Bonnaroo 2021 Artist Spotlight: Joy Oladokun

As we’ve been doing for the past several years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorites acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2021 lineup. However, to say that this year’s Bonnaroo is a bit of an unconventional one would be an understatement. Postponed from 2020, moved later into the summer, and with a lineup, schedule, and enhanced Covid-19 precautions all only announced and finalized mere weeks from the fest’s Sept. 2-5 weekend, we’re starting our preview coverage later than usual now that we have the full rundown, and will only be highlighting a handful of artists we want to make sure are on your radar this year, reflecting the full gamut of the festival’s days and stages, and even some performers from the plaza lineup. Additionally, look out for our full list-style lineup guides for each day of the fest, with many other artist recommendations, to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s stacked and sprawling 20th-anniversary slate.

Tickets for 2021 sold out in record time, but if you already have yours, or you manage to snag some from a reputable 3rd party, we hope you’ll do everything you can this year to keep yourself and your fellow Bonnaroo attendees safe throughout the fest, and to behave as cautiously as possible after to limit your risk of exposure to others. We’re thrilled to have music back, but, as the Delta variant fuels a rise in Covid cases, if we want it to stay back and stay safe, we all need to take care of one another. That said, we’re hoping this year’s Bonnaroo marks another important milestone on the road to normalcy, and some welcome solace for those in attendance. To help you get ready, read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight.

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Born in Arizona to Nigerian parents, genre-bending singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun spent a stint in Los Angeles pursuing music after college, before eventually landing in Nashville, where she’s become a staple of the local scene in recent years (you’ll likely recognize her from our playlist, as well as from regular live performances around town, including at prominent events like Nashville Pride). Inspired to pick up a guitar at age 10 after seeing a video of Tracy Chapman, Oladokun’s upbringing was shaped by time in the church in her youth, and, ultimately, reconciling that with navigating her identity as a queer, Black woman in America, all of which has provided fuel for her incredibly earnest, confessional, and deeply personal songwriting style, honed over a debut EP in 2015, and three subsequent LPs. The latest, this year’s In Defense of My Own Happiness, which marks Joy’s major label debut, is actually an expansion on her 2020 independent effort, In Defense of My Own Happiness (The Beginnings), and feels like the perfect distillation of the talented artist’s lifelong affinity for folk, r&b, pop, rock, and country music, deconstructing her songwriting down to an essence that feels versatile enough to change styles and moods from song to song, and even within individual tracks, and featuring inspired guest spots from the likes of Maren Morris, Tim Gent, and Penny and Sparrow. Her songs have been resonant enough to land placements on a variety of popular television shows, and have landed Oladokun performances on the late-night TV circuit, as well as a handful of other fests, but when she arrives at Bonnaroo, it’ll be for a prominent afternoon tent slot, easily one of the most essential performances of the festival’s first day; don’t miss it!

WATCH | “Bigger Man” (with Maren Morris)