It’s a Sin | HBO Max Originals

Olly Alexander is the fearless frontman of Years & Years.

Across their two widely-acclaimed albums to date, Years & Years have taken their place as one of the biggest and most-loved pop bands in the world. On debut record ‘Communion’, and its avant-garde follow-up ‘Palo Santo’ – the band become one of the UK’s most unique crossover-stories: see 5 BRIT Award nominations, numerous sold-out global tours, festival-topping sets, and triumphant homecoming shows at London’s O2 and Wembley Arena.

Along the way, Olly has simultaneously emerged as one of the most culturally-important new voices, and a once-in-a-generation frontman. His brave, unwavering and inspiring open-mindedness has helped a generation start important discussions around mental health and LGBTQ+ issues. This has been marked by number of stand-out moments, ranging from Alexander’s defiant speech at Glastonbury in 2016 in the wake of events in Orlando to his BBC Documentary ‘Olly Alexander: Growing Up Gay’, and the dizzyingly creative world around ‘Palo Santo’ (a record that arrived with an ambitious short film starring Judi Dench and Ben Whishaw.)  Years & Years push boundaries by challenging notions of identity and sexuality in a way that is new to pop music, and totally their own.

In 2019 the band played Glastonbury’s legendary Pyramid stage and were hailed as ‘‘win[ing] Glastonbury.” The powerful set included a ‘police invasion’ to highlight countries where it’s still not ok to be gay, screens displaying real life homophobic comments directed at Olly  and topped off with an empowering speech about LGBTQ+ history: “The only reason I’m able to be up here, is because of all the people that have come before me, that have fought for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”

Years & Years headlined LA Pride in 2019 and played at NYC Pride in 2017.

Olly leads the cast of Russell T Davies’ 1980s-set drama ‘IT’S A SIN’ (which also stars Neil Patrick Harris, Stephen Fry and Keeley Hawes) and is due to air in the coming months on Channel 4 and HBO Max. The 5-part series charts the joy and heartbreak of four friends growing up in the shadow of AIDS.

Years & Years will release new music in 2021.