Victoria Canal has reflected on Lola Young’s recent decision to take a break from touring to focus on mental health, and explained how “unhealthy” it can be mentally to be a musician.
- READ MORE: “Pressure cooker” impact of touring on mental health “needs addressing” – but help is at hand
Young announced earlier this week that she would be “going away” for a while, after she collapsed on stage in New York City from exhaustion, and had to be carried off stage by a medical team.
After the gig, she took to Instagram to reassure fans that she was “doing okay”, but then later announced that she would be pulling out of her Washington DC set at All Things Go the next day.
Young was due to embark on a UK tour this autumn, and has announced that she will be taking a break from all commitments for the “foreseeable future” to focus on mental wellbeing.
Now, Victoria Canal has expressed her support for the singer and explained to fans how mentally exhausting life on the road can be, with circumstances getting harder over time.
Beginning her post, Canal shared how she noticed a similarity between what happened to Lola Young in New York, and what happened to Lewis Capaldi in 2023, when he “cancelled all future dates in light of his Tourette’s symptoms being exacerbated on stage”.
“I can’t help but draw the thread that these are two (of many) artists in the modern era that qualify as Mental Health Artists – the ones that openly address mental illness and visibly hold it all more heavily,” she wrote. “The irony is, taking it slow, taking many years to hibernate and process, is exactly what a person of that kind of disposition has to do to stay well – and this is not a slow industry. With every passing year, artists are pushed to release more constantly, tour more constantly, achieve achieve achieve – because everyone is terrified of losing the hype.”
“It’s a rational fear – things really don’t last. This is a bitter pill to swallow. You could be nominated for a Grammy one month and find yourself struggling to get one per cent of your fans to engage with you the next,” the singer added. “You could have a hit song on the radio and be struggling to pay rent a year later. We are all clawing at the edges of whatever relevance we manage to find, pressured to keep riding the wave for as long as possible.”
She went on to recall how she recently saw an artist “sobbing” in a hotel lobby recently from exhaustion, and added that she has seen her own career slow down “because I have prioritised, above all things, my mental wellbeing.”
Adding more about her own experience of mental health struggles from being in the music industry, she wrote: “I’ve definitely considered in moments this year that by slowing down and moving out of the city to the French countryside, l’ve given up getting to the top of the mountain I was trekking, before I even got that far. The truth is, I’m still trekking – music is the only thing I ever want to do – I just don’t want to have to hollow out every part of me to be considered ‘successful’ at it.”
Concluding, she added: “I’m taking pit stops to sit and enjoy where I am, to assess how I’m showing up for others, to decouple myself from the hierarchy of online relevance, to take the pressure off of achieving *everything* *right* *now*…
“And who knows, maybe it means I’ll get dropped, maybe it means I’ll have a smaller audience, maybe it means I won’t live that Big Star life and that I’ll never win a Grammy. But at least l’ll be in a place where I actively choose my life, and I learn to stay well. That’s what I hope for artists right now.”
Back in 2023, various figures from the music industry spoke to NME about the “dangerous” impact that touring can have on musicians, while offering up help and advice for World Mental Health Day.
Mental health charity Mind have also shared how people working in the music industry are “more prone to mental health problems than the general population”, with “musicians being up to three times more likely to suffer from depression”.
Around that same time, musicians’ charity Help Musicians reported a 200 per cent increase in people engaging with their services over the past two years.
There have been efforts to help provide more support for artists prevailing in recent years. Earlier this summer, the Music Industry Therapy Collective (MITC) set up the Online Tour Health And Welfare Coaching service – a 24-hour mental health support service available for touring professionals working in music, including artists, production staff, promoters, venues and agents.
Before then, the Universal Music Group announced the launch of a new music health fund in partnership with the Music Health Alliance in February.
It builds on its four-year healthcare programme through personalised recommendations for mental health counsellors, grants to offset costs and funding resource recommendations if necessary to ensure the continuation of care through additional financial and mental health support.
For further help and advice on mental health:
- “Am I depressed?” – Help and advice on mental health and what to do next
- MITC – A collective of musician industry therapists
- TONIC Rider – Bespoke training and support for music industry professionals
- Help Musicians UK – Around the clock mental health support and advice for musicians
- Music Support Org – Help and support for musicians struggling with alcoholism, addiction, or mental health issues
- YOUNG MINDS – The voice for young people’s health and wellbeing
- CALM – The Campaign Against Living Miserably
- The Samaritans – Confidential support 24 hours a day
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