Lola Young review – buoyant, brilliant return from British pop’s great oversharer
O2 Apollo Manchester
The Messy hitmaker is back after taking time away from live performance, and this charming, relatable set shows why she is such a gen Z icon.
The rollercoaster ride towards international pop stardom seldom runs smooth, but few rising stars have been flung through its loops and freefalls as publicly as south London singer-songwriter Lola Young. In 2024, gen Z anthem Messy became her breakthrough moment, but social media scrutiny surrounding her open struggles with addiction and a stage collapse in New York last year brought live performances to a halt.
When the 25-year-old musician strolls on stage in a baggy black hoodie, she seems relieved to be here. Casual though the look may be, she is worshipped as a Y2K style guru, as evidenced by the young crowd: a blur of bleached mullets and denim jorts cry every word of her single Sad Sob Story!.
“I’ve written a few things I say to myself in the mirror,” she explains in between her first two songs, pulling up her phone to share what she dubs this evening as her “Manchester mantra”: a pep talk that “sometimes you forget your own power”. It could have felt awkward, like a teen reading you their under-the-pillow diary, but Young is a self-confessed loudmouth with a knack for turning chronic oversharing into lovable charm.
D£aler, an ode to her favourite late-night speed dial, turns a transactional relationship into a singalong love ballad, while One Thing soars as the grooviest in the setlist, elevated by bass lines and gospel harmonies from Young’s five-strong band. A Pride flag thrown from the audience is proudly wrapped around Young’s microphone stand during the gritty R&B-fused-rock bop Conceited.
She breezes through the 15-song set without a hint of panic, and with the faultless vocals and trials of girlhood heard in Post Sex Clarity – “every other man didn’t mean a goddamn to me” – it’s difficult to leave tonight feeling anything other than like you’ve made a new friend: a sister in arms united by poor decisions and questionable 2am texts to a bad ex. There’s a several-minutes-long standing ovation for Messy, confirming that Young has absolutely got her mojo back. At O2 Apollo Manchester on 11 June; then touring the UK until 19 June.
