“Fortune Favors The Bold,” is the latest hauntingly gorgeous single to be released by Joy Oladokun, emerging into the world on February 25, 2022. I have yet to listen to an Oladokun song that doesn’t shoot an arrow right through my heart, and this is no exception. Do you have some water placements in your astro chart and need some really cathartic moody music to immerse yourself in, getting lost in the vibe? Oladokun has got you.
An excerpt from Oladokun’s website: “With a guitar in hand, baseball cap over her eyes, and hooded sweatshirt loose, a woman sings with all of the poetry, pain, passion, and power her soul can muster. She is a new kind of American troubadour. She is Joy Oladokun.” And honestly I could not have possibly said it better myself because no truer words have been spoken. Oladokun is emotion personified and her lyrics pour down on you like a velvet rain.

The chorus lyrics of her newest endeavor, with Tim Gent, belt out,
“Fortune favors the bold
The one who’s not lookin’ for gold
Ain’t afraid of the night, never runs from a fight
Takes the longest road
Music favors the heart
Lonely notes in the dark
Only knows how to play all the sadness away
Makes a flame from a spark”
“Fortune Favors The Bold” talks about the unsung heroes — the ones who look, listen, see and hear. It talks about the ones who do something, the ones who act. You can walk through hell’s fire and brimstone and still stand tall for yourself and others. I think that’s a lesson that can resonate with the world at large right now.
Oladokun recognizes the power of words and has made a conscious decision to weave uplifting verses into the fabric of our society through her voice and guitar. Joy spoke to the meaning of the song in a video on her instagram, “I went through a lot of stuff where I was thinking about the impact of addiction and violence, and random things that we don’t love, in my own life. And I have found people who listen and care and who look are often those who change the world and I want to be a person like that, and I also want to be looked for if I’m not doing well.”
This is the heart that is Joy Oladokun and what you will feel if you listen to her work. Oladokun also promised, “I hope you like it. It’s okay if you don’t. I’ve got more coming.”
If you haven’t allowed yourself the absolute privilege of listening to Oladokun’s discography, you are sincerely missing out. It’s probably blatantly obvious at this point in my writing that Oladokun is one of my favorite artists of all time, but I promise you she lives up to the hype. Oladokun’s intellect and intensity of thought are such delicious aspects of her music. Always deep, she is never just dipping a toe in the water but submerging herself every time. It’s this submersion that will keep you coming back for more and more.
A few absolute must listens from Oladokun:
“Mercy” — another collaboration with Tim Gent; Oladokun keeps it very real. She’s always been open about her therapeutic cannabis use and I respect her candidness about the topic in her albums. Asking life for mercy on the hard to understand days connects us to one another in the universality of feeling overwhelmed. Life is hard and some days that’s just the feeling we are stuck under.
“Blink Twice” — This song tore my heart out after my separation and consequent divorce but those tears helped me in my healing. When we are hurt so deeply at the end of a love affair it’s hard not to wonder if we were ever really loved at all. The love-battle wounded will feel this one in their gut.
“let it be me” — Oladokun grew up in church and walked away from the institution when she came out after graduating from college. “I got to a point where i was like, ‘If god exists, he does not care that I’m gay. With all of the things happening, he cannot give a shit’. I feel like it’s not an accident I’m a queer black woman writing and making music,” says Oladokun. Many of her songs speak to the internal conflict of coming to terms with her sexuality within the confines of the Christianity that shaped her childhood.
“Bigger Man” (with Maren Morris) — “I’ve made a full house from a shitty hand, yet here I am, still gotta be bigger than the bigger man.” The humility to keep trying to be the bigger person despite getting dealt dirty hands by life makes this an anthem for those of us fighting our way up, and doing so with our pride intact.
“if you’ve got a problem” — Soulful tones and dependable lyrics to remind humanity to be human, and love and lean on each other.
Oladokun’s songs, even when almost unbearably painful, are a salve for the soul. They are hymns for a hurting world. Joy Oladokun is a gift. We are so lucky to call you one of our own.