| "Joni" | |
|---|---|
 SoundCloud cover art | |
| Song bySZA featuringDon Toliver | |
| from the albumLana(extended) | |
| Written | January 2020 |
| Released | February 9, 2025 |
| Recorded | January 2020 |
| Genre | Folk |
| Length | 2:07 |
| Label | |
| Songwriters | |
| Producer | Rob Bisel |
| Lyric video | |
| "Joni" onYouTube | |
"Joni" is a song by American singer-songwriterSZA featuring fellow American singer-songwriter and rapperDon Toliver. It was released on February 9, 2025, as part of the extended version ofLana (2025), the reissue of her second studio albumSOS (2022). Inspired by the music of singer-songwriterJoni Mitchell, "Joni" combinesrealist andidealist writing styles, discussing SZA's love for her family and desire to overcome challenges in pursuit of perfection. The song samples "Angeles" (1997) byElliott Smith.
Before its official release, "Joni" was uploaded onSoundCloud on August 22, 2021, and wasleaked sometime during recording sessions forLana. The song was intended for the reissue as well asSOS, but it was scrapped from both projects by SZA's manager,Punch.
I just don’t know what represents me at this time [...] I don't know if I want to do aggressive me, or trap me, orJoni Mitchell me, or falsetto me, or acoustic me [...] but it's all there. It's just a matter of what picture I want to paint. What world do I want to build?
After the 2017 release of her debut studio albumCtrl, American singer-songwriterSZA began appearing in soundtracks and collaborations with several artists. As she did, media speculation on her next album's release date arose, and it heightened in 2020 upon the release of "Hit Different" and "Good Days", her first work as a sole lead artist in five years.[1][2]
SZA toldWonderland magazine for their July cover story that working on new music had left her anxious, confused about the different facets of herself she could express with every song. For the album, she said, she experimented withtrap beats,acoustic sounds, andfalsetto vocals, even taking inspiration from the music offolk singer-songwriterJoni Mitchell.[3] Earlier in February, she toldRolling Stone that a "trap song from the perspective of Joni Mitchell" had been created a month prior.[4][5]
In May, SZA posted onTwitter to ask fans whether she should do a "music dump", which she said would consist of unreleased songs from the past six years.[6] Three months later, on August 22, an anonymousSoundCloud account with only a single period as its username uploaded three songs to the platform, one of them named "Joni".[7] SZA later posted on Twitter to say that she owned the account and described the songs as "random thoughts", adding that her astrologist encouraged her to surprise-release them.[8]
Two versions of "Joni" exist, the unreleased one being atrap version.[9] The officially released version is afolk song, incorporating a fingerpicked guitar and sampling the song "Angeles" byElliott Smith.[10] Both versions were created in January 2020 during quarantine inKauai, Hawaii, with producerRob Bisel during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.[11]
"Joni" began with a freestyle, over ademo by SZA's long-time collaboratorThankGod4Cody, during which SZA prompted Bisel to suggest musicians whose music she could channel while freestyling. "Angeles" began playing after the demo, and SZA continued to freestyle. Curious on how the two would sound together, Bisel put her vocals on top of the song's guitars and noticed the similarities intempo andkeys, believing that this second version of "Joni" also sounded good. SZA agreed and decided to release that version to SoundCloud.[11]
The lyrics are characterized by soulfulness, precision,[8] brevity, and spontaneity.[9] "Joni" conjures several descriptive scenes in quick succession, employing imagery of sex and money ("If the money right, is the pussy good?"), thegolden hour ("The golden hour awaits for me"),[9] the moon ("Moon corrals us to the water"), and the end of summer.[12] Influences from Mitchell and Smith, according toPitchfork's Jill Mapes, manifest in the song's blend of "stingingrealism" with a "California dreamer" perspective.[9] SZA sings in a soft andcroon-like manner,[13] oftenharmonizing her vocals.[14]
Achieving perfection and practicing patience while dealing with life's challenges, shown through the line "I been wiped out like 3 times / Beat dat shit call me nine lives / I got perfect timing", are additional themes.[9][14] The song employs a lyric change from "I got perfect timing" at the song's start to "We got perfect timing" at the end; the last lyric is interrupted by awhistle note.[9] "Joni" also pays homage to SZA's family, with lines about how she misses her mother during the day's low tides[15] and is willing to recite "a host of loving words" to her father.[12] Upon hearing the song, her mother Aubrey Rowe said that it was simultaneously "soothing and distrupting", with "rich variations intexture,tone, and tempos".[16]
Previewed as a 98-second snippet,[9] "Joni" was the first of the three songs to be uploaded to SoundCloud; the others, "I Hate You" and "Nightbird", followed two hours later.[17] The song was also called "Perfect Timing".[18] SZA accompanied the release of "Joni" with an Instagram video of a dance by Nana Yaa,[19] directed by SZA and shot by Blair Caldwell.[20] It was intended for but excluded from the standard edition ofSOS, her next studio album. Sometime later, "Joni" was removed from SZA's throwaway SoundCloud account.[5]
The decision to scrap "Joni" was attributed toPunch, president of her labelTop Dawg Entertainment, whom she described as very particular with track curation.[21] His view was that the song had been available online for too long, adding that fans would find its inclusion onSOS unnecessary and rather hear new music.[22] SZA thought of repurposing it as a track onSOS's deluxe edition,[18] which she calledLana.[23]
In 2023, while SZA was recording music forLana, the full version of "Joni"leaked online.[24] It prompted a response in a 2023 interview forVariety in which she asserted that fans "ruined" the song. Because of this, SZA was initially going to never release the song, though she had second thoughts.[25][26] "Joni" did not appear onLana when it was released on December 20, 2024.
On February 9, 2025, the song was finally released on official streaming platforms, as a track on an extended version ofLana.[27] Originally, the extended version was set for release the previous month, but it faced multiple delays.[28] The postponement was in part because the "Angeles" sample had yet to be cleared.[29]
In a 2025 ranking of SZA's discography,The Guardian criticAlexis Petridis rated "Joni" as her 13th-best song. He was grateful that SZA did not scrap a song with such "utterly lovely" music, praising the Mitchell inspiration and the use of the "Angeles" sample.[24]
| Chart (2025) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| New Zealand Hot Singles (RMNZ)[31] | 35 |
SZA songs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ctrl | |||
| SOS | |||
| Lana |
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| Soundtrack songs | |||
| Standalone singles | |||
| Other collaborations |
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| Leaked songs |
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