Lola Young is a 25-year-old English singer and songwriter from South London whose raw voice and honest lyrics have made her one of the brightest stars in British pop. Born in Croydon on January 4, 2001, and raised in nearby Beckenham, she grew up in a musical home with a Jamaican-Chinese father who played bass guitar professionally and an English mother.
Her great-aunt is Julia Donaldson, the author of The Gruffalo, and she has three sisters who shared her childhood. Young began writing songs at 11, won the under-16 Open Mic UK contest at 15, and studied at the famous BRIT School before releasing her first single in 2019.
Her 2024 hit Messy topped the UK chart for four weeks and won her a Grammy Award in 2026. She has spoken openly about living with schizoaffective disorder and ADHD, and her honesty about mental health has won her fans worldwide.
Table of Contents
Quick Bio / Wiki
| Quick Facts | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Lola Emily Mary Young |
| Occupation | Singer and songwriter |
| Date of Birth | January 4, 2001 |
| Age | 25 years old |
| Birthplace | Croydon, London, England |
| Raised In | Beckenham, South London |
| Ethnicity | Mixed — Jamaican-Chinese father and English mother |
| Genres | Pop, R&B, soul |
| Years Active | 2019–present |
| Record Labels | Capitol, Island |
| Education | BRIT School |
| Best-Known Song | Messy |
| Relationship Status | Not publicly confirmed |
| Official Website | lola-young.com |
Who Is Lola Young?
Lola Young is an English singer and songwriter from South London. Her full name is Lola Emily Mary Young, and she is known for her raspy voice, her honest lyrics, and songs that mix pop, R&B, and soul. Her music speaks about real life, love, and mental health in plain words that fans find easy to relate to.
She first caught attention as a teenager, when she won a national singing contest and reached the final of a BBC talent show for young singers. Her rise was slow and steady at first. She released EPs and singles for years before her song Messy went viral on TikTok in late 2024 and turned her into a global star. Since then she has won a Grammy Award, a Brit Award, and an Ivor Novello Award.
Lola Young Age and Early Life
Her birthday is January 4, 2001, and her birthplace is Croydon, London, England. She is 25 years old in 2026. She grew up in Beckenham, a town in South London, where she lived with her mother, her stepfather, and her three sisters.
Music filled her home from her earliest years. Her mother signed her up for piano, guitar, and singing lessons when she was six years old. Tunes were always playing in the house, from Prince to Erykah Badu. Her father played bass guitar, and her stepfather was also a musician, so instruments and melodies were a normal part of daily life.
Young started writing her own songs when she was 11 years old. She began singing at open mic nights when she was 14. Those small local gigs gave her the nerve to perform her own words in front of strangers, and they shaped the direct, talkative style she still uses in her songs today.
Lola Young Family, Ethnicity and Childhood
Lola Young comes from a mixed-heritage family. Her dad is of Jamaican-Chinese descent, and her mum is English. That blend of cultures shaped her view of the world and the sound of her music, which moves easily between pop, soul, R&B, and hip-hop.
Her family played a huge part in her career. Her mother worked for Mind, a mental health charity, and she was the first to spot her daughter’s talent. Her stepfather, a bass player, encouraged her to play and write music. Her three sisters shared her childhood in Beckenham, and one of them, Becky Young, has campaigned for the music industry charity EarthPercent.
Her great-aunt is Julia Donaldson, the author of The Gruffalo and a former Children’s Laureate. Donaldson wrote songs for children’s television before she became a famous author, and her gift for stories runs through the family. Young has said her family always saw music as a real career path and never pushed her to find a back-up plan. That support let her focus on writing songs from the age of 11.
Education at the BRIT School
Lola Young joined the BRIT School in Year 10. The BRIT School is a famous performing arts school in Croydon. Its past pupils include Adele and Amy Winehouse, two of the biggest British singers of recent times.
Young has described the school as a hub for people who could not always be themselves at home but could be themselves there. At the BRIT School she refined her voice, her songwriting, and her stage presence. The school gave her a safe place to grow as an artist and to meet other young people who took music just as seriously as she did.
How Lola Young Started Her Music Career
In January 2016, Lola Young took first place in the under-16 group at the Open Mic UK singing contest. The same year she reached the final of the CBBC show Got What It Takes?, a talent contest for young singers. Those two wins put her name in front of music industry people for the first time.
In 2017, Amy Winehouse’s former manager Nick Shymansky saw her perform at The Bedford in Balham. He became her joint manager with Nick Huggett, the manager who first signed Adele. With that team behind her, Young began to build a professional career.
Her first single, 6 Feet Under, came out in October 2019. She also released her first EP, Intro, that year. Work on the EP was cut short when she developed a cyst on her vocal cords and needed surgery. In March 2020, Pick Me Up came out on Capitol Records. None for You and the EP Renaissance followed in April. She released the single Woman in July 2020.
Island Records signed Young in March 2021 and put out her single Ruin My Make Up that same month. By August she had also released Bad Tattoo and Blue (2AM). August also brought After Midnight, a piano EP of love songs. The next month she sang on James Corden’s Late Late Show in the US, and she took Fake to Later… with Jools Holland.
In November 2021, her take on Together in Electric Dreams, the song by Giorgio Moroder and Philip Oakey, played over the John Lewis Christmas advert. The advert introduced her voice to millions of people across the UK. Around the same time she earned a Rising Star nomination at the Brit Awards and took fourth place in the BBC’s Sound of 2022 list.
Lola Young Songs: The Road to Messy
Young released So Sorry in January 2022 and performed it on The Graham Norton Show. Between November 2022 and May 2023 she put out five more singles: Money, What Is It About Me, Don’t Hate Me, Annabel’s House, and Stream of Consciousness.
Those songs featured on My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely, her debut album, which came out on May 26, 2023. The album title refers to her schizoaffective disorder, and many of its tracks deal with that subject. A returning cyst on her vocal cords made her voice raspier than on her earlier records. The album did not chart, but Don’t Hate Me took off on TikTok and kept her name growing.
In August 2024 she released the single Flicker of Light, which later featured on the soundtrack of the game EA Sports FC 25. In October 2024 she released the single Charlie with Lil Yachty. Around the same time she featured on Like Him, a track on Tyler, the Creator’s album Chromakopia. Like Him reached the top 40 in both the UK and the US.
Messy: The Song That Changed Everything
Messy came out on May 30, 2024. It was the last of four singles Young released between September 2023 and May 2024, along with Conceited and Wish You Were Dead. All four songs appeared on her second album, which came out on June 21, 2024 under the title This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway.
Messy went viral on TikTok in late 2024. Short videos using the song spread fast, and the track climbed the charts around the world. Its words about feeling too messy one minute and too clean the next summed up the push and pull of the song. Young has called Messy an ADHD anthem, and she has said the song reflects her own life and her close family ties.
The numbers tell the story. Messy held the UK number one spot for a full month. It also led the charts in Australia, Ireland, Belgium, Croatia, and Israel, and it reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. More than 1.7 million TikTok videos used the sound, and the song passed 300 million streams on Spotify. Conceited, another track from the same album, later peaked at number 63 in the UK after it also caught on through TikTok.
The album itself moved into the UK Albums Chart top 20 in March 2025, after vinyl and CD editions were released. Young sang Messy on Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show in January 2025 and at the Brit Awards in February 2025. In 2025 she also supported Billie Eilish in Paris on two nights of her Hit Me Hard and Soft tour, after Eilish invited her in person.
Lola Young Albums and Discography
Lola Young has released three studio albums and three EPs. Her first two albums came out on Island Records, and her third album also came out on Island.
| Studio Album | Release Date | Label | UK Chart Peak |
|---|---|---|---|
| My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely | May 26, 2023 | Island | No chart position |
| This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway | June 21, 2024 | Island | 16 |
| Her third album | September 19, 2025 | Island | 3 |
Her third album, released in September 2025, gave her the highest chart position of her career so far. It reached number 3 in the UK albums chart. Its singles included Spiders, D£aler, Not Like That Anymore, and One Thing. One Thing reached number 18 in the UK, and D£aler reached number 27.
| EP | Release Date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Intro | November 7, 2019 | Island |
| Renaissance | April 28, 2020 | Island |
| After Midnight | August 20, 2021 | Island |
Her best-known singles include Messy (2024), From Down Here (2026), 6 Feet Under (2019), Woman (2020), Ruin My Make Up (2021), Together in Electric Dreams (2021), Stream of Consciousness (2022), Don’t Hate Me (2023), Conceited (2023), Wish You Were Dead (2024), Flicker of Light (2024), Charlie with Lil Yachty (2024), One Thing (2025), D£aler (2025), Spiders (2025), and Pick Me Up (2020).
Lola Young Awards and Achievements
Lola Young has won some of the biggest honours in British and American music. Her first major nomination came in 2021, when she earned a Rising Star nomination at the Brit Awards. She took fourth place in the BBC’s Sound of 2022 list the same season.
Her biggest night so far came at the Grammy Awards on February 1, 2026. Messy won Best Pop Solo Performance, her first Grammy. She was also nominated for Best New Artist at the same ceremony, which made her one of only four BRIT School alumni to win a Grammy Award. In the same month she won the Brit Award for British Breakthrough Artist, the first Brit Award of her career. The Ivors also nominated her second album for Best Album.
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Brit Awards | Rising Star | Nominated |
| 2022 | BBC Sound of 2022 | Sound of 2022 | 4th place |
| 2025 | Ivor Novello Awards | Rising Star | Won |
| 2025 | Ivor Novello Awards | Best Album | Nominated |
| 2025 | Ivor Novello Awards | Best Song Musically and Lyrically (Messy) | Nominated |
| 2025 | ASCAP London Music Awards | Vanguard Award | Won |
| 2025 | UK Music Video Awards | Best Pop Video (One Thing) | Nominated |
| 2025 | Brit Awards | British Pop Act | Nominated |
| 2026 | Grammy Awards | Best Pop Solo Performance (Messy) | Won |
| 2026 | Grammy Awards | Best New Artist | Nominated |
| 2026 | Brit Awards | British Breakthrough Artist | Won |
| 2026 | Brit Awards | British Pop Act | Nominated |
| 2026 | Brit Awards | Rock/Alternative Act | Nominated |
| 2026 | Brit Awards | Song of the Year (Messy) | Nominated |
| 2026 | Brit Awards | Artist of the Year | Nominated |
| 2026 | Ivor Novello Awards | PRS for Music Most Performed Work (Messy) | Won |
Young was also listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, which names the most promising young people in business and culture. In 2025 she was nominated for the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award for Favourite Viral Song and for Artist of the Year at the TikTok Awards.
Lola Young Musical Style and Influences
Lola Young sings pop, R&B, and soul, with touches of indie rock and hip-hop. Her voice is raspy and warm, partly because of the vocal cord cysts she has dealt with since 2019. She plays piano and guitar, and she often writes a song on piano or guitar before she records it on her phone.
She writes as if she is talking to a friend. That plain, chatty style is one reason her lyrics feel so direct. Her songs deal with love, bad partners, self-doubt, and mental health, and she has said she only writes when a real experience or a real feeling is behind the words.
Her influences include Prince, Joni Mitchell, Anderson .Paak, and Frank Ocean. She has also named SZA’s album Ctrl and Arctic Monkeys’ album AM as key influences. Growing up she listened to hip-hop like Eminem and singer-songwriter music like Avril Lavigne and Bon Iver, before she found older artists like Prince and Michael Jackson. That wide mix shows in her music, which can move from a soft piano ballad to a bold pop chorus in a single song.
Lola Young Health Journey
Lola Young has spoken openly about her health, and she has done so in a plain and factual way. Doctors gave her a schizoaffective disorder diagnosis when she was 17 years old. She was diagnosed with ADHD after she wrote Messy, and she has called the song an ADHD anthem.
Her voice has also given her trouble. She developed a cyst on her vocal cords in 2019 and needed surgery. A returning cyst later made her voice raspier on her debut album. She has also dealt with vocal strain on tour, which has forced her to cancel shows at times.
In November 2024 she spent five weeks in drug rehabilitation. Her team later brought in a sober coach after a relapse, and she called off a Tonight Show appearance in July 2025. Her concerts in 2025 were hit by problems: her Coachella set in April was cut short, and her Summertime Ball show in June was spoiled when her in-ear monitors failed during the set.
In September 2025 she collapsed on stage at the All Things Go Festival in New York, five songs into her set during Conceited. She then stepped back from all public appearances for three months to work on herself. She returned to the stage in January 2026. In a March 2026 interview she said she had spent two months living in a residential care facility and had attended recovery meetings. Her honest words about these hard times have helped many fans feel less alone with their own struggles.
Lola Young Personal Life
Lola Young keeps her romantic life private. No partner has been publicly confirmed, and she has no publicly known children. Her focus in public has stayed on her music and her health.
She has spoken openly about being bisexual.
She lives in London, close to her South London roots, where she has a recording studio. Her family stays close to her, and her sisters and her mother have backed her career from the start. In 2025 she filed and later withdrew a claim against one of her producers over writing credits on four of her songs.
Lola Young Social Media
Lola Young is active on Instagram, TikTok, X, and YouTube. TikTok played a huge part in her rise, since Messy spread through short videos on the platform before it topped the charts. She uses her accounts to share music teasers, live clips, and honest posts about mental health.
Her fans follow her for the same reason they love her songs: she talks to them in a direct and unfiltered way. Her posts mix new music news with real-life updates, and her openness has built a loyal fan base that stayed with her through her health break in late 2025.
Lola Young Career Timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2016 | Took first place in the under-16 group at Open Mic UK; reached the final of CBBC’s Got What It Takes? |
| 2017 | Met manager Nick Shymansky after a show at The Bedford in Balham |
| 2019 | Released debut single 6 Feet Under and the EP Intro; vocal cord surgery |
| 2020 | Released Pick Me Up on Capitol Records and the EP Renaissance |
| 2021 | Signed to Island Records; released After Midnight EP; sang the John Lewis Christmas advert song Together in Electric Dreams; Brit Rising Star nomination |
| 2022 | Took fourth place in the BBC’s Sound of 2022 list; released So Sorry |
| 2023 | Released My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely, her debut album; performed at Glastonbury |
| 2024 | Released This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway, her second album; Messy topped the UK chart for four weeks and reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100; appeared on Like Him with Tyler, the Creator |
| 2024 | Spent five weeks in drug rehabilitation in November |
| 2025 | Won the Ivor Novello Rising Star Award and the ASCAP Vanguard Award; released her third album in September; collapsed on stage at All Things Go and took a three-month break |
| 2026 | Won a Grammy for Best Pop Solo Performance with Messy; won the Brit Award for British Breakthrough Artist; released From Down Here in May |
What Is Lola Young Doing Now in 2026?
Lola Young is back at work in 2026. She returned to the stage in January 2026 after her three-month break. On February 1, 2026, she won her first Grammy Award when Messy took Best Pop Solo Performance. Later that month she won the Brit Award for British Breakthrough Artist.
In May 2026, Messy won the Most Performed Work prize from PRS for Music at the Ivor Novello Awards, which honours the most widely performed British songs of the year. The same month she released the single From Down Here. She had lined up shows in the UK and North America for late 2025, with South America and Europe to follow in 2026, and her return to the stage has put new live dates back on the table. Her focus now is on her health, her new music, and building on the biggest year of her career so far.
Frequently Asked Questions About Lola Young
1. How old is Lola Young?
Lola Young is 25 years old. She was born on January 4, 2001, and she turned 25 on January 4, 2026.
2. Where was Lola Young born?
Lola Young was born in Croydon, London, England. She grew up in Beckenham, South London.
3. Who are Lola Young’s parents?
Her mother is English and worked for the mental health charity Mind. Her father is of Jamaican-Chinese descent and played bass guitar. Her stepfather was also a musician, and her great-aunt is Julia Donaldson, the author of The Gruffalo.
4. What is Lola Young ethnicity?
Lola Young is of mixed heritage. Her father is Jamaican-Chinese, and her mother is English.
5. Which song is Lola Young best known for?
Messy is the song most people know her for. It held the UK number one spot for a full month in 2024, reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance in 2026.
6. What made Lola Young famous?
Messy made her famous when it went viral on TikTok in late 2024. She had already built a fan base through her EPs, her John Lewis Christmas advert recording in 2021, and her debut album in 2023.
7. Did Lola Young win a Grammy Award?
Yes. She won a Grammy for Best Pop Solo Performance with Messy on February 1, 2026. She was also nominated for Best New Artist at the same ceremony.
8. What awards has Lola Young won?
She has won a Grammy for Best Pop Solo Performance, a Brit Award for British Breakthrough Artist, the Ivor Novello Rising Star Award, the ASCAP Vanguard Award, and the Most Performed Work prize from PRS for Music, all for her work on Messy and her second album.
9. What happened to Lola Young on stage in 2025?
She collapsed on stage at the All Things Go Festival in New York in September 2025, five songs into her set. She then stepped back from all public appearances for three months to focus on her health and returned to the stage in January 2026.
10. When did Lola Young release her third album?
She released her third album on September 19, 2025. It reached number 3 in the UK Albums Chart, the highest chart position of her career so far.
11. Is Lola Young in a relationship?
No relationship has been publicly confirmed. Lola Young keeps her romantic life private.
12. What has Lola Young said about her health?
She has said doctors diagnosed her with schizoaffective disorder at 17 and with ADHD after she wrote Messy. She has also spoken about her five weeks in drug rehabilitation in November 2024, her collapse on stage in September 2025, and her three-month break to focus on her recovery.
Conclusion
Lola Young has come a long way from the open mic nights of South London. She started writing songs at 11, won a national contest at 15, and studied at the BRIT School before she released her first single in 2019. Her road was not smooth. She dealt with vocal cord surgery, a slow start for her debut album, and serious health problems that forced her off stage in 2025.
Messy changed everything. The song topped the UK chart for four weeks, reached the top 15 in the US, and won her a Grammy Award in 2026. The same year she won the Brit Award for British Breakthrough Artist. At 25, with three albums behind her and a new single out in 2026, Lola Young has shown that honest songs and a strong voice can carry a singer from a small stage in Beckenham to the biggest stages in the world. Her next chapter will be one to watch.