Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Sofa Session: Yola

Yola plays a Sofa Session for Jo, including music from her latest album, Stand For Myself, and a vintage cover.

Yola plays a Sofa Session for Jo, including music from her latest album, Stand For Myself, and a vintage cover.

Stand For Myself finds Yola at her most melodically and lyrically free. β€œIt’s a collection of stories of allyship, black feminine strength through vulnerability, and loving connection from the sexual to the social. All celebrating a change in thinking and paradigm shift at their core.” Yola said, adding, β€œIt is an album not blindly positive and it does not simply plead for everyone to come together. It instead explores ways that we need to stand for ourselves throughout our lives, what limits our connection as humans and declares that real change will come when we challenge our thinking and acknowledge our true complexity.” Yola believes that only then can we be truly alive and that freedom is more than merely surviving.

Last year, the pandemic derailed Yola's plans to tour stadiums (with Chris Stapleton and The Black Keys) as well as numerous festival plays. In addition, her plans were sidelined to fly to Australia to film a role as Sister Rosetta Tharpe in the new Baz Luhrmann Elvis biopic. Yola used this unexpected gift of time and space to become grounded both physically and mentally, as she began to craft the songs that would eventually become Stand For Myself.

Stand For Myself draws inspiration from seminal albums Yola discovered via her mother’s 70s record collection, as well as the eclectic mix tapes she created, listening to British radio, featuring everything from 90s neo soul to R&B and britpop. All which soundtracked her childhood and teenage years in Bristol, England. From stress induced voice loss to living on London’s streets, Yola has navigated it all to launch her genre-fluid solo career.

1 hour, 30 minutes

Last on

Wed 24 Nov 2021 19:30
ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2

More episodes

Previous

Culture Club: film with James King

Next

Thursday Theme: gaming

See all episodes from Jo Whiley

Music Played

  • Inhaler

    Cheer Up Baby

    • Cheer Up Baby.
    • Polydor Records.
    • 1.

  • Baby Queen

    Wannabe

    • Wannabe.
    • Polydor.
    • 1.

  • Adele

    Oh My God

    • 30.
    • Columbia.

  • Burning Spear

    Marcus Garvey

    • Mango.

  • The Killers

    Pressure Machine

    • Pressure Machine.
    • EMI.

  • Caribou

    You Can Do It

    • You Can Do It.
    • City Slang.
    • 1.

  • Travis

    Killer Queen

    • The Invisible Band 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition.
    • Craft Recordings.
    • 2.

  • Koffee

    Toast

    • Toast.
    • Sony Music Entertainment.
    • 1.

  • Yola

    Dancing Away In Tears (Sofa Session, 24 November 2021)

  • Yola

    Stand For Myself (Sofa Session, 24 November 2021)

  • Sister Rosetta Tharpe

    My Journey To The Sky

    • Global Roots: Gospel.
    • 12.

  • Yola

    Nutbush City Limits (Sofa Session, 24 November 2021)

  • Lenny Kravitz

    It Ain't Over 'til It's Over

    • Awesome 2 - Various Artists.
    • EMI.

  • Biffy Clyro

    Space

    • A Celebration Of Endings.
    • Warner Records.

  • The Chemical Brothers

    Where Do I Begin

    • Dig Your Own Hole.
    • Freestyle Dust/Virgin.
    • 1.

  • Janis Joplin

    Mercedes Benz

    • Janis Joplin - Pearl.
    • Columbia.

Broadcast

  • Wed 24 Nov 2021 19:30
    ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2