Yungblud’s cover of ‘Life On Mars’ played during NASA Mars landing
Yungblud’s cover of David Bowie’s ‘Life On Mars’ was played as NASA completed its latest Mars landing.
The space agency’s Perseverance rover descended on the Red Planet earlier today (February 18) on a mission to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples for analysis back on Earth.
A livestream on NASA’s YouTube channel tracked the rover’s journey, with employees from the organisation giving insights on the risks involved with the mission and more. When the rover landed successfully, they played Yungblud’s version of Bowie’s classic song.
Speaking on BBC’s The One Show earlier tonight, the musician shared how he found out that he would be soundtracking the landing. “First of all, I am as ready as a rabbit on Easter,” he said. “I love space so I am here for it. I remember my 23-year-old manager rings me on the phone. It was late cos he’s in LA and it must have been midnight cos I’d had a couple of beers, so I was already kind of out there.
“He’s like, ‘Yo, I just got off the phone with NASA’. I’m like, ‘Alright, yeah cool, what’s it about? You leaving me to go be an astronaut?’”
“No you idiot, it’s about you!”
The moment @yungblud found out @NASA had chosen his cover of David Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars’ to play when the rover lands tonight. ?
LIVE now ?https://t.co/7SULCJZe0U #TheOneShow pic.twitter.com/rgtaIKLTZs
— BBC The One Show (@BBCTheOneShow) February 18, 2021
He continued: “He said, ‘No you idiot, it’s about you! If the Mars rover lands successfully, they’re gonna play your cover of your favourite artist of all time, David Bowie, alongside it. I’m just like, ‘Nah man’, that just sounds like someone is just completely off their head telling you a mad story.
“It’s completely unfathomable. Someone needs to slap me so I’ll wake up.”
You can watch NASA’s livestream above, with Yungblud’s cover at the very end of the video.
Meanwhile, the musician’s podcast has pulled in a record amount of young listeners on BBC Sounds.
The Yungblud Podcast, which launched last October, has the biggest proportion of under-35 listeners on the app. It features “one-on-one conversations with young people about what is going on in the world right now”, Yungblud said when announcing it last year.