Lola Young says she is in “definitely in a much better place” after stepping away from music in 2025 to focus on her mental and physical health, and the comeback is already in full view. The singer, who cancelled her 2025 tour to recover from exhaustion and later spoke about seeking treatment for addiction and attending AA meetings, used a night of industry recognition in London to signal that she is ready to move forward.
Young collected the PRS For Music Most Performed Work trophy for Messy at the 71st Ivor Novello Awards, held at Grosvenor House in London on Thursday May 21, before releasing her new single From Down Here on Friday May 22. She said she is “excited and ready to perform and to release music,” adding that she never meant for the song to begin a movement, “but I hope that it does in some way.”
The timing matters because Young’s return is not just symbolic. In 2025 she was forced off the road after collapsing on stage in New York City, a vivid reminder of how quickly the pressures of touring can catch up with a performer. Her hiatus, and the candid way she later described it, has made her one of the clearer voices in a broader conversation about artists protecting their mental health and setting limits before the work consumes them.
That conversation now sits alongside a reset in her career. Young said From Down Here was made with James Blake, someone she said has “heavily inspired” her throughout her life, and described working with him and calling him a friend as “just so beautiful” to her. She said the song is about “knowing that you’re missing a high, but also knowing that being grounded is a much safer place to be and so much more rewarding,” a line that fits the tone of someone who has spent the past year rethinking pace as much as output.
Young has been careful not to turn her recovery into a slogan. “I feel like I’ve never tried to be especially honest… it just comes very naturally to me,” she said, adding that she does not have “any other choice but to be honest” if people connect with what she makes. She also said, “all healing journeys are never ending,” a plain acknowledgment that the break was not a neat pause but part of an ongoing process.
Her return is spreading beyond the awards room. Young has already made her live comeback at the 2026 Grammys, won Breakthrough Artist at the BRITs, and performed at the Palladium in London, her first headline performance of the year. She has also announced live shows, including four UK shows in June and a slot at Radio 1’s Big Weekend.
For Young, the next chapter is not being framed as a grand reinvention. It looks more like a measured return, with the music, the shows and the public remarks all pointing in the same direction. “It totally is a bright new chapter,” she said, and this time the claim is backed by the work already out in the world.
