“I needed to take a break but I’m back,” Lola Young told SXSW patrons at ACL Live Thursday night. Fans erupted.
It was a loaded statement to say the least.
The flippant, tattooed, boisterous soul singer from South London has drawn Amy Winehouse comparisons. Both have exceptional voices, stern POVs that turbo-charge defiant breakup ballads and the same manager, Nick Shymansky. And, after Young collapsed onstage last September in New York due to exhaustion and dehydration, speculation over self-destructive behavior.
(She canceled tour dates and went into treatment for addiction after the incident.)
But not tonight. Donning gold hoops and a pink tracksuit, Young dwarfed her five-piece backing band in presence. And she was comfortable enough to pause her set and read a political statement.
“This is something I wrote called ‘Art Is Rebellion,’” she said before giving a 90-second state of the union about “what’s going on in the world.”
She said the daily news that she reads “makes her skin crawl.”
“I am scared for my friends,” she said. “Especially the ones I’ve never met. Scared for their safety.”
She said her music exists to give hope to others.
Given Young’s music centers around modern, misfiring romance, the statement was unexpected. She didn’t name names or causes — but rather did what she’s already excellent at: Raise her hand and address the feelings that don’t sit right.
She performed during Rolling Stone’s “Future of Music” showcase — she knows this gig brings more cameras than your average tour stop. She embraced the platform.
And then thrived with specific, painful confessionals. “I spent all week trying to get sober,” she belted on stunning showcase opener, “Dealer.”
“You’ve got 15 minutes till I call you a cab,” she tells a bad suitor on “Walk On By.” She calls out a lover’s illicit Instagram activity in one lyric, then turns inward on another: “Still love you, and I don’t know why.”
Jerry Seinfeld once said that breaking up is like tipping over a vending machine. You have to sway it a few times before it crashes. And writing that miserable journey of the self is why Young’s songs have seized social media. Even more than her punk rock attitude and soaring voice.
“This song changed my life,” she said before obvious set-closer “Messy.” A snippet of this single has been remixed in more than 1.3 million individual TikTok videos.
“I’m not skinny and I pulls a Britney every other week,” she sings on it. “But cut me some slack — who do you want me to be?”
That’s an easy one: A happy and healthy rock star.