JOY OLADOKUN
Joy Oladokun is cataloging her life through music. Her 2023 album, Proof of Life, is the most recent entry—and one that comes from a darkly reflective place. “I have this room in my studio full of action figures and knick-knacks,” the singer-songwriter says. “One day I was sitting in it and morbidly thinking about what all this stuff would signify after my death. I wanted to write an album that someone could find 100 years from now and get a sense of who I am and how I dealt with life as it happened. Sort of a musical autobiography.” Proof of Life is her fourth studio album and follows her 2021 major label debut, In Defense of My Own Happiness, which was named one of the best albums of the year by Billboard and Rolling Stone and for which Oladukun was nominated for a GLAAD media award for Outstanding Breakthrough Music Artist. For Oladokun, a first-generation Nigerian American and queer Black woman, music allows her to explore her own place in the world, to celebrate life and to deal with whatever setbacks come her way. “I find such inspiration and beauty in making playlists and listening to records,” she says. “It’s an emotional medium and something about it reminds me that I’m not alone in all of this.” What does she hope for in the future? “I hope to stay healthy and inspired wherever life takes me.”
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