"The bratty pop-rock song that dominated TikTok in late 2024 and early 2025 documents the British singer's inner dialogue as she chafes against impossibly high standards. "A thousand people I could be for you, and you hate the fucking lot," Young rasps in her defiant south London twang, alternately belting and gently teasing out the line. It's spiky yet wounded, capturing the turbulence of a toxic relationship in full swing."
"She graduated from the BRIT School in 2018, a selective but free specialist school for music and performing arts, notably attended by the likes of Adele, Amy Winehouse, and RAYE. Soon afterwards, she caught the attention of Nick Shymansky, Winehouse's former manager, and Nick Huggett, who signed Adele. Both signed up to her management team (Shymansky is still her manager today); the following year, she inked a deal with Island Records."
Lola Young's single "Messy" functions as a manifesto of bristling self-ownership and captures a wounded, defiant voice against impossibly high standards and toxic relationships. The song dominated TikTok in late 2024 and early 2025 and became the most-streamed song by a British artist globally in January 2025. Young wrote her third album, I'm Only Fucking Myself, amid the song's meteoric rise and a stint in rehab, leaning into warts-and-all pop music. She trained at the BRIT School, attracted management from Nick Shymansky and Nick Huggett, signed with Island Records, and shifted from downbeat soulful singles to candid, arresting pop.
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