The British Indie-pop star Lola Young has released her greatly anticipated new single ‘One Thing’ – an anthem of sexuality, passion and confidence.
Young is most widely known for her hit single ‘Messy’ from her 2024 album ‘This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway’ which reached number one in the UK Official Singles Charts. Since then the South London singer has broken the internet and indie-pop scene. Her jazz-inspired soulful pop tracks went viral on TikTok with fans feeling an affinity with her relatability and candour. Her rise to fame following the song’s release was incredibly fast and many have undermined her success with claims that she is a “nepo baby” since her Aunt, Julia Donaldson, is the author of The Gruffalo. Young has pushed back on these claims with her classic confidence, stating “Just find something better to do, you’re sad, you’re lonely.”
Young shared her inspiration for ‘Messy’ with Capital FM, revealing the meaning behind the song as a vulnerable collection of moments from different relationships and her struggle with ADHD. She says: “The song is an ADHD anthem because it’s hard living with ADHD and you don’t actually see mess.”
‘One Thing’ continues Young’s unapologetic authenticity, though takes a different subject direction. She describes the track as “liberating and sexy and freeing” in an Instagram post with a sensual music video teaser. Though the song seems a diversion from her vulnerable past tracks, she goes on to explain the difficulties mentioned in the song of “s*x and passion without strings needing to be attached, as its something i struggle achieving most of the time.”
The singer also promises more emotional tracks to come in her upcoming album.
Young has shared an acoustic snippet of one of the emotional tracks that she’s been working on. Many are hoping this will be released in the upcoming album.
‘One Thing’ shows a confident perspective on sex and relationships in a way that Young had not yet expressed in her discography so far. In an interview with NME she shared “I wanted to make a song and music video that is thought-provoking and highlights sex being both a fun and light thing, not always meaningful, as well as showing how gender roles can be reversed.”
The song debuted at Coachella and fans loved it, declaring it “song of the summer”.
@culted Unreleased music from Lola Young at weekend 2 of Coachella : @coachella #lolayoung #coachella2025 #weekend2 #coachella #fyp #messy #foryoupage ♬ original sound – CULTED
Young has been nominated for the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards and will be performing next at Reading & Leeds Festival in August, Parklife in June and Rock Werchter in July.
