The past year has felt especially momentous for women in pop. Beyond the continuing triumphs of Taylor and Beyoncé, there have been a few newly enormous breakouts including Charli XCX, Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter. Then there’s Lola Young, who seems poised to join their ranks in the very near future.
The British singer-songwriter released her third album, This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway, in June, and arrives in Australia this month following a heavy run of shows across the USA and the UK. Momentum has been building by the day for the gritty-voiced 23-year-old, who collected celebrity endorsements left, right and centre in 2024.
Snoop Dogg posted videos of Young singing to his Instagram and claimed he wanted to sign her to his legendary Death Row Records. Lily Allen is a fan, as are Childish Gambino and SZA, and in the first week of November, Young announced a couple of new tracks with two of the biggest names in hip-hop – her own Charlie, featuring Lil Yachty, and Tyler, the Creator’s Like Him, on which she contributes vocals.
“A lot of rappers are digging what I do, which is kind of crazy because I wouldn’t expect them to like me,” says Young backstage at New York’s Webster Hall, ahead of her sold-out show in September. “But when you dig into more of my music, you start getting the hip-hop influence.”
You can hear it, slightly, on tracks like Walk on By, with its smouldering funk guitars and muggy synths, or in the twanging chords of Conceited. But I’d wager Young is connecting with a broad spectrum of big names for the same reasons she’s winning over so many regular fans. Her songcraft is excellent, and she’s a raw and real presence on and off the stage – mouthy, unfiltered, very funny, and highly relatable.
In one of her best songs to date, the suddenly everywhere TikTok smash Messy, she challenges a lover to embrace her imperfections: “OK, so yeah, I smoke like a chimney, I’m not skinny and I pull a Britney every other week. But cut me some slack, who do you want me to be?” Young sings.
The London-based artist has enjoyed moderate success in the UK for a few years now. In 2021, she was nominated for a Rising Star award at the Brits and did a lovely cover of Together in Electric Dreams that was used in a Christmas ad for the John Lewis department store. She placed fourth in BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2022 forecast, and has been releasing a string of high-quality albums and EPs since 2019, when she was just 18.
Nick Huggett, who used to manage Adele, is one of Young’s managers; the other is Amy Winehouse’s former manager, Nick Shymansky, who says he was immediately taken by the charismatic teen when he saw her at a showcase. “I could tell it wasn’t going to be an easy gig,” says Shymansky, grinning at Young as he makes himself a coffee, “but I also knew Lola was incredible the first time I saw her. I’d been running away from management, honestly. But it’s been an amazing journey.”
Young’s husky, rich voice and (often caustic) lyrical candour have drawn comparisons to both Winehouse and Adele, but on previous albums her personality still felt slightly out of focus, like her blurry image on the cover of 2023’s underrated My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely, a beguiling collection of languid pop and R&B.
All that changed when she had her hair chopped into a mullet early last year and moved towards musical arrangements that were similarly punkish and unruly. Bringing in Los Angeles-based producer Solomonophonic to work alongside her longtime production partners Manuka was key, Young says.
“He’s the best, weirdest, most annoying, difficult, incredible person you’ll ever meet,” she enthuses. “I couldn’t believe I met someone with a bigger personality than me.” Solomonophonic is best known for helping Remi Wolf carve out her own groovy, soulful sound, and he’s done the same here with Young, opting for atypical, scuzzy funk and rock flourishes that provide a compelling counterpart to Young’s fiery vocals.
“The direct lyricism and the unambiguous nature of the songs, contrasted with a hip-hop groove, I think that’s what hits a bit different,” says Young, adding that it was a conscious decision to pivot away from more conventional pop structures on the new record. “I intentionally wanted to do certain things that felt a bit weird and quirky and not so on-the-nose.”
‘If it [fame] would have happened a couple of years ago, I would have been f—ed.’
The bluesy intro of Wish You Were Dead is immediately arresting, but the snarling chorus demands the presence of a rock star and Young slips into the role with ease and conviction. Big Brown Eyes, a scornful tribute to a toxic lover, bristles with even more puckish energy, opening with the indelible line, “You can eat shit” and working towards a blistering, cathartic chorus.
The more straight-up blues rock of Conceited is aimed at yet another guy (the same guy?) who has an unduly high opinion of himself. Indeed, most of Young’s songs hew to two main themes: dysfunctional sex and lust-fuelled relationships and her own mental health, about which she has spoken and sang openly for years now.
Young has a rare mental condition called schizoaffective disorder, in which sufferers are prone to experience symptoms of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder such as bipolar or depression. Young has experienced bouts of mania and psychosis, which she describes as “f—ing horrible”, but she’s come to view her disorder as her superpower.
“When I’m manic, I can write a song in like, five minutes,” she says, confessing that her latest album was largely written in the midst of a manic episode. In a gentle guitar ballad called Intrusive Thoughts, she speaks to that experience directly, grappling with and eventually making peace with the voices that “scream inside my head”. At their worst, Young sings, these thoughts might drive suicidal impulses or convince her that her friends are trying to kill her.
Her honesty about her condition has attracted a lot of gratitude from fans, but Young says the volume and heaviness of the messages can feel overwhelming at times. “I get messages probably every hour, like really intense, long, paragraphs,” she says. “And it’s beautiful and heartwarming but I also sometimes can’t bring myself to read them.”
Knowing that her vulnerability is helping others “is why I do this and why I always have”, Young says, but it’s still a trip to hear that she has changed some of her fans’ lives, or even saved them. “I can’t quite believe that I touch people like that,” she says. “I don’t really feel like I’m doing anything different or special, I’m just being me.”
I wonder if stars like Chappell Roan, who cancelled shows this year feeling overwhelmed, make Young feel more comfortable about making similar decisions if need be. “Chappell Roan’s in a different league right now,” says Young. “I’m on my way, hopefully, to that position, and if I really need to cancel a show, I will. But I don’t think I’m quite there yet.”
Maintaining good mental health can be a challenge for any travelling musician, particularly when you throw in the temptations of the touring lifestyle, but Young describes the past few weeks in the US, including a gig at Lollapalooza, as among the best days of her life. “If I’m in a good place, I can usually power through,” she says. “By the end of the tour, I’m going to be exhausted, but this is what I signed up for, and I feel really good right now.”
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Things are about to get more intense, in a good way, if Young has her way. She confesses that she’s dreamt of reaching superstar status since she was a little kid. “I’ve never lied about that, either – I think some people want to be more modest but that’s what I’ve aspired towards my whole life,” she says, naming Avril Lavigne, Amy Winehouse and Eminem as acts whose successes she wanted to emulate as a child.
She says she’s unbothered by the prospect of being hounded by the paparazzi, viewing fame as the inevitable by-product of a job well done. And who better to steer her towards that goal than the former managers of Adele and Winehouse, who know all too well that they must protect their young protege while nurturing her ambition.
“If it [fame] would have happened a couple of years ago, I would have been f—ed,” Young says. “But I’m 23 now and I’m in a position where if it happens in a couple of years, I’ll be ready for it.”
Lola Young is playing Wildlands, Lost Paradise and Beyond the Valley festivals from December 28 to January 1, and at Metro Theatre in Sydney on January 8 and Max Watts in Melbourne on January 9.
