Lola Young (2026)

One Liner:  Strong voiced Brit singing hard-edged and confessional pop

Wikipedia Genre:  Pop, R&B, Soul

Home: Croydon, UK

Poster Position: Top Line - 2 (up from line 16 in 2024!)
Both Weekends.
Date/Time

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Thoughts: Welp, another one who was just here in 2024.  I guess there just aren't any other artists out there so we need to see the same things over and over...

This is not the first Lola Young that comes up on Wikipedia, who is the Baroness Young of Hornsey, and a British actress, author, crossbench peer, and Chancellor of the University of Nottingham.  Instead, this is a gal who alternatively reminds me of both Amy Winehouse and Billie Eilish.  Her Wikipedia is pretty useless.  I know she is English and was born 1/4/01 and that she was nominated for the Brit Award for Rising Star in 2021 and then placed fourth in 2022 in the BBC Sound of... competition.  In an interview, she claimed to have more shoes than brain cells.

Four albums - 2019's Intro, 2023's My Mind Wanders and Sometimes Leaves Completely, 2024's This Wasn't Meant for You Anyway, and 2026's I'm Only F**king Myself.  My normal reaction to a pop star who reminds me of Eilish would be to tell you that I hate this, but instead, I have actually enjoyed listening to it.  The backing music is a little funkier and harder, and her voice can sometimes do the annoying whispery shit, but can also belt in an appealing way.  I guess I now see why she is already back to the 'Fest, because one of the tracks on the 2024 album blew up in a massive way.  Like, dwarfing all other songs in the catalog for sure.  "Messy" fires up 1.1 BILLION streams.  I guess this struck a chord on TikTok.

It used to weird me out if I hadn't ever heard a major hit, but now it feels semi-normal to realize that the kids are jamming things that never cross my space.  But I can see the teenagers doing stuff with this one about being too messy or too clean or whatever.  I actually like it.  And listening to the whole album, this just really sounds familiar to me.  

Her top single from that 2023 album, this is "Don't Hate Me," with 43 million streams.

Her lips are so ridiculously full.  Like Jennifer Lawrence playing Roseanne Barr.  Almost a rap track, but I'm definitely grooving on it.  The second most streamed tune is a single that came out after the albums, "Conceited," with 99.8 million streams.

That is the one that feels even more like Eilish/Winehouse crossover.  But in her own way - she's not exactly like either of those but just flashes it here and there.  "Wish You Were Dead" is pretty solid too, with a well-written look at a shit relationship.

Then the newest album also works pretty well.  "SPIDERS" makes me think of Olivia Rodrigo with the rock and roll edge and confessional lyrics.  I honestly came here to bag on this, thinking that I would tear it up for being another repeat visitor doing nothing but generic pop music, and then I found myself really enjoying it.  She has some swagger and good lyrics and its not just a vacuous pop money grab thing.  I might go see it.