Lola Young has canceled all her upcoming shows and announced that she is “going away for a while”.
The 24-year-old collapsed onstage during a festival appearance in New York this weekend.
In a statement posted to her Instagram account, Young wrote: “I’m going away for a while. It pains me to say I have to cancel everything for the foreseeable future.
“Thank you for all the love and support,” she continued. “I’m so sorry to let anyone down who has bought a ticket to see me, it hurts me more than you know. Obviously you will be entitled to a full refund.”
She added: “I really hope you’ll give me a second chance once I’ve had some time to work on myself and come back stronger. Love you all, Lola x.”
Earlier this week, Young said she was “ doing okay” after her public collapse.
The singer-songwriter, whose track “Messy” reached Number One in the UK charts last year, was performing at New York’s All Things Go festival on Saturday, September 27, when the incident occurred.
In video footage taken by a fan in the crowd, Young appears to stop singing her track “Conceited” and motion to members of her team off-stage. She then falls backwards, with members of Young’s band immediately leaping to their feet to help her. After a period of time in which Young remains on the ground, she is carried off stage.
Musician Remi Wolf appeared on stage shortly after Young’s departure, and told the crowd that the incident “was really f***ing scary”, but that “my friend Lola is backstage, and she is OK.”
Several hours later, Young herself posted a message to her Instagram Story in which she confirmed her safety.
“Hi, for anyone who saw my set at All Things Go today, I am doing okay now,” Young wrote. “Thank you for all of your support Lola xxx.”
The incident followed a tumultuous week for Young. On Friday, September 26, her manager Nick Shymansky announced that Young was pulling out of a scheduled festival appearance in New Jersey, citing a need to “keep her safe.”
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“Lola is very open about her mental health and there are very occasionally days where myself and my team have to take protective measures to keep her safe,” Shymansky wrote via Young’s Instagram Story. “She is an incredible person and always takes her fans, career and performances seriously. I can only send huge apologies for the inconvenience caused.”
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Before she collapsed on stage at All Things Go, Young referenced the cancellation of her New Jersey date, telling the crowd that she’d had “a tricky couple of days”. She added: “Sometimes life can really make you feel like you can’t continue. But you know what? Today I woke up and I made the decision to come here, and I wanted to be cool. Sometimes life can throw you lemons, and you just gotta make lemonade.”
Young has spoken in interviews about having schizoaffective disorder, which can lead to prolonged manic episodes and hospitalisation. She was diagnosed at the age of 17, and told The Telegraph in 2022 that she can sometimes see manic episodes coming, and other times she is surprised by them.
“Imagine a bottle overflowing,” she said. “At a certain point, it becomes impossible to put the lid back on, because it’s simply been shaken up far too much.”
