On… Lola Young, M-UK-GA!, and communing.

MBW Reacts is a series of analytical commentaries from Music Business Worldwide written in response to major recent entertainment events or news stories. Only MBW+ subscribers have unlimited access to these articles. The below article originally appeared within Tim Ingham’s latest MBW+ Review email, issued exclusively to MBW+ subscribers.

If Sir Lucian Grainge purchased a bigger festive gift for his daughter-in-law than for his own son last month, Elliot Grainge would surely have understood why.

Grainge Jr. is, of course, head of Atlantic Music Group, over at Universal rival Warner.

During Thanksgiving, a video landed on TikTok of Elliot’s wife, Sofia Richie Grainge, dancing with a friend to a song she loves: Messy, by UMG/Island’s Lola Young.

By mid-December, that video, and the Messy dance craze it inspired, had gone berserko-viral. (Richie Grainge’s video has over 30 million plays; a ‘tribute’ TikTok from Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell has a further 20 million. There are countless others.)

Now, as we head for the twilight of January, this contagious sprinkle of influencer stardust has helped thrust Lola Young firmly into the global spotlight.

Messy, already a UK No.1, is currently at No.25 on the Billboard Hot 100… and rising fast.

Young’s dazzling performance of the song on Jimmy Fallon the other night has catalyzed the moment, and her label at Island Records US (on a hot streak, via the likes of Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan) is pressing the Big Major Record Company Button. Young’s agent at WME (Kirk Sommer) is buzzing, too.

Don’t be misled by the Messy dance, however. This is a slow-cook rather than microwave story.

Young’s name was first mentioned to me by Louis Bloom, Island’s UK boss, over a lunch six years ago. Even then, Bloom was convinced his latest signing could, in time, become something the UK had long been craving: a new British talent capable of gatecrashing the global big leagues like Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith, and Adele once did.

Young’s co-managers, Nick Huggett and Nick Shymansky, each have a roadmap of how to navigate this promised land: Huggett signed Adele to XL Recordings 17 years ago, while Shymansky was the long-time manager of Amy Winehouse. (Shymansky is also the nephew of… Sir Lucian Grainge. It’s a family affair, this tale!)

What’s the most heartening thing about Lola Young’s career explosion?

Speaking selfishly (while daubing myself in red-white-and-blue), it’s that it nods towards a potential surprise trend for 2025.

The UK is BACK, baby!

Erm, M-UK-GA!

In addition to Lola Young’s ascent, the debut album from British rapper – yes, British rapper – Central Cee looks set to make a mark in the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 this week.

Elsewhere, Polydor-signed UK act Chrystal is climbing the lower half of the Billboard Hot 100, Myles Smith’s Stargazing has just surpassed 600 million Spotify streams, and – with ‘Brat Summer’ in the rearview – Charli XCX is about to have a big look at the Grammys.

Meanwhile, Headlock by another British artist, Imogen Heap, originally released in 2005, is quietly becoming a 2025 streaming hit. Boosted by TikTok virality and public super-fandom from Ariana Grande, Heap’s track is currently registering 1.3 million Spotify streams per day, via an indie label: Nick Raphael and Christian Tattersfield’s NWS. (Raphael signed Heap to Sony 20 years ago for her debut album, featuring Headlock. The copyright is now owned by the artist, licensed to NWS.)

Okay, Lola Young aside, this is green shoots stuff. But for a UK market that’s been written off for years as “struggling in the US market”, is a riposte finally building?

Maybe. Just maybe.

M-UK-GA!

To my eyes and ears, Lola Young represents something even more vital than mere jingoistic verve.

She is the latest in a modern class of blockbuster alt-pop star brimming with originality and, most importantly, personality.

You only need take one glance at Young to know she’s unusual.

You only need hear a snippet of Messy (and then discover it may be a message to her parents) to know she’s flawed, funny, and full of fight (“I’m not skinny and I pull a Britney every other week”).

And you only need read the effervescent teen YouTube comments under her Fallon performance to know where this is all headed.

This theme extends into the front-running Grammy nominees this year (Chappell, Kendrick, Billie, Sabrina, Beyoncé, Charli, Post etc.).

Be honest: you might not love them all, but you’d be hard-pressed to argue that any of these people are dull.

Whisper it, but the recent era of dead-eyed, forgettably perfect pop stars singing algo-jacked tunes is now… if not quite fully over, then running out of steam.

And guess what? This is all great news for the music industry’s biggest battle today – against the regurgitative threat of generative AI.

Blowhards at Silicon Valley’s Lightspeed Partners claimed last year that AI platform Suno – in which Lightspeed led a $125 million investment round – would soon be making “full-length songs worthy of top 40 radio airplay in mere seconds”.

Talk about missing the point.

In 2025, ‘Top 40-quality music’ means nothing if the person behind it doesn’t drop jaws, crack smiles, or swell hearts.

For a long time, we in this business have heeded the fact that, in music, it “all starts with a song” – and it most certainly does.

But it soars with a personality.

On this topic, I’d encourage you to savor every word of this quote from the sci-fi author Neal Stephenson – widely credited as the man who invented the term ‘Metaverse’.

In 2023, the Financial Times asked Stephenson why he wouldn’t be using ChatGPT to co-write his future novels.

He said: “My theory is that when we experience art – whether it’s a video game or a Da Vinci painting or a movie – we’re taking in a huge number of micro-decisions that were made by the artists for particular reasons. In that way, we’re communing with those artists, and that is really important.

“Something generated by AI might seem comparable to something produced by a human, which is why people are so excited. But you’re not having that awareness of communing with the creator.

“Remove that, and it’s hollow and uninteresting.”

Hollow and uninteresting. Yes indeed.

And not the slightest bit messy.Music Business Worldwide