Lola Young review – buoyant, brilliant return from British pop’s great oversharer

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 an 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