The singer-songwriter with a shape-shifting voice charts her own path
By Chris Kelly
February 11, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EST
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Raye stays busy. One week in September, the singer-songwriter was in New York for a screening of her new concert film, a taping of 'The Daily Show,' a performance at a museum event and a set at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park.
'I love being busy, but I've definitely got to the point where I need a break now,' she said over Zoom from the city. 'I've been going as hard as I can go for a really long time.'
Raye has certainly earned a period of rest and relaxation, and not just because her schedule has been nonstop since the February 2023 release of her debut studio album, 'My 21st Century Blues,' and recording of the orchestral live version at the Royal Albert Hall that came out less than a year later. She gave a powerful performance at the Grammy Awards in February, belting out 'Oscar Winning Tears' while barefoot on stage.
Raye performs 'Oscar Winning Tears' at the Grammy Awards on Feb. 2. ()
Raye has been in and around the music business for more than a decade, even if this latest media whirlwind is the first time audiences are hearing the 27-year-old artist. Before that, maybe they caught her opening gig on the last night in London of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, or perhaps it was her record-breaking night at the Brit Awards 2024 when she took home six statues, including the ones for album, artist and best new artist.
Don't take the name of that last award literally. 'My 21st Century Blues' wasn't Raye's first musical output — it was a body of work that she had to fight to share with the world.
Stepping out as an independent artist
The artist, born Rachel Keen in South London, self-released her 'Welcome to the Winter' EP back in 2014, when she was just 17, and quickly signed with Polydor Records. Yet after a handful of EPs, more than a dozen singles and collaborations with the likes of EDM superstar David Guetta, Raye had not released a proper debut. In 2021, the singer took to social media, alleging that the label had refused to let her release an album, claiming she was sitting on music 'in folders collecting dust.' Less than a month later, Raye was released from the label.
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The independently released 'My 21st Century Blues,' drawn from years of recordings, serves as a bold and dramatic introduction to what Raye is capable of. With an instant-classic voice that has drawn comparisons to Amy Winehouse and Adele, Raye can either pitter-patter chitchat or really belt it out, finding her pocket over hip-hop-inflected pop, modern funk or club-ready dance music. And the 'blues' of the album's titles are often deeply hued, with lyrics about personal experiences with body dysmorphia and sexual assault. She also tackles societal issues like environmental collapse and describes a ruling class as 'classist, sexist, racist, ableist, fascist, ageist, homophobic.'
Raye describes the process of finally crafting a debut album after becoming an independent artist as a 'step-by-step thing … not something that came together overnight.'
'There was a lot of soul searching and healing and processing that needed to take place,' she said. 'I needed to get back to, 'What's the point? Why did I choose to dedicate my life to this wild craft?''
In that way, the driving passion behind 'My 21st Century Blues' is Raye's love of music and musicianship, in all its forms. She recalled being overwhelmed and fighting 'mental battles' as she assembled a multigenre album that was perhaps not as cohesive as she would have imagined her debut would be. (The year hasn't been without its setbacks, however: In fall, her car was stolen along with her songwriting books in it.) Eventually, she learned to stop worrying and love the album.
Raye performs at the Pool in the Seagram building in New York on Sept. 9. ()
'You know what? I f---ing love these songs. I love the order I'm presenting them. I can envision how we're going to translate it live. I'm proud of these songs,' she said. 'Some are old, some are brand-new and I love them.'
Envisioning the album's live experience eventually led to Raye's decision to record a concert album at the Royal Albert Hall, the site of live albums by performers including the Who, Eric Clapton and Adele. Again, Raye's love of musicians was the guiding light: She had crossed paths with amazingly talented composers, arrangers and performers through her touring and performing, and after adding more and more musicians to her show, she took the idea to its logical conclusion.
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'It's always been my dream to both compose a symphony of my own and to work with orchestral arrangers and players,' she said. 'Then the idea just kept getting more and more wacky.'
Coming up next
Recording and releasing 'My 21st Century Symphony' was 'an absolute dream,' but even with plans to take some time to recharge, she's already focused on the next dream, the next adventure. Next up is a trip with her band and then perhaps 'getting into her producer bag' and experimenting with 'orchestrating the room.'
'Performing live has really shaped a lot of how I see myself as an artist,' she said. 'I'm excited to create with musicians, instead of [being] in a room with one producer. I'm looking forward to seeing how that translates.'
And if 'My 21st Century Blues' is an album for a genre-less time, Raye might be an artist for our increasingly multidisciplinary one. She has worked on scoring for TV and film and has done a little filming with 'some cool directors.'
'I caught a little bug,' she says of her acting dalliance, but don't expect a quick jump to the screen: 'I'm not gonna attempt to indulge myself in a craft that I haven't studied for, so I would want to do the work and get confident in my skills.'
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The rest of the 21st century looks bright for Raye, whether her art takes the form of a film score, acting, or another album.
When I spoke with her, she was focused on her next show — her second night at the famed Blue Note with jazz pianist-producer Robert Glasper — and a possible vision of the future crept in.
'I love a little jazz venue,' she said of the Blue Note. 'If my career goes [sideways] at any point, that's where I'm going to end up, and I think I'm going to have a great time if and when I do.'
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