“I gotta go to back to the United States tomorrow,” Yungblud said to boos from the sold-out Coca-Cola Coliseum Saturday night in Toronto. “I don’t think I fookin’ wanna go back to the United States. Does anybody in Toronto wanna kidnap me?”
He fookin’ well knows the answer.
And maybe, right now, the 28-year-old British rocker with the thick Yorkshire accent is having pancakes and maple syrup or a peameal bacon sandwich in some cozy Canadian home because on Sunday he postponed the next two US dates, Columbus and Indianapolis, “due to unforeseen circumstances.” Of course, it’s more likely he has to rest his voice after his North American Idols Tour kicked-off on May 1 outside at Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre, in freezing weather with periods of snow and sleet.
Fortunately, he seemed in fine form in Toronto, giving his all, vocally and physically, leaping and strutting about the stage and taking in all the adoration from close to 6,900 people.
Yungblud was last in Toronto in September for an “underplay” — a venue far smaller than he should be playing — at the 1400-capacity Danforth Music Hall. “Fookin’ madness,” as he would say.
The singer-guitarist, whose real name is Dominic Harrison, put out his debut album, 21st Century Liability, in 2018, then Weird in 2020, but has been rising in popularity the past couple of years, since his eponymously titled album in 2022, building what he calls “a community,” of people, like him, who grew up feeling different, a bit of a misfit. His latest release is last summer’s Idols.
His fans are called the Yungblud Army and they are enamoured, loyal and fanatical — mostly female, but there’s a growing number of male fans, and grizzly old rockers, especially since Yungblud aced his appearance at the 2025 Black Sabbath’s Back to the Beginning tribute concert with his rendition of the ballad “Changes.” This year, he won a Grammy Award for it, another career milestone.
It also helps that he was tight with the late Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne — who appeared with wife Sharon in Yungblud’s “Funeral” video — and has more rock royalty, Aerosmith, on his nine-minute single “Hello Heaven, Hello,” which the band reciprocated by having Yungblud on the collab “My Only Angel.”
As one gentleman wrote on YouTube, under the video for the former, “Ozzy brought me here. I’m 57 and this is the best classic rock song I’ve heard in years. This guy is a star.”
On the weekend, Universal Music Canada held a two-day pop-up in Liberty Village where a couple of thousand fans came through to buy exclusive merch, write messages in the digital zine, hear messages from Yungblud in a British phone booth installation, and sample his tour snack, a bacon sandwich, with tea (courtesy of Fox & John’s).
Another 100 fans got permanent tattoos, the first 50 people each day, picking between roman numerals, horns or a small chain.
Artist Mike Echlin, who goes by Spazz, a partner in Cult Collective Tattoos, which did the tattooing, told NOW, “Everyone couldn’t have been nicer and so hyped for the show. Mostly from out of town. Mid-twenties to 50ish. Lots of women together — friends and mates — barely any men. They were all massive fans and couldn’t wait to get a tattoo that represented him.”
The Coliseum setlist and sequence was virtually the same as at the Danforth: “Hello Heaven, Hello,” “The Funeral,” “Idols Pt. 1,” “Lovesick Lullaby,” “My Only Angel,” “fleabag,” “Lowlife,” “Changes, ” and “Fire,” but then he added in “War,” which he said “we don’t play very often” (at the Danforth it was “Tin Pan Boy” and “braindead!”), and the same closers, “Loner, “Ghosts” and “Zombie,” but adding in “Suburban Requiem” to close the set.
Dressed in his trademark black leather pants, he still tossed off his black vest first chance he got — the first song — got people to first punch or wave their hands in the air, implored the crowd to go crazy or mad, gave a few near moons, just to increase the swooning. And the lights were frequently up so he could soak it all in. For a guy who long felt like an outsider, it’s probably feels insane to have all these people go nuts for you.
What was different? The bigger stage, the bigger crowd, the bigger backdrop, the bigger band (a unisex seven-piece including two violinists) — and pyro. What rocker doesn’t seize on that opportunity for fiery flash pots and explosions once venues get bigger?
The set was about 15 minutes longer than the Danforth, but he still pulled someone up onstage during “fleabag.” This time, it was a guy from Ottawa, Jack Blain, according to internet sleuths, who held his own on guitar and was up there for the entire song. Yungblud gave him a cigarette and a red rose. Yungblud also did he customary standing straight up on the hands of the crowd then crowd surfing back to the stage.
The frontman with as much charm as he does energy, recognizes the importance of his fans. One man, noticing me scribbling notes, told me his partner’s daughter works for Yungblud and that he is the nicest man to his staff. It’s unfortunate that that has be said. Fame shouldn’t be an excuse to treat people poorly, but for some it is.
And as if to reinforce what the stranger said, after the show ended at 11 p.m., the house lights were up and people were filtering out of the venue, Yungblud unexpectedly came back out, hopped down off the stage, said hellos, signed stuff, slapped some hands, waved and thanked people.
