Lola Young is not a Tiktok trend

Lola Young has never wanted to become a phenomenon of Tiktok, but try to open the Chinese app and there is a good chance that you come across someone who is using the MEGAHIT MEGAHIT as the soundtrack of a video Messy. But what does a soul-pop song of a London twenty-four year old be appreciated by anyone, from the Hair stylist of Las Vegas to the Houston pastry shop to the nepo Baby in Los Angeles?

Perhaps it is because, very simply, the single attacks the self -help industry to which many other clips present in the application are inspired. “Ok, smoke like a chimney / I am not thin and I make scenees like Britney like a week yes and a no / but give me respite, who do you want me to be?”, Lola Young sings before reaching the hook that made a little star: “For you I could be a thousand people and you, fuck, you hate them all”.

Last year Young had a second nomination at the Brit Awards, a piece at number one of the British rankings and a feat in Chromakopia by Tyler, The Creator. Less than 10 years earlier it was a teenager who participated in Open Mic Army of acoustic guitar. In 2016, he distinguished himself without effort between over 9000 participants in the Open Mic UK, a national competition for live music, with an original piece entitled NEVER EUGH. After three years spent performing in similar competitions and local concerts, he signed for Island, not before having graduated from Brit School, who among the former students had Amy Winehouse and Adele, two artists to whom he was often compared for the deep voice, the direct character of the texts and the way of singing. There is therefore no surprise if the former Winehouse manager, Nick Shymansky, left the tranquility of the pension to represent it and if Nick Huggett, who had written Adele, was fighting.

Since then Young has never stopped making music, up to May 2024 to the second album This Wasn'T Meant for You Anyway. In 10 songs he intelligently tells his insecurities, throws himself against his former narcissists and shows himself vulnerable, all with great taste. There are touches of reggae, a pinch of folk and a lot of heart. Young manages everything with great maturity, considered his age. The disc liked the criticism, colleagues and some idols of the singer like Sza, who continues to weave Young praise on Instagram. And then, of course, there is Tiktok, where at the moment he has 1.6 million followers, even if she doesn't care.

“The risk is to get bogged down on social media,” he says. «There are a lot of artists who have millions of followers on Tiktok and then they can't sell concert tickets. There must be more than Tiktok. And that's what I hope to do, to a certain extent: go beyond a success that could prove fleeting and transform it into something solid ».

For an artist on the rise like Young there is something ironic in arriving to make himself known also in America through Tiktok. If a Kardashian sings in playback a refrain, it is inevitable that many come to reduce your years of sacrifices to a flash success, considering you a meteor. Let me be clear: Young appreciates praise. It is only that his ascent did not start yesterday and is too intelligent to confuse a moment of viral popularity with a consolidated success. Lately it has been done to challenge the algorithm, industry and the attention threshold of the average listener. And it has much more to say about all this.

He explains to me that he is working on a new album with more rhythmic songs, an amalgam of various genres with those sometimes caustic texts that have become a bit his figure. It would be enthusiastic, judging by the tone of voice and the speed with which he speaks. «The new album will focus more on my personal problems and less on love. There are very strong pieces. I can't say much, except that it's a nice step forward ».

Among the problems he is talking about there is the schizo -effective disorder that diagnosed them when he was 17 years old. For some time Young has been openly talks about the effects of this disorder on his mental health and in 2022 he wrote on Instagram that “I have tall fucking (mania) and terrible bass, even simultaneously … it is like breaking a leg, it is a physical sensation, it hurts. The company is not yet ready to understand it ».

“It was important to talk about it openly, he gave others the opportunity to do the same and to contact me to tell me how much I helped them”, reflects today, and then cite some crises that he had in the presence of his collaborators and explain that writing them allowed her to create some of her best songs.

It comes to ask how, in the middle of all these attentions, to decide what is right to give to the public and what must remain private. His response makes the reason for many comparisons with Amy Winehouse very clear: «Whatever should be destined for the public, unless it is offensive, but art should never be, ever. Everything I say must be honest, true, must be something that I have lived or someone I know. “

He adds that when he writes songs it is “the only moment” in which he manages to be herself. And it has all the intentions to cultivate this thing also in view of the next album: after all, it has worked well both professional and personal level. As he made himself known, he has in fact created an online community in which the commentators feel in a protected environment and can therefore admit that his texts have saved them. It is something that has translated into real life. «It is the reason why I make music: make people feel accepted. I want people to feel to be happening to me and millions of other people ».

From Rolling Stone Us.