British soul singer Yola grew up in poverty in Bristol, England, was discouraged from making music over concerns for the field’s financial instability, and was indeed homeless for a short while, but she didn't give up. As an adult, she fronted the country-soul band Phantom Limb, toured with Massive Attack, worked behind the scenes as a session singer, and then in 2016 her big break came - she made her debut at Nashville’s AmericanaFest with a rapturously received set. Footage of her performance reached producer Dan Auerbach, who soon got in touch about collaborating and ultimately co-wrote almost every song on her debut album 'Walk Through Fire'. It got four Grammy nominations, including nods for best new artist and best Americana album, and it got her some new friends - “It’s really normal for me to get a text from Brandi Carlile or Sheryl Crow,” says Yola - “This was not normal eight months ago”.

The first 30 years of my life were fiercely and exclusively collaborative, I’d never done anything on my own before, and then I started learning how to do things on my own, and I realized it’s a very different mindset. So I got used to that dynamic, wrote a bunch of stuff, and I tried […]