Lola Young tackles self-sabotage on soulful new single ‘D£aler’

Lola Young has unveiled a new single, ‘D£aler’, which unpacks her past struggles with self-sabotage.

Across the upbeat track containing elements of pop and soul, Young details her desire to escape the emotionally turbulent aftermath of a romantic situation. “I wanna get away, far from here/Pack my bags, my drugs, and disappear/Tell you, “No,” make it clear/I’m not coming back for fifteen years,” she sings.

‘D£aler’ is taken from her forthcoming album  ‘I’m Only Fucking Myself’ which will drop on September 19 via Island/Day One – pre-save/pre-order here.

Check it out below:

The track received praise from Elton John, who described it as “the biggest smash I’ve heard in years”.

In the latest episode of Elton John’s Rocket Hour on Apple Music 1, John told Young: “I have to say, after listening to the album, there’s a track on your album which would be the next single, I’m going to tell everyone it’s called ‘d£aler’. And if that isn’t Number 1, I bet my house that that’s a Number 1 single.

“I bet my house. It is fucking amazing. It’s unbelievable. It’s the biggest smash I’ve heard in years,” he continued.”

So far, Young has previewed the “liberating and sexy” single ‘One Thing’, which she said “highlights sex being both a fun and light thing, not always meaningful, as well as showing how gender roles can be reversed,” and ‘Not Like That Anymore’.

‘I’m Only F**king Myself’ will serve as follow-up to her 2024 debut album ‘This Wasn’t Meant For You Anyway’, which featured her breakout viral hit ‘Messy’.

NME caught up with Young when she received the Rising Star Award at this year’s Ivor Novello Awards.

The singer told us about the background of ‘Messy’, which ranked as one of the biggest songs of 2025 so far. “I just wrote it from a really personal place and it can sometimes be re-triggering hearing that song because it was so intense,” she told us at the awards ceremony. “I’m out of that place now, out of that difficult time in my life.”

“I think it’s just a relatable song. A lot of people don’t feel like they’re enough for somebody; they don’t feel like they’ll ever win.”

Elsewhere, Young recently announced a 2025 UK tour, set to kick off in October. You can see a full list of dates here, and buy your tickets here.

Lola Young’s 2025 UK dates are:

OCTOBER
6 – Manchester, O2 Victoria Warehouse
9 – Birmingham, O2 Academy
15 – London, O2 Academy Brixton

It follows her debut Glastonbury performance last month. In a round-up of the best sets from the weekend, NME wrote: “A lot has changed for Lola Young since she first performed at Glasto back in 2022. Returning now having played at the BRITs, graced the NME Cover and having her song ‘Messy’ reach over 700million streams on Spotify, there is no doubt that this moment on the Woodsies stage was a powerful one for the London singer.

Young was supposed to be performing at Reading and Leeds next month but it was confirmed earlier this week that she had to pull out due to “an unavoidable scheduling conflict”.