festivals seeking government funding to make their events possible this summer, for the time being all we can hope for is that this year will indeed see the return of live music to hour shores where it has been so sorely missed.

After only being available as an iTunes exclusive until 2016, the album became available as a limited-edition CD that could only be purchased on the bands website. As an early Christmas gift, the band selflessly made their holiday tunes public without any social-media announcement or incentives to promote their newest album, Imploding The Mirage.

Don’t Waste Your Wishes features 10 tracks. The most popular singles off the album include Joel The Lump of Coal, Dirty Sledding and the cover of I’ll Be Home For Christmas which features Ned Humphrey Hanson.

This year, the most powerful track goes to Christmas in LA, which is fitting for the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic as it deals with isolation and mental-health during the holiday season. Another single which is in keeping with the times would be ¡Happy Birthday Guadalupe!, featuring Wild Light and Mariachi el Bronx; it deals with politics surrounding boarder control.

There are many famous faces to appear in the music videos and in the recordings of these singles including Jimmy Kimmel, Elton John, Richard Dreyfuss and Owen Wilson. Many of the actors contributed by starring in the music video, like short films.

Christmas is nigh, Covid-19 continues to surge, but The Killers have released Don’t Waste Your Wishes at the very moment when joy and cheer are needed most throughout the UK. Nevertheless, fans can repay this early stocking-gift by ordering tickets for the upcoming The Killers tour in the spring and summer of 2021.

Don’t Waste Your Wishes Tracklist:

01. A Great Big Sled (feat. Toni Halliday)
02. Don’t Shoot Me Santa (feat. Ryan Pardey)
03. Joseph, Better You Than Me” (feat. Elton John and Neil Tennant)
04. ¡Happy Birthday Guadalupe! (feat. Wild Light and Mariachi el Bronx)
05. Boots
06. The Cowboys Christmas Ball
07. I Feel It in My Bones (feat. Ryan Pardey)
08. Christmas in L.A. (feat. Dawes)
09. Joel the Lump of Coal (feat. Jimmy Kimmel)
10. Dirt Sledding (feat. Ryan Pardey and Richard Dreyfus)
11. I’ll Be Home for Christmas (feat. Ned Humphrey Hansen)

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Franchise T™️ 1

A post shared by M.I.A. (@miamatangi) on Oct 5, 2020 at 2:48pm PDT

2020 marks a return to music for M.I.A, who has in recent years been focussing on her political activism. The 45 year old musician is vocal in critiquing the Sri Lankan government and has provided much aid to those suffering within the country. Her music is often politically charged. For instance, Paper Planes was a comment on the prejudices and stereotypes that people have toward immigrants.

The catchy chorus ‘All I wanna do is [bang bang bang bang]// And a [click ka-ching]] And take your money’ is an example of M.I.A’s lyrical ability to use irony in making commentary about social issues. Her input on Franchise is, however, not quite so serious.

Her verse sees her rapping: ‘Golf buggy, Kawasaki// Catch a fish, sushi, maki// livin’life// London city, left the town (Ah)// Thug and Travis be the fam’. These slightly random lyrics have been criticised by listeners, to the point of someone starting a change.org petition to have M.I.A’s verse removed from the track!

Others have jumped to her defence, commenting on her Instagram: ‘MIA your verse was good, don’t let the haters get to you!’ and ‘…her verse was the only good thing in this song’. Regardless of the controversy, it is good to hear new music from M.I.A, who surely deserves the No.1 spot after all this time.

On another note, M.I.A’s biopic – an intimate documentary made up of hundreds of hours of personal footage of her – is coming to Netflix later this month. It is titled MATANGI/ MAYA/ M.I.A in reference to the several facets of her identity.

Matangi is her Sri Lankan birth name that was replaced with Maya when she and her family moved to England because ‘people had a hard time pronouncing it at school’. M.I.A, of course, is her musical moniker. The documentary is hitting Netflix screens on October 15th, so be sure to check it out if you want to find out more about M.I.A and her achievements.