Lola Young fans gobsmacked as they discover who Messy singer's famous aunt is

Fans of Lola Young recently discovered the Messy singer has a famous family member.

The musician recently skyrocketed to fame thanks to her song Messy - which went viral on TikTok with 1.7million videos under the sound. The 24-year-old from London collaborated with Tyler, the Creator on Chromakopia and performed Messy on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

The star attended the BRIT School in Croydon growing up and even participated in Open Mic UK, where she won the contest with Never Enough, leading to a consultation package with Future Music and £5,000 for music development. In 2016, she appeared on CBBC's Got What It Takes? and later caught the attention of Amy Winehouse's manager, Nick Shymansky, during her performances at local gigs and open mic nights.

In 2019, she signed with Island Records and released her debut single and, two years later, performed on The Late Late Show with James Corden. She was also nominated for the Brit Award for Rising Star and covered Together in Electric Dreams for the John Lewis Christmas advert.

While many followed her rise to fame, not many knew about her famous family aunt - Julia Donaldson - who wrote The Gruffalo. The children's book is illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The 76-year-old star also wrote Room on the Broom and Stick Man. In January 2025, Donaldson became Britain's best-selling author, surpassing controversial writer J.K. Rowling by around 600,000 sales.

Not only did she surpass Rowling, she was the Children's Laureate between 2011 and 2013 and was awarded an MBE in 2011. Some annoyed fans claimed Lola's success was due to nepotism as they shared their complaints on social media, with one user saying: "Feel like this woman appeared out of nowhere in the past few months so I had a Google. Her Auntie wrote ‘The Gruffalo’ and she went to the BRIT school. LOL. Same as it ever was.”

Another person commented: "Imagine you studied your craft at a performing arts school have been grinding for years as a singer, you finally get recognition & people are calling you a nepo monster because your aunt wrote 'who is this creature with terrible claws and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws'."

However, Lola grew up in a family who nurtured her musical talents as she previously referenced her artistic family in the past. Lola told The Telegraph: "Coming from an art­istic family was really helpful because they understood that music is a real job, that I can make money from it. I never had a plan B."