Yola at Koko – an acidic Theresa May impression and some zestful rock ’n’ roll

Almost a century after Sister Rosetta Tharpe strapped on an electric guitar and kickstarted rock ’n’ roll, the 38-year-old British singer Yola Carter stood on stage at London’s Koko wielding the same instrument, and forceful spirit. For an artist who was once told by record-company executives that (in her words) “I had no place with a guitar” – as was Tharpe, for decades scrubbed from music history despite influencing Elvis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard – Yola looked entirely at home during the first of two headline shows in the capital.

Though Yola began her music career in the UK, lending her vocal chops and songwriting skills to acts such as Massive Attack, The Chemical Brothers and Iggy Azalea, it was in America that the British singer hit her stride as a solo artist. Frustrated by the UK’s reluctance to invest in black artists, she relocated to Nashville in 2018.

The move was a success, and four years on, you can see her in cinemas, playing Tharpe herself in Baz Luhrmann’s showy Elvis biopic. Yola has, in the meantime, also earned Grammy nominations for her 2019 debut solo album, Walk Through Fire, and last year’s follow-up, Stand For Myself. Produced by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, on both albums she aspired to reclaim traditionally whitewashed American roots music. But while Walk Through Fire mostly stuck to the low, sweet register of country soul, Stand For Myself shone a torch into other corners of the pop universe, incorporating 1970s soul, RnB, disco, doo-wop and even Britpop.

While her music may embrace an American sound, Yola’s stage persona last night was unabashedly, gleefully British, from checking in with her bandmates – “you alright, loves?” – to expressing her love for Formula One and providing Spitting Image-style impressions of ex-Prime Minister Theresa May. Judging from the London audience’s increasingly hearty response, her charm offensive worked.

Across 19 songs, she struck a balance between exhilaration and restraint, cheer and fatalism. Her voice rose to a galvanising snarl on the sex-positive anthem Starlight, then plumbed subterranean depths on the lonesome ballad Great Divide. Dancing Away in Tears, a “sad banger” for the ages, struck an early high, and the set was buoyed by covers of Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Aretha Franklin’s Daydreaming – two artists who have had a significant influence on Yola and her work.

Diamond Studded Shoes, meanwhile, a highlight of the set, used infectiously upbeat music to mask sceptical lyrics: “It ain’t gonna turn out right.” Inspired by the diamond-studded shoes Lady May wore while giving her 2017 Conservative Party conference speech, which set out austerity measures, Yola’s protest jam nodded to the financial hardships she faced growing up. Raised by her Barbadian single mother, the luxury of an artistic career was not an option – at least, not without extreme sacrifice, like the bout of homelessness she endured in her twenties.

So far for Yola, things are turning out right. On stage at Koko, brandishing her guitar like a baton passed down from Tharpe, she radiated both personal and collective triumph, while her charismatic five-piece band worshipped at the altars of their instruments, everything from keys to a double bass. During the encore, she sandwiched her own song, the Destiny’s Child-esque If I Had To Do It All Again, between covers of Anita Baker’s Sweet Love and Yarbrough and Peoples’ Don’t Stop The Music – a final, energetic whistle for anyone yet to climb aboard the train.

Until tonight, then touring the US until September. Tickets: iamyola.com