RAYE

When RAYE speaks of her music, she doesn’t just talk of songs but of “stories.” And the South London singer-songwriter (born Rachel Agatha Keen in 1997) has quite the knack for writing them. RAYE first broke through in 2014 with debut EP Welcome to the Winter, followed by the Stormzy-featuring Second EP two years later. But despite singles and collaborations with Stefflon Don, Mr Eazi, and Jax Jones, plus credits on songs by artists such as Beyoncé, Ellie Goulding, Little Mix, and John Legend, RAYE felt trapped behind the scenes. In 2021, the singer-songwriter wrote on social media that she hadn’t been “allowed” to release her debut album and that she was “sick of being slept on” by her label. As an independent artist, she then released her viral smash “Escapism.” featuring 070 Shake, which sounded little like anything RAYE had released before—and not a lot like anything else on the charts at the time. Her long-yearned-for debut My 21st Century Blues arrived in 2023, housing unflinching honesty and everything from cinematic pop to dancehall, gospel, and hypnotic dance. “This is about me telling the stories I want to tell, in the order I want to tell them, through the sonic landscape I want to tell them,” RAYE told Apple Music. In 2024, RAYE made history at the BRIT Awards, winning the most awards ever by an artist in one night. She also landed a credit on Beyoncé’s 2024 album COWBOY CARTER and was tapped by Taylor Swift that year to perform on The Eras Tour. In 2026, she released her second album THIS MUSIC MAY CONTAIN HOPE., which brought collaborations with Hans Zimmer (“Click Clack Symphony.”) and Al Green (“Goodbye Henry.”), as well as the huge hit “WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!”