Lola Young Returns from Hiatus with James Blake-Produced Single ‘From Down Here’

‘From Down Here’ is Lola Young’s first track since her world stopped. The single, out now, was made the day after this year’s GRAMMY ceremony, in a studio session with James Blake. The speed and the collaborator both tell you something about the reset at work here.

Young pulled back from music last year after collapsing onstage in the United States. The episode forced a real timeout. Her return started cautiously, with a sold-out show at London’s Palladium that felt more like a homecoming than a promo run. Now, a few months later, she’s inching further out with a song that refuses to dwell on the pause. “I had a wave of inspiration hit me,” she says, “so I got in the studio with the incredible James Blake and made this song. I am rewriting the next chapter of my story because what a boring book the old one would’ve been anyway.”

The reference to “the old one” points back to her breakout album, *I’m Only F**king Myself*, and the GRAMMY-winning viral hit ‘Messy’ that came with it. That record set a commercial high bar, but it’s clear Young isn’t chasing a repeat. Blake’s production on ‘From Down Here’ feels more like deliberate architecture — sparse, careful, leaving space for her voice to carry the weight of the past year.

No tour is built around the single yet, but a previously announced UK run is fully sold out. It wraps with two nights at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on June 18 and 19. The timing puts ‘From Down Here’ right at the edge of a live return, not a full-blown campaign. For now, it’s enough that the song exists, a brief sign that Young is moving again on her own terms.