Lola Young live – return of a raw talent

Before she goes on stage, Lola Young reveals, she talks to herself in the mirror. There will be a different pep talk for each stop on the singer’s short UK tour. This evening’s “Manchester mantra” is long but moving, designed to calm her nerves and remind her of her focus. Young reads it off her phone, pausing only to roll her eyes at those who would have us put our devices down.

“When you open yourself up and share your very unique experience, remember that you are electric,” she says, “that there is a life force, a current running through you and, like water, it flows.” She focuses on her individuality: “You are the only person in this world who can keep your purpose alive, so cherish it, share it if you can.”

Affirmations might not be everyone’s thing, but these hit a nerve in the room tonight. Young – an exceptionally frank gen Z star – has been away for a while, and her fans are relieved to see her singing in front of a paying audience for just the second time after a very public low last autumn. This gooseflesh moment is soon broken by Young belting out One Thing, a frisky track from her most recent album about how the singer is only after one thing: “Break your bed – and then the sofa!” the crowd yells in unison.

Young is currently on a compact UK tour: four cities, five nights, plus one Radio 1 Big Weekend slot. It is intentionally compressed. Last September, Young, who has spoken openly about her troubles with addiction, pulled a much larger nationwide tour and a slew of north American and Mexican dates, after collapsing on stage in New York.

It was a very public indication that all was not well, despite Young having just released her hotly anticipated third album, I’m Only F**king Myself. The cover of the record features Young clutching a blow-up sex doll with her face on it. The title was both symptomatic of a breakup, and of her tendency to self-sabotage.

The hard stop came in the wake of a giddy ascent following her 2024 breakout track, Messy – tonight’s obvious encore – that made the leap from TikTok virality into a bona fide anthem. Its lyrics list complaints about a partner, but also touch on what a tricky customer Young herself can be – “I pull a Britney every other week,” she huffs – while defending her right to be cherished regardless.

Young is right about being a singular talent. In an age of chronic over-sharing, this unapologetic south Londoner has managed to find an entirely new extreme of candour in her work. Across three albums, Young has committed to revealing her torments and insecurities, while hilariously skewering the shortcomings of partners. She delivers her confessions in a throaty husk or conversationally; sometimes, as on Big Brown Eyes, with an agility almost like rapping.

Young also has a big-belting, musical theatre mode – the result of a Brit School education. But often, she sounds like a teenager on the top deck of the bus – unfiltered and off the cuff, though the craft in her work is plain.

Her second album, This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway, featured a plaintive track called Intrusive Thoughts, which bargained with her diagnosed schizoaffective disorder, pleading for her thoughts to “play nicely”. Wish You Were Dead described a grim row with a partner, blow by blow. But there’s no room for them tonight; Young’s concerns have moved on.

The newest track tonight is From Down Here, written in LA with James Blake. (Meanwhile Mustard, a Kendrick Lamar associate, is rumoured to be another writing partner involved in her next act.) Released last month, From Down Here is a rueful, unflinching track about missing the highs of drug use: “And I know it’s not right to long for parts of that life / But can I just reminisce tonight?”

Young, now 25, has been in rehab at least once; she wrote some of her previous album while undergoing treatment. (“I’m a dumb little addict, tryna quit the snowflake,” goes the killer track Not Like That Anymore.) After a social media message reassuring fans she was “doing OK” following the collapse, Young retreated from public and online life as debate raged about whether her schedule was too punishing, and who was to blame.

Young is managed by Nick Shymansky, who the singer has defended as being the adult in the room advising caution. Shymansky managed Amy Winehouse between 1999 and 2006, and is known for having issued an ultimatum to her to go to rehab. That ended with the two parting ways, and a denouement everyone knows all too well. Now, rehab or not, mental health breaks for music and sports talents are far more accepted.

The Messy singer got clean. After five months, Young reappeared in February to perform at the Grammy awards. She was presented with the best pop solo performance award by Charli XCX, another candid artist. At the Brits, she won breakthrough artist from a whopping five nominations.

Tonight, she’s all in for the big numbers, including Conceited, her best song, which sounds like Arctic Monkeys high on spite, or Dealer, a perky, country-tinged track about trying to stay sober. Dressed in a chic black bomber and baggy trousers, her mullet exchanged for a more elegant wave, she seems back on track, effusive, her natural charisma undimmed. Young is harnessing her mercurial talent. Let’s hope the Manchester mantra sticks.

Photograph by Alexander Cropper/Redferns