MUMBAI: Good news, fellas: It’s safe to share your feelings again. And for that, you can thank Toronto-based R&B soul-barer oH!, who on his new single, “Risk It All,” is single-handedly bringing sincerity back.
With an openness and vulnerability that could make any lady’s heart melt, our hero admits how hard it is to commit to love in a world that’s full of traps and fakes. But he’s real, dammit, and he’s looking to get with a girl who’s real too—ideally, the one who’s standing right there in front of him.
I’m ready and I’m able
Wanna turn the tables, girl
I’m scared but I’m ready for us, yeah
I’m ready to risk it all
Related Post
As if the message weren’t disarming enough, the music is compelling to the point of hypnosis. “Risk It All” is a sinuous, sumptuous slow jam, of the kind a million closing-time DJs were starting to worry they didn’t make anymore. No wonder oH! has anointed it as the title track to his debut EP, an eight-song statement of intent that’s going to firmly establish him as music’s new paragon of smooth sensitivity.
That campaign got underway in earnest in October, when oH! dropped his first solo single, “The Greatest (You and I),” then watched it swiftly become a hit on internet radio and social-media platforms around the world. The song has charted everywhere from Canada, the U.S., and the UK to Australia, Belgium, Germany, India, Ireland, and North Macedonia; in South Africa, it went all the way to No. 2 in both streams and downloads. Across TikTok, oH! has amassed 2.8 million total views, with 788,000 views on YouTube and a presence on over 350 playlists.
The Risk It All EP not only showcases oH!’s heartfelt vocals and compelling melodies but also highlights his singer-songwriter chops. A standout moment on the record is “Change,” a track co-written with Grammy Award-nominated artist Glenn Lewis. Their collaboration brings an added layer of depth and soul to the project, solidifying oH!’s place as a storyteller with both heart and skill.
Both “The Greatest (You and I)” and the new “Risk It All” are rapidly defining oH!’s persona as an unrepentant romantic—just not a naïve one. On record and in life, he’s well aware of the elusiveness of the perfect pairing but determined to will it into being.
“I’ve always wanted that full, lifelong, fulfilling, heart-bursting, transcendent love that everyone desires in this life,” he says. “The only way to get there was to write it and believe that I was capable of it.
“I love ‘love,’” he enthuses. “There’s nothing more amazing than it.”
Raised in his parents’ record store, oH! was performing on Sesame Street and mastering Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All” by age seven. His teen years were spent with the group The Show, releasing records on major labels and touring Canada with Usher, Yung Buck, Ginuwine, and 98 Degrees. Along the way, he earned a Canadian Urban Music Award and two JUNO nominations.
oH!’s coming-out party as a solo artist was his appearance on the final season of Canadian Idol, where he placed in the top 16 and drew a rare standing ovation for his performance of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Now signed to S.O.G. Entertainment Inc., with distribution by The Orchard (a subsidiary of SONY Music), he’s ready to capitalize on more than a decade of hard work positioning himself as a major talent.
With Risk It All (the EP and the single) making waves, oH! is gearing up for his first national solo tour, cementing his status as an essential presence on the Canadian music scene. Audiences across the country are about to fall for a guy who’s been making it abundantly clear how ready he is to fall for them. Don’t you just love it when both parties in a relationship are on exactly the same page?
