Joshua Idehen

I Know You're Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try Joshua Idehen

Lately, it feels like the world is one endless bad news cycle. British-born, Stockholm-based Nigerian spoken-word artist Joshua Idehen isn’t here to pretend otherwise – but on his new album I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try, he provides a phenomenal sonic and poetic space. Made with his creative partner, musician Ludvig Parment, the album (out 6 March 2026) is an urgent yet transcendent collection that carries you through it all, filled with grief, euphoria and hope.

After years of honing his craft, I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try finds Joshua Idehen’s pen reaching the next level. The work is truly arresting – and at the same time, thanks to Parment’s soundscapes, it often makes you want to throw your arms in the air and dance. In these bleak times that push us further apart, it stands as a beautiful, powerful manifesto for hope and collectivism. As Joshua puts it: “There’s a likelihood that we might be planting seeds that we won’t get to see harvested… but the planting is good. The planting is just as important as the watering and the tending and the harvesting. We all have to play a part so that we can have some redemption.”