Lola Young Artistfacts

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Lola Young Artistfacts

January 4, 2001
Lola Young is a British singer-songwriter whose music combines soul, R&B, and pop. She is deeply involved in the songwriting process, often exploring themes of vulnerability, self-discovery, and empowerment in her music.
Lola Young was born in Croydon, south London, to an English mother and a Jamaican-Chinese father. Her father was a professional bass player, and music was always a part of her household. From a young age, her mother recognized her musical talent and enrolled her in piano, guitar, and singing lessons at age 6.
She wrote her first song, a Christmas tune on piano, at 9. "I remember thinking, 'God, I can write a f---ing song? This is lit,'" Young recalled to Notion.

"I had a pretty good grounding in music, I used to look for stuff I liked constantly," Young added. "Prince, Michael Jackson, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu were my favorites."
Young honed her craft at the prestigious BRIT School, which has produced stars like Adele and Amy Winehouse. It was at the BRIT School that Young realized she loved being in the studio. "I was like, you know what? I could do this – I could create, and I could make people feel things through music," she told The Guardian. "If I can record a take 1,000 times, maybe this is me."
Island Records signed Young at 18 and she released her debut album, Intro, the same year.
Lola Young covered Philip Oakey and Giorgio Moroder's "Together in Electric Dreams" with a slowed down arrangement for the 2021 John Lewis Christmas advert.
Young was nominated for the Brit Award for Rising Star in 2021 and placed fourth in the BBC Sound of 2022.
In 2024, she featured on Tyler, the Creator's song "Like Him," which gave Young her first entry on the Hot 100. The following week, she charted in the UK for the first time with her song "Messy."
Young has been open about her battle with schizoaffective disorder, and she uses her platform to raise awareness. She was diagnosed in 2018 when she was 17, but didn't go public until 2022 with a post on Instagram. She says she experiences "crazy highs" and also "immense lows," sometimes at the same time.
Her go-to drinks at the pub are a Pina Colada or a dark rum and Coke. If you're making tea for Lola, it's milk, no sugar, please.
Lola Young is the great-niece of Julia Donaldson, the celebrated author of children's picture book The Gruffalo.
When Lola Young played The Half Moon in Putney, Nick Shymansky, the manager who discovered Amy Winehouse, was in the audience. That night he so taken by Young's voice and character that he came out of retirement to manage her. "I didn't actually want to go back into it, I thought I was done," he told Music Week.
As her star rose, she battled cocaine addiction. It came to a head at the end of 2024 when she entered rehab while her song "Messy" was blowing up. Some of the tracks on her 2025 album I'm Only F--king Myself address the topic, including "Not Like That Anymore" and "Dealer."
Young reached a breaking point on September 27, 2025 when she collapsed on stage while performing at a festival in New York City. She took about two months off to recover, making a grand return at the Grammy Awards on February 2, 2025, where she won Best Pop Solo Performance for "Messy."

Young blames the collapse on pushing herself too hard and not properly dealing with a cocaine addiction. "I chose to hurt myself and self-sabotage," she told Rolling Stone. "And I also chose to get onstage and perform."

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