Artist · chart history
Yola
Solo artist Bristol United Kingdom performance name of UK vocalist Yolanda Quartey
Yola is an artist from Bristol. Yola has 52 chart appearances on 34 radio countdowns from 11 stations on RockLists, spanning 2019–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Diamond Studded Shoes”, which appears on 15 lists and was voted number one once. In total the artist has topped 1 countdown. The station that charted Yola most often is The Colorado Sound (Fort Collins–Denver, CO), with 8 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 2021.
Yola has the kind of voice that makes a room go quiet: big, soulful and built to fill a church. Born Yolanda Claire Quartey and out of Bristol, England, she has also worked under the name Yola Carter.
Walk Through Fire, her debut album in 2019, was a revelation to critics and earned her four Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist. It is warm, lush and unhurried: "Ride Out In The Country" rolls along like a Sunday drive, "Faraway Look" swells with heartbreak, and "Love All Night (Work All Day)" swings. She was also up for Artist of the Year at the Americana Awards.
Stand for Myself, in 2021, drew the same kind of praise and two more Grammy nominations, with the title track, "Diamond Studded Shoes" and "Dancing Away In Tears" among its high points. She has since taken to the screen as Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann's Elvis and to Broadway as Persephone in Hadestown, and the My Way EP arrived in 2025 with "Future Enemies".
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Yola on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Diamond Studded Shoes | 15 | #1 | 1 | 2021 | |
| 2 | Stand For Myself | 9 | #9 | – | 2021 | |
| 3 | Love All Night (Work All Day) | 7 | #13 | – | 2019 | |
| 4 | Faraway Look | 6 | #6 | – | 2019 | |
| 5 | Ride Out In The Country | 3 | #34 | – | 2019 | |
| 6 | I Don't Wanna Lie | 3 | #47 | – | 2020 | |
| 7 | Future Enemies | 4 | #64 | – | 2024 | |
| 8 | I Don't Wanna Lie (bonus track) | 1 | #3 | – | 2020 | |
| 9 | Shady Grove | 1 | #34 | – | 2019 | |
| 10 | Goodbye Yellow Brick Road | 1 | #449 | – | – | |
| 11 | Dancing Away In Tears | 1 | #50 | – | 2021 | |
| 12 | Temporary | 1 | #169 | – | 2025 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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