Lola Young: This unapologetically messy young star is bound for glory

Telegraph

04-03-2025

Her name is Lola, and she's a very modern kind of showgirl. Sashaying about the stage all shaggy black hair and blonde highlights, 24-year-old pop star Lola Young commanded a loudly enthusiastic crowd at London's O2 Forum with rude energy. She belted out her witty songs like a particularly tuneful foghorn and gabbled in breaks with the Cockney exuberance of an excitable new barmaid at the Queen Vic. She actually managed to stumble over her own name in her introduction, declaring 'If you've evah bin to a Yola Lung … er, Lola Young show before you know how it goes: it's a f---ing shambles!'
Young has been bubbling under for longer than might seem likely in one still so, er, young. She signed with Island records in 2019 and has been building a loyal following without actually troubling the charts. She broke through last year with her 20 th single release, the inescapable smash Messy, when it went viral on TikTok. It has just spent four weeks at No 1 and has become her trademark anthem. You might have seen her at the Brit awards last weekend, performing her hit in tartan pyjamas whilst throwing laundry and detergent around the stage. The trials of being a messy human prone to poor relationship choices and serious mental health issues is her chosen subject matter.
Young is actually very exciting, her maverick charisma bringing passion to the often over-controlled presentation of modern live pop music. Her spirited performance in Kentish Town on Monday night was reinforced by a slick five-piece band of beardy men (three of whom write and produce the songs with Young) playing like they dreamed of being in a 90s alt-rock band rather than a 21 st century digital pop ensemble. Sure, there were thick synths and hints of processed drums, but at times there were also three electric guitars wigging out as Young belted out songs of bad relationships, bad behaviour and bad moods.
In another era, Young might have been a particularly tuneful punk, but the Brit school graduate has tailored her considerable talents to a streaming environment that favours misfit women singing smart bangers dissecting the mores of modern dating.
For all the upbeat joy of her melodies, such relentlessly miserabilist lyrics as Wish You Were Dead, Conceited and Don't Hate Me might make you wonder if she really needs fame and fortune or a good therapist. It is as if Young is rudely pushing the self-absorption implicit in Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish's forensic love songs to their limit. Morrissey might grasp the appeal of a crowd exuberantly roaring out a lyric like 'A thousand people I could be for you – and you hate the f---ing lot.'
The Forum is not an arena, it is a stepping stone venue, and there remain questions about how Young can negotiate the next even bigger steps. The noisy intensity of her 2,300-strong twentysomething audience was impressive. Her songwriting craft is sharp. Her passion is not in doubt, albeit over-excitement causes her to talk so fast it can be hard to understand what she is saying.
I wonder if the US (where Messy reached number 14 last year) is ready for such a sweary, sweaty, rocky, unapologetically messy and in its own way very British take on a genre of glittery angst pop currently dominated by much more glamorous and self-controlled US drama queens? There's enough of Amy Winehouse and Adele about Young to suggest that she could go down a storm. Let's hope she doesn't mess it up.