Years & Years has released his cover of Lil Nas X‘s “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”, which you can listen to below.
Olly Alexander recorded a stripped-back acoustic version of the US artist’s hit 2021 single last summer as part of a ‘Home Session’ for Apple Music, as well as a fresh take on his own song “Starstruck”.
“A while back I made a lil cover of “Montero” by king @LilNasX and it’s now available across all streaming platforms,” Alexander wrote on social media to announce a full release of Years & Years’ take on the track today, July 15.
“When I first heard “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” I wanted to take off all my clothes and run screaming through the street,” Alexander explained previously about how the cover came about.
“The song is already perfect so I just wanted to have fun doing an acoustic version and seeing if I could sing all the parts in my range – which was a challenge, but I love it. Watching Lil Nas X’s ascent has been so exciting and inspirational to myself as a gay artist.”
Earlier this year, Alexander praised Lil Nas X for “completely changing the game” for LGBTQ artists during Years & Years’ NME Big Read Cover interview.
“I think there’s a ‘before Lil Nas X’ and an ‘after Lil Nas X’,” he explained “It’s so undeniable, the success he’s had, that it’s like the industry is now trying to catch up with [him].”
Years & Years, whose chart-topping third album Night Call came out in January, recently performed a set on the Other Stage at Glastonbury 2022.
Prior to the performance, Olly Alexander told NME: “I’m so lucky I get to do this. I get to express myself when I’m on stage and get to be this version of myself that’s bigger than who I am usually. He’s more flamboyant and more out there but it’s an expression of who I am inside. That’s a part of me and I get to do that on stage.
“I’m going to be myself, I’m going to be freakier!’ That’s what I hope because life is really difficult right now for so many different people and in so many different ways.”
Listen to the best of Years & Years on Apple Music and Spotify.