Meet Eli Youngblood An Exceptional Athlete And Talented Song Writer

It takes an exceptional athlete with a unique level of dedication and a strong work ethic to be a successful two or three-sport athlete in high school. When it comes to 15-year-old Eli Youngblood, not only is he a starting mid-fielder for the Division 3A #10 ranked Castle Knights with 3 goals and 2 assists in 6 games, he also is a hip hop recording artist who has released his second single “Tough Love” on all streaming outlets.

At a young age, he learned that if he wanted to be good, or better yet, great at anything, that meant that he would have to dedicate many hours, hours that many other boys his age spend playing video games, watching Netflix or Hulu, or else spend on Social Media. To date, he has written over 320 songs already before the age of 16, many of which have gotten hundreds, if not thousands of views on Instagram and YouTube. His first single “Memory Lane” which was released on January 1, 2020, has garnered somewhere between 3,500-5,000 downloads and streams with no marketing and promotion except to friends and family.

The new single is different, however. “Tough Love” was produced by Billboard 2019 Top Christian Producer Riley Friesen who is also in Club Danger with over 4,000,000 on Spotify (Skillet, Mandisa, Brandon Heath, Building 429, etc.) and mastered by Grammy winner Nathan Dantzler (Toby Mac, Britt Nicole, Vince Gill, etc.), and with the help of former frontman of Family Force Five and current member of Club Danger, Derek Mount, being promoted to 70+ Spotify playlists. It’s a song about wanting an actual long-lasting connection with someone rather than the immature or quick relationships that often happen today. It talks about the price to pay for real love and the risks, insecurities, and failures you’ll have to conquer along the way.

Eli dreams of going to Belmont University, playing Division 1 soccer for them while studying the music industry. Currently, music is a difficult industry to be successful at, especially with the rise of streaming. It can also be an exciting time, especially since he can sit in his room, write and record a song, upload it, and get it in front of hundreds, thousands, maybe one day millions of people. Who knows if that will happen. But he loves what he is doing and is learning what it means to dream big and work hard.