{"id":608629,"date":"2026-08-29T21:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T21:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608629\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T21:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T21:18:10","slug":"lola-youngs-surprise-electric-picnic-gig-answers-two-questions-one-being-if-cmat-can-play-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/608629\/","title":{"rendered":"Lola Young\u2019s surprise Electric Picnic gig answers two questions, one being if CMAT can play \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lola YoungMain Stage, Electric Picnic\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606<\/p>\n

Lola Young<\/a>\u2019s surprise appearance at Electric Picnic<\/a> on Saturday quickly answers two questions. The first is who\u2019ll be filling the midafternoon gap in the Main Stage line-up that was announced earlier in the week.<\/p>\n

The second, by way of one high-profile fan it draws, is whether CMAT<\/a> will make it to Stradbally after having to cancel<\/a> her Friday slot at the Rock en Seine festival, just outside Paris, because of gastroenteritis.<\/p>\n

But the self-styled Dunboyne Diana is looking on from the side of the stage, checking out Young\u2019s hour-long performance, which brings her raw vocals and catchy riffs to an appreciative rain-soaked crowd.<\/p>\n

A tone-setting early treat is One Thing, the tongue-in-cheek erotic pop song from the London neosoul star, whose tracksuit is emblazoned with \u201cI Heart Me\u201d logos. <\/p>\n

Such perhaps radical self-acceptance and self-compassion are part and parcel of Young\u2019s music, but there\u2019s also an undeniable vulnerability to her performance. <\/p>\n

Managing to be catchy yet real, authentic yet technically polished, songs such as D\u00a3aler, Post Sex Clarity and Spiders invite you to acknowledge uncomfortable truths around addiction, sexual relations and womanhood yet never drag down the momentum of her set.<\/p>\n

\"ElectricElectric Picnic 2026: Lola Young on the Main Stage on Saturday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw \"ElectricElectric Picnic 2026: Lola Young on the Main Stage on Saturday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw <\/p>\n

Although there\u2019s a temptation to categorise Young\u2019s music as being like that of Kate Nash<\/a> or Lily Allen<\/a>, with its feistiness and sometimes flippant lyricism, there\u2019s a degree to which it\u2019s more like that of Amy Winehouse<\/a> or Adele<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Young, who took a six-month mental-health break after collapsing on stage<\/a> in New York last autumn, is all soul, and songs that the Grammy, Brit and Ivor Novello winner has already performed live hundreds of times retain a sense of urgency and emotion while sounding almost studio perfect.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s certainly true of the crowning glory of the 25-year-old\u2019s set: Messy, aka the \u201cADHD anthem\u201d that Young released in 2024. It\u2019s the track that catapulted her to stardom, via TikTok virality, and she delivers it with such immediacy and sincerity this afternoon that it\u2019s as if she\u2019s singing it for the first time. It\u2019s a rare gift.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lola YoungMain Stage, Electric Picnic\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2606 Lola Young\u2019s surprise appearance at Electric Picnic on Saturday quickly answers two questions.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[46554,17829,893,12421,93,61,60,257776,64221,35514],"class_list":["post-608629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-adele","tag-amy-winehouse","tag-cmat","tag-electric-picnic","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kate-nash","tag-lily-allen","tag-lola-young"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}