Yola

From session vocalist to Nashville

Yola was born Yolanda Claire Quartey on July 31, 1983 in Bristol. Before her own records she worked under her given name as a guest vocalist and occasional songwriter for dance and electronic acts, among them Chase and Status, Sub Focus, Massive Attack, Bugz in the Attic, Ginger Wildheart and Duke Dumont, and in her late teens and early twenties she fronted other artists' bands on arena stages, which she has described as a fronting gun for hire. She launched a solo career in 2013 and self-released the EP Orphan Offering on November 1, 2016. In 2017 she won UK Artist of the Year at the UK Americana Awards.

Walk Through Fire (February 22, 2019, Easy Eye Sound) was produced by Dan Auerbach at his Nashville studio and made her an American name. She made her US television debut on CBS This Morning Saturday Sessions in March 2019 during Mavis Staples's 80th birthday tour, and played the Newport Folk Festival that July. At the 62nd Grammys she was nominated for best new artist, best Americana album, best American roots performance and best American roots song, the last for "Faraway Look". Stand for Myself (July 30, 2021, Easy Eye Sound and Concord), also produced by Auerbach, reached 46 in the UK and 1 on the UK Americana chart, and brought two more Grammy nominations, for best Americana album and, for "Diamond Studded Shoes", best American roots song.

She has acted as well as sung: she played Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, appeared on The Highwomen's "Hold On" with Sheryl Crow, and made her Broadway debut on July 2, 2024 as Persephone in Hadestown. In September 2024 she released the single "Future Enemies" on S-Curve Records. She names Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Little Feat and the Bee Gees among her influences.