Olly Alexander’s Years & Years Perform ‘Starstruck’ on ‘Corden’

Years & Years, Olly Alexander’s musical project, appeared on The Late Late Show perform his recent single “Starstruck.” The stylish virtual performance features the singer getting out of bed and taking the track from a greenhouse to a garden to the stage.

Accompanied by several backup singers, Alexander gives the upbeat pop song a music-video vibe, complete with choreography and set changes. It evokes the singer’s recent video for “Starstruck,” which he dropped earlier this month.

“Like most of us, I’ve spent the past year at home, and I wanted to create something super positive and fun for people (and myself) to bop along to… ‘Starstruck’ is about the rush you get when you’re with somebody you’re really into; it’s about holding onto a good feeling and not letting it go,” Alexander said in a statement. “Whatever we’re doing or wherever we are in life, I think we all deserve three minutes of interstellar ecstasy.”

Years & Years dropped their sophomore album, Palo Santo, in 2018, then as a trio, and the band now functions as a solo project for Alexander. The singer’s former bandmates, Emre Turkmen and Mikey Goldsworthy, have taken a hiatus from the project.

Alexander recently starred in the limited series It’s a Sin — set in London at the beginning of the AIDS pandemic — as Ritchie, an aspiring actor who enjoys his sexual liberation once he gets to college. The role inspired Alexander to want “to make a lot of upbeat, euphoric dance tunes.” The band also released a haunting cover of the Pet Shop Boys’ 1987 song “It’s a Sin,” inspired by the show.