On Her New Single “Diamond Studded Shoes,” Yola Reminds Us We’ve Got a Long Way to Go

The Dan Auerbach-produced “Stand for Myself” is out July 30 on Easy Eye Sound. 
On Her New Single “Diamond Studded Shoes,” Yola Reminds Us We’ve Got a Long Way to Go

The Dan Auerbach-produced “Stand for Myself” is out July 30 on Easy Eye Sound. 

Words: Margaret Farrell

photo by Joseph Ross Smith

April 22, 2021

If you haven’t heard the voice of Yolanda Quartey—a.k.a. Yola—when you do you’ll remember where and when it first washed over you. The singer-songwriter weaves together a hearty blend of country and blues into her music, breaking onto the scene with her 2019 Dan Auerbach–produced debut album Walk Through Fire. Since then, she’s been nominated for four Grammys—including Best New Artist—and cast to play Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic. Today she’s announced her sophomore follow-up Stand for Myself—joining forces again with producer Auerbach—and its lead single “Diamond Studded Shoes.”

In a statement, Yola described the album as “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.” She also noted that the album is not going to be a blanket statement of optimism, which is pretty obvious from “Diamond Studded Shoes.”

The soulful ’70s-inspired track that sounds like it came straight out of Muscle Shoals is an affecting, realistic take on the ongoing fight for equity. “You and I are trying / But we don’t get to decide when the man comes for our paychecks / Don’t you tell me it will be alright,” she sings during one verse. But this isn’t a track for throwing in the towel, but rather for galvanizing a stronger impetus to keep fighting.

Yola continued, “This song explores the false divides created to distract us from those few who are in charge of the majority of the world’s wealth and use the ‘divide and conquer’ tactic to keep it. This song calls on us to unite and turn our focus to those with a stranglehold on humanity.”

In the vivid music video directed by Kwaku Otchere, partly inspired by The Truman Show, Yola finds herself in a picture-perfect purgatory where it’s only flawless depending on where the frame lands. “The island at the end is a paradigm of mental conditioning, we are all trapped on an island of our own thinking, until we change it,” she said.

Watch it below.