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Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond.
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This week, Rihanna unveils a summer Smurf jam, Morgan Wallen pulls back the curtain and Jin continues his solo momentum. Check out all of this week’s picks below:
Rihanna, “Friend of Mine”
While Rihanna is no stranger to the soundtrack single, “Friend of Mine,” from the upcoming Smurfs film, does not function like a shiny product for kid’s movie — instead, the song thumps and shimmers with club-ready propulsion, as Rihanna lets the percussion take center stage and serves up what sounds like a long-lost, long-awaited summer jam.
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Morgan Wallen, I’m the Problem
At 37 songs and nearly two hours, I’m the Problem pushes Morgan Wallen’s mega-sprawling approach to full-length projects to a new limit — but if it ain’t broke, then the decade-defining, stadium-commanding country superstar has no reason to fix it, as his latest marks another rustic, self-examining storytelling extravaganza brimming with multi-song runs to be appreciated by different types of listeners.
Jin, Echo
Six months after making his solo bow with Happy, Jin has quickly returned with Echo — but instead of feeling like a continuation of that debut project, the BTS member has already moved on to vibrant new sounds and ideas, ranging from the stately romance of opener “Don’t Say You Love Me” to the punk-inflected YENA collaboration “Loser,” the latter making good use of the cowbell.
Lola Young, “One Thing”
“Everbody wants to know ya / But me? I only want one thing,” Lola Young declares on new single “One Thing,” a slinky sex jam that showcases Young’s ability to oscillate between commanding and yearning; following the smash confessional “Messy,” the ascendant pop star wields this follow-up with hedonistic glee, as if she’s ratcheting down the stakes to have some hard-earned fun.
Avicii, Avicii Forever
Avicii’s 2018 passing still feels crushing all these years later, yet his musical legacy has remained towering in his absence; Avicii Forever — a new compilation featuring the producer’s biggest hits, essential tracks and one unreleased single, “Let’s Ride Away” featuring Elle King — underlines his sonic impact and acts as a handy first step for casual fans looking to dive deeper.
Sebastian Yatra, Milagro
The title of Sebastian Yatra’s new album, Milagro, refers to a miracle that can occur thanks to a slight change in perspective; the idea defines the follow-up to 2022’s Dharma +, as the singer-songwriter tweaks his lyrical approach to dig deeper into ideas of faith, emotional availability and communication across generations, while still providing plenty of melodic heft.
Laufey, “Tough Luck”
“I wanted to reveal an angrier side of myself — a side that this unfortunate relationship brought out in me,” Laufey says of her new single, “Tough Luck,” in a press release. To preview upcoming album A Matter of Time, the rising singer-composer lets her frustration simmer above sighing harmonies and ornate string arrangements, producing a beautifully mad opening shot.
Editor’s Pick: Rico Nasty, Lethal
After spending the majority of her career exploring the ways in which rock music can inform her hip-hop, Rico Nasty pushes toward full-throated pop-rock at times on Lethal, displaying her voice with a newfound vulnerability and expanding her aesthetic in impressive ways; considering that several songs on the new album don’t reach the two-minute mark, Lethal zips by with verve and energy, and sets up an exciting future for Rico.
Lady Gaga is headed to the Netflix Tudum stage in Los Angeles — and fans all over the world are going to be able to watch her live.
As announced Friday (May 16), the pop superstar will perform at the streamer’s Comic Con-esque event this year, joining a previously announced lineup of stars featured in some of Netflix’s biggest titles who are also set to appear. In a clip announcing the news on Instagram, Gaga appears in a lacy black getup, looking excited as she tells fans, “Hi, Little Monsters!”
“I just wrapped Copacabana,” she continues, referencing her record-breaking May 3 performance in Rio de Janeiro. “I’m headed to Singapore, and then I’ll see you at Tudum.”
“mother will bring the MAYHEM, performing a song you will not want to miss!” reads Netflix’s caption. “watch it LIVE may 31 on netflix — tickets now on sale.”
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The event will take place at 8 p.m. ET on May 31 at the Kia Forum, but anyone with a Netflix subscription can tune in to stream it live. Tickets to attend in person are available for purchase on Ticketmaster.
Originating in 2020 as a fan-oriented festival celebrating Netflix’s young-adult content, Tudum brings viewers and the stars of their favorite programs together. This year, actors from Emily in Paris, Frankenstein, Happy Gilmore 2, Love Is Blind, One Piece, Outer Banks, The Rip, Squid Game, Stranger Things, America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, The Life List, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Wednesday, WWE, Ginny & Georgia, My Life With the Walter Boys and more will flock to the Forum.
Gaga’s performance at the event comes as she’s been showcasing her Billboard 200-topping album Mayhem on the road with concerts at Coachella and in Mexico City and Rio. Up next, she’ll perform May 18, 19, 21 and 24 for Little Monsters in Singapore before embarking on her Mayhem Ball Tour in July.
See Gaga’s announcement that she’ll be performing at Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event below.
Alexandra Savior has considered leaving the music industry many times. Having started her musical career early – signing to Columbia Records at 17 and releasing her debut album Belladona of Sadness by the age of 19 – she’s had plenty of ups and downs all before the age of 30. She’s played in bars she was too young to be in, worked with well-known musicians including Danger Mouse and the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, and released an independent album after she was dropped by her major label.
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“It’s really a fight to try and survive in this industry,” Savior says. “I always wanted to go back to school just because I am the happiest when I am learning. After my first album, I was pretty ready to be done.”
Without a label or management, she moved back to the Pacific Northwest, and considers it a miracle her second album (2020’s Archer) even happened. “Throughout my life, I’ve felt that I wanted to go towards something else that would be easier, but it never happens,” she tells Billboard. “I always feel like I need to make another album anyways.”
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Now onto her third album, Savior is making a point to separate herself from her previous work and create music on her own terms. Beneath the Lilypad (out today, May 16, via RCA Records) is self-produced by Savior, alongside her partner and producer Drew Erickson, and delivers an intimacy not found in her previous two albums. Started during the height of the pandemic, Savior says her sound became a lot more tender, soft and quiet.
Alexandra Savior
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“I wasn’t thinking of how it would be perceived as much,” she says. “Because I was doing this on my own and literally on my own every hour of the day like the rest of us, it gave me a lot of freedom to let go of any sort of outside pressure. And not having a label, it made me feel more free to express myself.”
She kicks off Lilypad with the deceptively cheerful “Unforgivable,” which alludes to her mistreatment earlier in her career. In her signature voice that harkens back to Hollywood starlets of the 1950s, she sings, “When I get the chance, I’ll muster up some recklessness” and “I’ll use the knife that you once held/ And when it’s time to pay, I’ll send the invoice right your way.”
Savior has called the track a “mantra” to help her and other women who have been mistreated to stop blaming herself. The opening track sets the tone for her new 11-song collection, which sees the seasoned musician tackle the preservation of her mental health and find her unique sound all on her own.
Below, Savior dives deeper into Lilypad, and getting past the pressures of her early years in the industry.
The first track on the album is “Unforgivable,” which is about telling off someone in the industry who wronged you in the past. As a launch into the album, it feels like “let me address this, so we can move onto my album.”
Yeah, absolutely. It’s funny because it’s actually the last song that I wrote for the album. It felt like I was taking a step and trying to make a statement about wanting to have control over my own autonomy, of my own work and of myself as a woman that I don’t think I have had in the past. So, I wanted it to be at the forefront of this album.
You were a teenager when you first started in the music industry — and that’s a lot of pressure for a teen. Do you feel you’ve been able to shake any of the pressure by your third record?
Yeah, the expectation and the pressure I felt was like, “Find out who you are now so that we can market it and make money off of that.” I didn’t know who I was, because who knows when you’re that young. I had a lot of self-doubt within that experience and that was very confusing.
Beneath the Lilypad focuses a lot on your unmistakable voice and is more stripped down than your previous albums. Why did you scale back on that fuller sound?
That is because I felt a lot more confident with myself this time around. Before I felt like I needed to use that wall of sound to mask my insecurities about myself as a songwriter or a singer or a musician. I didn’t feel that way this time. I actually wanted to get rid of all of that and try to be vulnerable. That was definitely intentional.
On this album there are a lot of references to outer space like “Mothership” and “Venus,” what do you feel is your connection to the interstellar?
Well, first of all, I like conspiracy theories and UFOs and parallel universes and all of that. I feel connected to the universe and I think it’s a magical thing to think about, like how we are all made out of the same stuff and how does all of this affect us. You know, classic stoner thoughts. I don’t smoke weed, but I have a lot of stoner thoughts.
Another big theme on this album is mental health and how you are navigating that.
It is everything about what I write. I felt like it was impossible for me to not talk about ti with this album in particular because my songwriting comes from my mental illness. It’s a way for me to digest the experiences that I have within that and reflect on them. When I am in psychosis or mania or depression, I don’t have a clear perspective of what I’m experiencing.
So, to be in that space and write about my experience in a visceral way, instinctual way, it helps me be able to look back on that experience and understand myself more and understand my brain chemistry and what parts of it are me and what parts of it are just the perception that I have. Writing has been really helpful for that.
You created all of the art for this album including the cover art and the videos. How long have you been creating visual art?
I did the cover for the most recent single, “Mothership.” I did the album cover and then a lot of [my art] has been used within the merch and the videos. I’ve made stop motion videos for the songs. I’ve been doing [visual art] longer than I’ve been doing music. I started when I was 12. I took my first art class and that when I got my head kind of cracked open. I was immediately like, “This is what I have to do.”
You’re not thinking when you’re 12 how you are going to make a living when you’re 30, but I was painting and drawing predominantly. I was meant to go to art school. I had a dorm room picked out and everything. My mom was like, “You should probably try to make to make it with this, give it a few months and try to do this music thing.” So, now I have incorporated it into the music, because it’s fun.
Connie Francis’ legacy on Billboard’s charts predates the Aug. 4, 1958, inception of the Billboard Hot 100. Once the chart originated, her dominance continued, as she scored historic No. 1s and linked a string of enduring classics.
In spring 1958, Francis’ version of “Who’s Sorry Now,” originally a hit in the 1920s, rose to No. 4 on Billboard’s Top 100 chart. Upon the Hot 100’s start, “My Happiness” became the then-20-year-old’s first top 10 on the ranking, reaching No. 2 in January 1959.
On the Hot 100 dated June 27, 1960, Francis’ “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool” hit No. 1 — becoming the list’s first leader by a solo woman. That September, her “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” became the third such No. 1 (after Brenda Lee’s “I’m Sorry”).
By the time Francis had tallied her 15th and last Hot 100 top 10 to date, “Vacation,” in September 1962, she boasted the most among women — with only Elvis Presley having notched more, with 16. By the end of the ‘60s, her top 10 haul (all on the MGM label) still stood as the best among solo women, outpaced overall only by The Beatles (30), Presley (22) and the Supremes (18). Plus, Francis led all women soloists with her three No. 1s during the ‘60s.
A key to Francis’ chart success? “If I love the title, I always record the song,” she told Fred Bronson for The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. She shared that when “My Heart Has a Mind of Its Own” co-writer Howard Greenfield called her to tell her the song’s name, she said, “‘That’s a smash! Great title!’ ‘You haven’t heard the song yet,’ he said. ‘Doesn’t matter — it’s a great title!’ ”
Francis additionally grew her avid fandom thanks to starring movie roles, among them 1960’s Where the Boys Are. The film’s title song hit No. 4 on the Hot 100 in March 1961. (Still, she confessed to Bronson, “If you’ve ever seen any of my movies, you know I’m not an actress … I was amateurish. I used to keep a book of all the bad reviews because they were hilarious.”)
As Francis’ music is being welcomed by a new generation, thanks to the TikTok-fueled virality of her 1962 deep cut “Pretty Little Baby,” browse below her 10 biggest career hits on the Hot 100. (Notably, “Who’s Sorry Now” is not among them, since, as detailed above, its peak run occurred just before the chart began.)
Connie Francis’ Biggest Billboard Hits chart is based on actual performance on the weekly Hot 100 chart from its Aug. 4, 1958, inception, through May 17, 2025. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. Due to changes in chart methodology over the years, eras are weighted to account for different chart turnover rates over various periods.
“Mama”
Tyler Brown spent more than a decade working at Syco Entertainment, which launched the careers of superstar groups like One Direction and Fifth Harmony while the members were still in their teens. The vector for their rapid success was the TV show The X Factor. “We would take kids off the street, put them on TV in front of 15 million people twice a week, and then by the end of that show, they were famous,” says Brown, who recently co-founded the indie label Heatwave Records. “Then you put a record out in a few months, and it goes to No. 1. And that’s all in the space of less than a year.”
More than a decade later, though, teen superstars are vanishingly rare. This is immediately apparent when looking at Billboard‘s annual 21 Under 21 list, which snapshots the next generation of rising artists. 10 years ago, it was stocked full of acts who were already household names: Not only Fifth Harmony, but Five Seconds of Summer, Lorde, Shawn Mendes, and Troye Sivan. In 2021, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish were both on the list.
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This year, however, there aren’t any massive pop stars under the age of 21.
“There’s not a centralization of key platforms where people are finding artists,” says Mike Weiss, vp of music and head of A&R at UnitedMasters. “Everything is more niche. To become a superstar, it takes time to build from community to community and expand that base.”
That process typically is “a lot longer now,” Brown says, relative to the peak years of The X Factor. Many of the artists who recently enjoyed major breakthroughs triumphed in their mid-twenties after long grinds. Sabrina Carpenter released five albums before rocketing to fame on her sixth, while Noah Kahan put out two full-lengths and two EPs before releasing the album that propelled him into the mainstream. The career trajectory of country star Jelly Roll makes those ascents seem swift by comparison — he started to pepper the charts with hits only after releasing his eighth album.
“The time horizon of breaking an artist ten years ago used to be 18 to 36 months once they had signed to a major label,” Ben Maddahi, svp of A&R for Columbia Records, told NME in 2023. “Now it’s more like three to five years. It’s not going to happen quickly.”
In previous decades, stars were minted by the TV shows and radio stations that served as the central engine of music discovery. Major labels had the marketing resources and relationships to carpet-bomb these formats, sending listeners scrambling to cough up cash for records or CDs or downloads. At the dawn of the social media age, they started harvesting talent from YouTube (like Justin Bieber and Troye Sivan) and Vine (like Shawn Mendes) and plugging them into the major-label machine that created pop juggernauts.
But today’s fans are spread across an increasingly wide range of streaming services and social media platforms, each with its own priorities and approach to music. Young listeners, who are most likely to mint the next young stars, primarily learn about new songs through Spotify and TikTok, according to a 2024 report from Edison Research. For listeners aged 35 to 54, however, YouTube and radio airplay are far more important. TikTok doesn’t even register as a music discovery avenue for listeners 55 and up, where radio remains dominant.
Edison Research’s report surveyed music lovers on 14 different potential sources of discovery, and they could conceivably have inquired about more — they didn’t ask if anyone still learned about music by reading journalism, for example. In this fractured environment, “there’s no button to push” to blitz everyone simultaneously, says Jonathan Daniel, co-founder of Crush Music, which manages Miley Cyrus and Lorde, among others. “It’s so much less of a monoculture,” Daniel adds, “that it takes longer” to build a star.
At the same time, the rise of short-form video platforms — especially TikTok — has allowed songs to become popular faster than ever. But record companies have repeatedly been forced to reckon with the wide gulf that separates a viral hit from an enduring career. “Before, we were very focused on, ‘How do we make this a global artist that can be all these different things?’” explains Olly Shepard, senior vp of publishing at Artist Partner Group. “Now the song breaks, and then we have to build the artist around that.”
This can be challenging — some teenagers weren’t even contemplating a music career before they went viral and signed a record deal. It’s no surprise, then, that “labels have struggled to create follow-ups for a lot of the young artists” they signed following big TikTok hits, Brown says. “They need to have two, three, four records in a row to become a fully established artist.”
The last five years have shown that, even in a world where singles can become global phenomena nearly overnight, the star-building process remains stubbornly hard to accelerate. Many of the artists who are signed because of their prowess on short-form video platforms are “talented but under-prepared, and once signed, it becomes apparent that most need a couple of years just to get up to speed,” Maddahi said. “If you’re signing a 15-year-old kid off TikTok, they’ve likely never toured before, performed before or even been in a real studio.”
On top of that, some executives argue that the music industry is no longer prioritizing breaking new stars the way it once was — Chappell Roan famously got dropped after her first stint at a major label only to explode four years later. In a landscape full of viral singles and myriad sub-pockets of fandom, many labels are taking the approach of “let’s sign more small things, but in the aggregate they’re equivalent to a star,” says Leon Morabia, a partner at Mark Music & Media Law. “That’s not the same thing as picking someone because they’re so talented or so charismatic.”
Young artists can still carve out a robust career even if they’re only owning their particular niche. “There’s room for artists to have enormous success within their individual lanes — it just isn’t the type of success where casual music fans know who you are,” says Jeff Vaughn, founder and CEO of Signal Records. “That level of exposure and awareness is taking much longer to achieve now.”
A version of this story appears in the May 17, 2025, issue of Billboard.
Names Daniela, Lara, Manon, Megan, Sophia, YoonchaeAges 20, 19, 22, 19, 22, 17Label HYBE x GeffenPublisher HYBE x GeffenManagement HYBE x Geffen
Last year, when KATSEYE gave its first live performance at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena for the annual K-pop festival KCON, the group’s Megan remembers it as “chaotic but so much fun.” It was the first test of the members’ bond, with the girl group now saying strong communication is the key to navigating music industry madness. “We had to learn to be there for each other,” Sophia says. “We’re able to just come up to one another, good or bad, and say, ‘Hey, I feel this way.’ ” The HYBE x Geffen act will showcase that growth this spring with its second EP, Beautiful Chaos, which follows 2024’s SIS (Soft Is Strong) that spawned the Mainstream Top 40 hit “Touch.” As Manon teases: “This next era is really authentic to who we are.”
What are you most proud of when you look back at this past year?
Lara The MAMA Awards. That was our first time doing a big dance break as a group with dancers; there were cheerleaders and a full-on production. Every time I look back on that, I’m like, “Oh, my God. We did that.”
What has been the key to success in your first year as a group?
Sophia The biggest thing that we really learned together is communication. We care so deeply about each other, and this is something that we’re all so passionate about — this isn’t just our job. We’re so lucky to do something that we all grew up obsessed with. We’ve learned that it’s something we can connect through and that we have to be honest with each other all the time. At the end of the day, it’s the six of us against the world.
Megan We really found our flow with each other and how each of us works in different scenarios. When we do performances [now], we’re like, “OK, Megan needs to prepare in the corner, Yoonchae needs her own time, Sophia needs to warm up,” and then we all come together. So thanks to that communication, we all know each other so well and so deeply.
What can you share about what inspired your upcoming Beautiful Chaos EP?
Manon I always say this, but I feel like [fan army] the EYEKONS and [us] are the same people. We think the same; what they like, we like, and what we like, they like.
Sophia We are always on Weverse; we’re lurking through Instagram and Twitter. We literally see everything that the fans post and hear them, so hopefully, they’ll like what we’re coming out with.
What’s the best advice you would give aspiring young musicians?
Yoonchae To believe in yourself and do whatever you want.
Daniela It’s important to not let others decide your path.
Just one month after shutting down Brooklyn’s Barclays Center with two sold-out headlining shows — his first Stateside performances in 20 years — Vybz Kartel has announced an 11-date world tour alongside a new single titled “Pretty Girls.”
Kicking off May 17 at Miami’s Amerant Bank Arena, Kartel’s Freedom Street World Tour will visit Trinidad’s One Caribbean Music Festival, London’s Wireless Festival and Jamaica’s Reggae Sumfest — alongside arenas in Atlanta and Baltimore — before concluding with two shows in Malta on Sept. 11 and 12. The Freedom Street World Tour — which sources its name from the massive homecoming festival the King of Dancehall mounted on New Year’s Eve last year (Dec. 31, 2024) — serves as Kartel’s first trek in more than 20 years. Last summer, the dancehall legend walked out of prison a free man after serving 13 years of a now-overturned life sentence for the murder of Clive “Lizard” Williams.
Kartel has been incredibly active since his visa was reinstated at the top of the year. In January, he made his Billboard cover debut and released a ten-year anniversary deluxe edition of his 2015 Viking (Vybz Is King) album, featuring seven new songs. The following month (Feb. 2), he attended the 67th Annual Grammys, where he enjoyed his first career nomination for best reggae album (2024’s Party With Me EP). Two weeks later (Feb. 18), he delivered a sizzling career-spanning medley and received the Impact Award at the 27th MOBO Awards in the U.K. The same month he shut down Brooklyn with a pair of star-studded concerts — featuring guest appearances from Spice, Shenseea, Moliy, Busta Rhymes and more — Kartel picked five nominations at the third annual Caribbean Music Awards, which will take place in Kings Theatre on Aug. 28.
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In addition to his splashy tour announcement, the King of Dancehall also shared a brand new single. “Pretty Girls,” a bright, Now or Never Miami-helmed dancehall track dedicated to his eternal music, marks Kartel’s first release in partnership with Steven “Steve-O” Carless’ Defiant Records.
“I have had so many blessings this year,” Kartel said in a press release. “The summer is ours, and we are ready to take the world by storm, more passport stamps, more ‘Pretty Girls’ and endless possibilities.”
Stream “Pretty Girls” and check out Vybz Kartel’s Freedom Street World Tour dates below:
May 17 – Miami, Fla. @ Amerant Bank Arena May 24 – Georgetown, Guyana @ Guyana National Stadium May 31 – Port of Spain, Trinidad @ One Caribbean Music Festival June 6 – Atlanta, Ga. @ State Farm Arena June 14 – Atlantic City, N.J. @ Boardwalk Hall June 27 – St. Kitts @ St. Kitts Music Festival July 5 – Cologne, Germany @ Summerjam Festival July 13 – London, U.K. @ Wireless Festival July 18 – Montego Bay, Jamaica @ Reggae Sumfest July 26 – Baltimore, Md. @ CFG Bank Arena Sept 11–12 – Malta @ Freedom Street Europe Festivals
05/16/2025
Swift is the only woman on the list, which also includes seven male solo artists, two bands and one choral group.
05/16/2025
Rico Nasty is done waiting for permission. The rage-rap innovator, known for bending genre and unapologetically redefining feminine rage, has just dropped her new album LETHAL via Fueled By Ramen (May 16).
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And true to its name, LETHAL is explosive, expansive and razor-sharp, a sonic evolution that fuses her iconic “sugar trap” roots with searing rap-rock chaos and surprising softness.
“It’s like we did the experimentation, and it kind of mixed up the potions of everything that came before,” Rico tells Billboard. “And now we’ve built this bionic titanium steel brick house of a b***h. Yeah. She’s just standing there like — please, want it”.
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The project comes after a transformative year for Rico. She cleared out her emotional closet, cut ties with her previous team, and — in the middle of a solo phase — got the call to perform with Paramore, leading to her new management. The clarity that followed is embedded in every layer of LETHAL, which was executive produced by GRAMMY-nominated Imad Royal.
“I had that pit in my stomach and I was like, I should just do it — what’s the worst that could happen?” she says about leaning harder into rock. “Once you start making music for other people, it takes the fun out of it. I had to grow up and evolve and realize I don’t really care about people’s approval anymore”.
From the shoulder-shrug defiance of lead single “TEETHSUCKER (YEA3X)” to the raw emotional core of tracks like “Smile,” Rico balances rage with vulnerability.
“It’s about my kid. I could be going through so much, and he always makes me laugh… In parenting him, I lowkey learned how to parent myself,” she says of “Smile,” a track inspired by her son. “Even though I’m talking about my kid, I’m also talking about seeing my kid and realizing, wow, he’s so much like me. And I’m still a child, like within my own right. In parenting him, I lowkey feel like I’ve learned how to parent myself too”.
But don’t get it twisted — LETHAL isn’t about playing nice. “Some people just don’t have the same morals as you, and that’s OK. That don’t make them a bad person,” she explains. “But when you stick your arm out for people and they don’t reciprocate, it can create resentment. I’m not going to let that harden me, though. I’m still going to be me”.
And that’s exactly what LETHAL captures: a fully-realized Rico, unfiltered and unbothered. She’s not looking to be copied — she’s looking to connect.
“I definitely did trailblaze this, and I’m not taking any other answer… From the fashion to the hair, the makeup—I definitely own it,” Rico declares.
“I want people to listen and feel free. Like, I’m not the only one who feels like this. I’m not the only person who sees this s–t. I’m not the only person who feels like the whole world revolves around me”.
British pop phenomenon Lola Young has dropped “One Thing,” her first slice of new material since the release of her This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway LP in August.
Inspired by classic boom-bap production, lyrically, the track sees Young assert her agency in the bedroom with a new flame. “I wanna show you just what I like/ I wanna kiss you slow/ Wanna f–k you rough/ Wanna eat you up,” she sings.
“One Thing” arrives after a series of social media teaser clips from the 24-year-old, which were filmed in California after her appearance at Coachella in April. Its accompanying music video was directed by Dave Meyers (Little Simz, SZA, Sabrina Carpenter).
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“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,” said Young in a press release.
Young has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past six months. Her anthemic single “Messy” enjoyed a slow-burn rise to the top of the Official U.K. Singles Chart in January, hitting the summit eight months after it was initially released. It has been streamed more than 600 million times on Spotify to date, with listeners drawn to Young’s frank assessment of her own failings.
By spending four weeks at No. 1, Young became the longest running British female artist to be at the top spot since Adele’s “Easy on Me” in 2021. “Messy” broke a tie with Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” (2022) and Kenya Grace’s “Strangers” (2023); both had three-week stints at the top.
Elsewhere, the south Londoner has collaborated with Tyler, the Creator (“Like Him”) and Lil Yachty (“Charlie”), and has recently scooped three Ivor Novello nominations, as well as landing in the best pop act category at the BRIT Awards back in March.
“What I’m realizing about myself as an artist is that I’m not about the glitz and the glam — I don’t scream ‘Hollywood’,” Young told Billboard U.K. of her global success in an interview published last November. “For a long time, I wanted to represent this ideal of Westernized beauty — but then I realized I’m not that. I now choose to give realness and truth. I’ve got a bit of a belly out, I f–king swear a bunch and I have fun. And that’s what people are resonating with.”
Looking ahead, Young is scheduled to perform at festivals across the U.K. and Europe throughout the summer, including Reading & Leeds in August. The following month, she is set to appear at All Things Go in New York City alongside the likes of Doechii and Noah Kahan.
Listen to “One Thing” below:
