Singer Lola Young has revealed she sought treatment for addiction after collapsing on stage in New York last September. The 25-year-old London-born artist, who rose to international fame in late 2024 when her song “Messy” went viral on TikTok, said she checked into a holistic facility for two months following the incident and now attends Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings with a sponsor.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Young described the collapse at the All Things Go festival as a “breaking point”. She had previously spent five weeks in rehab for cocaine addiction, and her manager said she relapsed and returned to treatment during the summer festival season. One week after the collapse, she cancelled all tour dates, saying she was “going away for a while”.
“It was a decision… that I had to make, and it was sad that I had to do that,” Young told Rolling Stone. “What else was I going to do, die? That was the reality of where my addiction was heading.” Despite the unpleasant experience, Young, who has schizoaffective disorder and ADHD, said she is “very grateful” for it, as it allowed her to be “better for my fans, better for the future, and better for myself”.
Addiction has been a frequent theme in Young’s music, from the track “D3aler” to lyrics calling herself a “dumb little addict” in “Not Like That Anymore”. She said she writes what she feels, even if it later makes her realise she revealed too much: “I’m just writing what I’m feeling, and then I’ll realise later, ‘Oh, f***. I shouldn’t have said that I’m a raging drug addict.’ Then I’m like, ‘You know what? I am. What the f*** am I trying to hide?’”
After cancelling her tour, Young returned to the stage at the Grammy Awards in February, where she performed “Messy” and won Best Pop Solo Performance. Last week (4 March), she played her first headline show since collapsing at the London Palladium, and also attended Paris Fashion Week.
