On her new single "Nothing Comes Easy," folk artist Joy Oladokun is here to remind us that we are human and getting hurt is a integral part of that. It's normal. It will pass. We have time, and time heals all. "Don't take it on you/ It's just the cold truth," she sings, embodying a loved one's words of wisdom. "Nothing comes easy except for pain." It's a song that validates pain, but doesn't relish in misery. We are all stronger than we think. We carry on.
"Nothing Comes Easy" is the first new music from Oladokun since she released 2024's great album Observations From A Crowded Room. She shared some insight about the new song:
I wrote "Nothing Comes Easy" about how getting hurt can happen quickly but healing takes time. This past year, I dealt with a lot of change in my personal life and career and for a moment it felt like nothing good would ever come again. In my backyard, there is a planter filled with the most resilient sunflowers I've ever seen. I wrote this song about watching them find life over and over again and how they taught me to celebrate good things because oftentimes they have fought hard to be good.
The song also comes with a Ademola Ogunnaike-directed video in which Oladokun gets tattooed while singing. In a Substack post from earlier this month, she offered her struggles from the past year, the small rituals she took towards self-healing, and how that all led up to this new song and video. You should read the whole thing, but here's the passage that explains the significant meaning behind the track's visual:
The chief purpose of my music is to make songs that heal me and release them with the hope that they will help heal someone else too. That lack of commercial vision can be frustrating for business partners but the conviction that it comes with is rare.
I believe in the songs I write and the messages they send so deeply.
When it came time for a music video, I decided that this particular lesson was important enough for me to keep around.
Tattoos, to me, are like talismans. Each one that I have is tied to a life lesson I’ve learned and want to remember. I realized that I want to hold on the idea that good things push through the soil of the minutiae of our days and bloom into soul sustaining joys.
I found a tattoo artist and a director and the video for the song was filmed a few nights before Christmas.
My leg now has a bouquet of flowers on it and my heart has a reminder for when the bottom falls out of another false world built on my pride.
Watch below.
