6 October 2026 is the 10 year mark for when History Maker by DEAN FUJIOKA first blessed our ears with the release of Yuri!!! on Ice episode 1.
Yes I said blessed, and I mean it. This song has never once failed to motivate and inspire me. With the ten-year milestone announcements rolling in, I couldn’t resist putting this tribute together.
This soaring opening theme serves as a mirror to Yuri Katsuki’s journey, a competitive figure skater weighed down by anxiety, self-doubt, and the sting of a crushing defeat at the Grand Prix Final. Yuri’s story is one of quiet struggle: a genuinely talented skater who has convinced himself he isn’t enough, even as everyone around him can see his potential. Through his bond with Victor Nikiforov, a legendary skater turned coach who sees in Yuri something Yuri can’t yet see in himself, and his rivalry-turned-friendship with the younger Yuri Plisetsky, Katsuki gradually reclaims his confidence and his place on the ice. “History Maker” echoes this transformation perfectly, capturing that exact moment when self-doubt gives way to self-belief, and a skater realises he was born to make his mark.
As the opening theme, “History Maker” sets the emotional tone for the whole series before a single blade even touches the ice. Its melody builds with the same anticipation as a competitor waiting in the wings, and DEAN FUJIOKA delivers the vocals, sung entirely in English, with a sincerity and warmth that made it an instant standout in the anime opening space. Ten years on, it remains one of the most recognisable and beloved openings in anime, still capable of giving us fans chills the moment those first notes hit.
- Lyricist: DEAN FUJIOKA
- Composed by: Dean Fujioka・Taro Umebayashi・Taku Matsushiba
- Released: October 2016
The Song:
The Lyrics to History Maker by DEAN FUJIOKA:
Can you hear my heartbeat?
Tired of feeling, never enough
I close my eyes and tell myself that my dreams will come true
There’ll be no more darkness
when you believe in yourself you are unstoppable
Where your destiny lies, dancing on the blades, you set my heart on fire
Don’t stop us now, the moment of truth
We were born to make history
We’ll make it happen, we’ll turn it around
Yes, we were born to make history
Born to make history
Born-born-born to make history
Don’t stop us now, the moment of truth
We were born to make history
We’ll make it happen, we’ll turn it around
Yes, we were born to make history
We were born to make history
Yes, we were born to make history
Lyrics pulled from Yuri!!! on Ice Wiki.
Why History Maker Still Inspires 10 Years Later
A decade later, “History Maker” still lands because it never stops speaking to a handful of things everyone recognises in themselves:
- Self-doubt: The song starts from a place of exhaustion, that “tired, never enough” honesty that mirrors exactly where Yuri begins, burnt out, uncertain, questioning whether he still belongs on the ice.
- Believing in yourself: Its central promise, that you become unstoppable the moment you trust yourself, tracks Yuri’s slow shift from self-criticism to quiet confidence across the series.
- Ambition: The song’s drive and momentum echo the hunger to compete at the highest level without losing sight of why you started in the first place.
- Competition: It captures the tension of stepping out knowing everything is on the line, the same pressure Yuri faces at every competition throughout the show.
- Transformation: This isn’t just a song about winning; it’s about becoming someone new through the struggle, which is exactly the arc Yuri undergoes from the first episode to the last.
- Yuri’s emotional journey: Pull all of the above together and you get a song that essentially narrates Yuri’s story before it even begins, which is probably why it still hits just as hard on a tenth re-watch as it did on the first.
But strip away the skates and the ice rink, and “History Maker” still holds up as a song for anyone chasing something that scares them, it’s why it still has a solid place in my playlist.
You don’t need to be a competitive athlete for its message about self-doubt and unstoppable belief to land; it works just as well for a job interview, an exam, a first day at something new, or any moment when you’re not sure you’re enough yet. And perhaps that’s why it has lasted, Yuri’s struggle may play out on a skating rink, but the feeling is universal.
That’s really the secret to its staying power: it was written for a fictional skater, but it speaks to anyone standing at the edge of their own version of the ice, wondering if they’re ready to jump.
What do you think of the song History Maker?
If you haven’t watched Yuri!!! on Ice yet, I highly recommend giving it a chance. It’s a beautiful, heartfelt story about anxiety, ambition on and off the ice, that still holds up a decade later.
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