Songfacts®:

• "Diamond Studded Shoes" is a big and bright soul-gospel shuffle featuring skeptical lyrics about the rich/poor divide. "This song explores the false divides created to distract us from those few who are in charge of the majority of the world's wealth and use the 'divide and conquer' tactic to keep it," said Yola. "This song calls on us to unite and turn our focus to those with a stranglehold on humanity."
• The song originated from a 2017 conversation between Yola and the Nashville-based singer-songwriter Aaron Lee Tasjan. Over a bottle of wine, they discussed the then-recent election of President Donald Trump and the British vote to leave the European Union. She told The Boot, "Diamond Studded Shoes" came out of an attempt to reckon with "what the hell was happening."
• Yola wrote the song when Theresa May was the Prime Minister of Great Britain. Its potent title refers to her famous love of distinctive shoes. As the British singer watched May make a speech announcing the country had to make cutbacks, she noticed the PM was wearing her posh footwear. "She was talking about austerity and that they didn't have enough money to feed starving children, so they were going to make cuts from all the services essential to keeping people alive and well and healthy and fed and sheltered," Yola recalled to Rolling Stone. "And she did that all while wearing diamonds on the heels of her shoes. It's people who hold the purses dictating to people who are already scrimping and saving whilst they, you know, try to steal our money."
• Yola penned the song with Aaron Lee Tasjan, Nashville songwriter Natalie Hemby, and Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. Auerbach also produced the track.
• Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound label released the song as the lead single from Yola's Stand For Myself album on April 22, 2021.
• Kwaku Otchere directed the video. The clip is inspired by the 1998 movie The Truman Show, in which the main character, Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey), is unaware his whole life is actually a television show about him "[It's] about being trapped in a false construct. It is supposedly perfect, but you're trapped in a life that wasn't meant for you," Yola said of the visual. "I wanted to convey the feeling that everything you know to be true is not quite working the way it's supposed to."