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Grammys: Yola's journey from homeless in London to Nashville's award season darling

Matthew Leimkuehler
Nashville Tennessean

No one would blame Yola if she wasn’t ready for 2019 to end. 

Last February, with her debut album “Walk Through Fire,” this 36-year-old British songwriter launched a campaign for the crown of country soul. 

The trail led her to Newport Folk Festival and the Americana Music Awards; to shows alongside Mavis Staples and Kacey Musgraves; to a performance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and tracking at NPR’s beloved “Tiny Desk” series.

Her 2019 campaign wrapped with a rousing ovation at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, her first proper set inside the Mother Church of Country Music.

And, with a classic pop sound drenched in traditional country twang, she can’t wait for another year of stage-to-stage campaigning — including a stop this week at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles

“It's been really awesome, in so many ways, that it's impossible to process,” Yola, born Yolanda Quartey, told The Tennessean. “That said, (this year) is going to be as crazy, if not more crazy.” 

Yola performs at the Americana Music Honors & Awards Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tenn.

Still, Yola’s life wasn’t always Dolly Parton duets and Elton John endorsements. She battled a disapproving household, homelessness and years of unjust career opportunities before leading a new class of Nashville torchbearers at the 2020 Grammy Awards. 

Earning four total nominations, she’ll compete in the all-genre Best New Artist category alongside mainstream breakouts Lil Nas X, Billie Eilish and Lizzo. 

“She just embodies everything about the type of artists that I want to work with,” said Dan Auerbach, "Walk Through Fire" producer and Black Keys frontman. Auerbach released the album on his Nashville-based label, Easy Eye Sound, earning a Producer of the Year nomination at the upcoming Grammy Awards in-part for the effort. 

“(She’s) adventurous, creative, soulful …. with that special something that she just has, you know? When you hear that voice in person for the first time, it's really staggering.” 

Yola, 'Walk Through Fire'

British roots

The daughter of a Barbadian immigrant, Yola grew up in Portishead, England, a working class community about 10 miles outside Bristol. Her mother left Barbados during the “Windrush” generation, a post-World World II labor recruitment initiative that continues to face political scrutiny in modern Britain

An experience that she said that differs from African Americans born into generations of civil unrest, Yola was raised in one of many first-generation black British families -- a place of cultural disconnect. 

“If you weren't from the Islands or you weren't from Africa, then they weren't quite sure what you were,” Yola said. “It's taken time to build this black British culture. You want to be different and you want to just do what you want to do.” 

“You feel as though that there's nobody like you,” she continued. “And that's the truth.” 

This influenced a musical upbringing defined by sounds unequivocally British and American. As a kid, Yola absorbed Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton and the Kinks. She heard Bjork and Beck on the radio. 

But, despite knowing at a young age that she wanted to write songs, her mother banned Yola as a teenager from pursuing a career in music. It wasn’t an “acceptable” job — lawyer, doctor or engineer. And her family felt systemic distrust after being recruited to the U.K. through advertisements promising “streets paved with gold,” she said. 

“Mistrust with the system runs deep,” Yola said. “(My mom’s) like, ‘You can't trust these people. Do something that you know is a surefire.’”

Yola.

She didn’t enroll in medical school, though. Yola instead pursued a career in pop music: “If I do what I really want to do in life, I'll do a better job than something that I have no interest in doing," she insisted. 

It didn’t work. At first. 

At age 21, decamped to London, out of college funds and between gigs, she found herself homeless. 

In that moment, she learned a lesson that remains constant in her career: You need to be your own backstop. 

“That whole process of fighting your way through — and being surrounded by — people who wanted things from you but who were not remotely there on the other side when you needed anything from them,” she said, “that taught me everything I didn't want in life.” 

To Nashville

London streets, of course, wouldn’t suit Yola forever. She found work in the British dance and pop scene, writing for Duke Dumont and Massive Attack. 

She stayed patient, passing on opportunities that were based on how she looked — or how gatekeepers wanted her to sound (like an R&B "house screamer," Yola jested) — instead of who she could be. 

"Eminem could've decided to be a folk guitarist .. but he decided to go into rap and he was free to do whatever the freak he liked because that's what it's like," Yola said. "And you just don't get that. Like, you're given a very kind-of narrow lane within which you're expected to operate.

"And, so, everything that isn't just toeing the line, it's going to be work." 

Saying "no" until the right moment paid off when Auerbach saw Yola perform at AmericanaFest in 2016. The two hit on a creative wavelength, co-writing and producing the album considered one of the last decade’s essential Nashville exports. 

Yola performs before the Kacey Musgraves concert Oct. 25, 2019, at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

In Nashville, Yola found a creative collective where she could communicate her ideas "in a meaningful way." When not touring, she now splits her time between Nashville and Bristol, U.K. 

"Not only was I able to get my point across, it's that my point needed to be made ... that as an artist of color, it was important to sketch out who I am and not be drawn into any trope," she said. "The easiest thing to happen is to be drawn into a trope ... or into a conversation that isn't necessarily about your individuality." 

She continued: "And all my white peers were always individuals. So I knew that if communication was quick and it was efficient, then I'd be able to get my point across quicker and maybe I'd be able to be understood quicker. And that has proven 100% true. It has worked. The connection I've felt in Nashville has been real." 

‘Walk Through Fire’ 

On “Walk Through Fire" (a name pulling from a literal house fire that left the singer physically and emotionally distraught), Yola and Auerbach enlisted a rotating cast of A-list Nashville players to pull her sonic dream into reality. 

Vince Gill added backing vocals, as did bluegrass breakout Molly Tuttle, joining Ronnie McCoury and Stuart Duncan. And the list goes on.

"I was exploring ... the dynamics of how it all might come together with no holds barred, no real preconceptions as to what we would do," Yola said. "Let's bring a little bit of our own collective agenda to it and explore how deep the rabbit hole goes." 

Yola will release her debut album Feb. 22.

More:Yola embraces Elton John in must-hear cover of 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road'

The result? A dreamy collection of pensive stories dripping in country, roots, soul and age-old pop. With the likes of lush escapism on “Ride Out In The Country” to the vitally expansive and outright emotional “It Ain’t Easier,” she debuted with an album worth spinning last year, this year and many years to come. 

The team tracked “Walk Through Fire” in three days, Auerbach said — an experience where “all the stars have to align,” he said.

“I built this studio here in Nashville, like, 10 years ago,” Auerbach said, “and the hope is that you run into someone like Yola.” 

“(There’s) so much involved with making a whole album like ‘Walk Through Fire,’ and it takes so much out of you, so much from you,” he continued. “It's very intense. And I'm so happy that I got to experience that with somebody like Yola.”  

For Yola, the album offers a modern installment to the musical “tennis match” between England and its Transatlantic younger sister, the United States. 

From the Everly Brothers to Elton John and back again, it’s a volley of influence she’ll proudly take to Grammy night and the countless campaign stops that follow. 

“Let's just keep that conversation going,” Yola said. “That’s literally the only thing I'm interested in doing, is keeping the conversation going.”