Yola
Joseph Ross SmithIt took the pandemic for Yola to realize she needed balance while on the road -- and she's making sure she remembers that on her upcoming trek.
The British singer is set to embark on her largest U.S. headlining tour yet, beginning in February with two nights at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium, Chicago’s landmark Thalia Hall and plenty more. The nearly 40-date tour follows her triumphant new album Stand for Myself, and fans can expect a bolder onstage presence than they’ve seen before.
“I misunderstood that I was an extrovert, but I am an introverted extrovert,” says Yola. She adds that while she felt a bit guilty enjoying alone time during the pandemic, it gave her time to discover that such solitude was necessary to recharge "because of the nature of my job and my humor, which I developed primarily as a defense mechanism to white supremacy, which then developed into a coping mechanism. It’s how I amuse myself -- and keep everything making sense.”
Stand for Yourself -- Yola's second studio album produced by her label boss and the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach -- is a departure from her first as the music is glitzy and conjures images of line dancing and roller rinks. Listeners can almost see the light reflected from a disco ball on solemnly named tracks like “Dancing Away My Tears.” And for as much as the album celebrates black feminine strength through vulnerability, it also proves Yola is unafraid to tackle issues of racism and cultural divides.
She's quick to attribute much of the album’s success to new co-writers, most of whom were women. When she first entered Auerbach’s orbit years ago, they decided to create a record together in Nashville before they even met. At the time, Yola knew few people in the States and, as a result, created her 2019 breakout album Walk Through Fire with a room full of white American men.
“There wasn’t anything in my life experience that they would instinctively know about,” she recalls of her first co-writers. “I finally got to pick the co-writers for this record because I knew enough people. One thing that really makes it sound different is that I have women of color [contributing] that can help me speak on something.”
The Bristol native tapped The Highwomen’s Natalie Hemby, H.E.R. co-writer Ruby Amanfu and rising star Joy Oladokun, among others. She credits their voices for helping her complete songs that had previously stalled, like “Break the Bough,” which she began writing in 2013. As Yola says: “To be able to have some agency is a really big thing that stands out [on this album]."
And while Yola’s work has always been difficult to categorize -- though many have called it everything from country to soul to folk and beyond -- she’s doubling down on the idea of genre-bending not only on the album, which is equal parts reckoning and romp, but also with her new merch that should be available at her upcoming 2022 headlining dates.
Tickets for Yola’s 2022 headlining dates will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. local time. An exclusive Spotify Fans First presale will begin Thursday. Yola will hit the road this year for select festivals, as well as rescheduled opening dates with Chris Stapleton. See the singer’s full list of dates below.
2021
Aug 21 - Globe Life Park - Arlington, TX - w/ Chris Stapleton
Aug 22 - Outlaw Music Festival - Austin360 Amphitheater
Sep 3 - Summerfest
Sep 5 - Jazz Aspen Snowmass
Sep 10 - Bristol Rhythm & Roots Festival
Sep 11 - Moon River Festival
Sep 12 - Sing Out Loud Festival
Sep 16 - Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre - Maryland Height, MO - w/ Chris Stapleton
Sep 17 - Oak Mountain Amphitheatre - Birmingham, AL - w/ Chris Stapleton
Sep 18 - The Wharf Amphitheatre - Orange Beach, AL - w/ Chris Stapleton
Sep 25 - Ruoff Music Center. Noblesville, IN - w/ Chris Stapleton
Sep 26 - Ohana Music Festival
Oct 7 - Harvester Performance Center - Rocky Mount, VA
Oct 8 - Madison Square Garden - NYC, NY - w/ Chris Stapleton
Oct 14 - Mizzou Arena - Columbia, MO - w/ Chris Stapleton
Oct 15 - Pinnacle Bank Arena - Lincoln, NE - w/ Chris Stapleton
Oct 16 - Denny Sanford Premier Center - Sioux Falls, SD - w/ Chris Stapleton
Oct 21 - Riverbend Music Center - Cincinnati, OH - w/ Chris Stapleton
Oct 22 & 23 - Bridgestone Arena - Nashville, TN - w/ Chris Stapleton
Oct 28 - United Supermarket Arena - Lubbock, TX - w/ Chris Stapleton
Oct 29 - Isleta Amphitheater - Albuquerque, NM - w/ Chris Stapleton
Oct 30 - AK-Chin Pavilion - Phoenix, AZ - w/ Chris Stapleton
Nov 4 - Frank Erwin Center - Austin, TX - w/ Chris Stapleton
Nov 5 - BOK Center - Tulsa, OK - w/ Chris Stapleton
Nov 6 - Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion - The Woodlands, TX - w/ Chris Stapleton
Nov 24 - Bristol, Eng - Rough Trade
Dec 3 - FedEx Forum - Memphis, TN - w/ Chris Stapleton
Dec 4 - Mississippi Coast Coliseum - Biloxi, MS - w/ Chris Stapleton
Dec 5 - Thompson-Boling Arena - Knoxville, TN - w/ Chris Stapleton
2022
Feb 1-5 - Girls Just Wanna Weekend
Feb 8 - Big Night Live - Boston, MA
Feb 11 - Lincoln Theatre - Washington D.C
Feb 13 - Jefferson Theatre - Charlottesville, VA
Feb 15 - Philadelphia, PA - venue TBA on sale TBA
Feb 17 - Thalia Hall - Chicago, IL
Feb 19 - Hoyt Sherman Place - Des Moines, IA
Feb 23 - First Avenue - Minneapolis, MN
Mar 3 - Ryman Auditorium - Nashville, TN - w/ Allison Russell
Mar 4 - Ryman Auditorium - Nashville, TN - w/ Devon Gilfillian
Mar 11 - Saint Andrew’s Hall - Detroit, MI
Mar 13 - The National - Richmond, VA
Mar 15 - The Orange Peel - Asheville, NC
Mar 16 - The Ritz - Raleigh, NC
Mar 18 - Charleston Music Hall - Charleston, SC
Mar 19 - The Eastern - Atlanta, GA
Mar 20 - Saturn - Birmingham, AL
Mar 22 - Little Rock, AR - venue TBA on sale TBA
Mar 23 - The Joy Theater - New Orleans, LA
Mar 25 - Studio at the Factory - Dallas, TX
Mar 26 - The Heights Theater - Houston, TX
Mar 27 - Stubb's Waller Creek Amphitheater - Austin, TX
Mar 29 - Uptown Theater - Kansas City, MO
Mar 30 - The Jones Assembly - Oklahoma City, OK
April 1 - Belly Up Aspen - Aspen, CO
April 2 - Ogden Theatre - Denver, CO
April 3 - Boulder Theater - Boulder, CO
Apr 5 - The Depot - Salt Lake City, UT
Apr 6 - Knitting Factory - Boise, ID
Apr 7 - The ELM - Bozeman, MT
Apr 9 - The Wilma - Missoula, MT
Apr 10 - The Showbox - Seattle, WA
Apr 11 - Roseland Theater - Portland, OR
Apr 14 - The Fillmore - San Francisco, CA
Apr 15 - Ace of Spades - Sacramento, CA
April 20 - Huntington Center. Toledo, OH - w/ Chris Stapleton
April 21 - Schottenstein Center. Columbus, OH - w/ Chris Stapleton
April 23 - A Concert for Kentucky – Kroger Field. Lexington, KY - w/ Chris Stapleton
Apr 27 - House of Blues - Las Vegas, NV
May 1 - Stagecoach Festival
NEWS
There’s a high probability that Jorja Smith has new music coming this summer. The British singer revealed plans for her What Are the Odds LP on Thursday (July 2), with the album set to arrive on Aug. 21 via FAMM.
Smith reunites with producer P2J — who served as a primary collaborator on her 2023 album Falling or Flying — for the entirety of the project. J Money and P2J will continue to build on the inventive U.K. garage sound Smith has been exploring, alongside a mix of grime and house.
“This album came together really naturally. There was never a big plan; it was just me making music that felt right in the moment,” Smith tells Billboard. “Working with P2J, we started experimenting with different sounds, pulling from U.K. garage, grime and house (funky house, Afro house) and it all grew from there.”
She continues: “The music feels uplifting, but the lyrics can be a bit sad at times. They’re about growing up, love, loss, friendships and figuring things out as I go. I trusted my instincts with this one, and I think you can hear that throughout the record.”
Smith kicked off the album’s rollout in May with the self-assuring “What’s Done Is Done,” and it continues on Thursday (July 2) with a second single, “Alive,” which finds the R&B singer joining forces with Afrobeats pioneer WizKid. The duo basks in the love-drunk euphoria of the honeymoon phase of a bubbling relationship and heads to Paris for the visual.
“Making this with P2J and WizKid felt really easy,” Smith adds of the collab. “We wrote and recorded it together in London. I think we captured that feeling when you’re at the beginning of something with someone and everything feels exciting. I’ve always loved WizKid’s music and the way he’s opened so many doors for Afrobeats around the world, so it feels really special and a big honor to have a song with him.”
What Are the Odds serves as Jorja Smith’s third studio album and contains 12 tracks. Outside of WizKid, the only other feature comes from grime artist Devlin.
When the project lands on Aug. 21, Smith will hit the stage later that night at London’s All Points East, as she’ll be co-headlining the Victoria Park show with Tems. 2026 has already been a busy year for J Money, who served as a musical guest on the debut season of Saturday Night Live UK in April.
The 29-year-old also collaborated with Mobb Deep’s Havoc for a remix of her “Blue Lights” classic and lent “Price of It All” to Amazon MGM Studios’ Bait soundtrack.
Find the What Are the Odds cover art and tracklist below.
What Are the Odds tracklist:
