FEATURE:
Saluting and Celebrating the Brilliant RAYE
A Future Pop Icon Who Is Free to Make Music on Her Own Terms
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THERE is some exciting recent news…
PHOTO CREDIT: Alexander Beer
to share when it comes to the magnificent RAYE. Rachel Agatha Keen had her breakthrough in 2016 by featuring on the singles, By Your Side, by Jonas Blue, and You Don't Know Me by Jax Jones. RAYE was shortlisted for the BBC Music Sound of... award for 2017; she was named in third place. Her debut mini-album, Euphoric Sad Songs, was released in November 2020. In July 2021, Raye parted ways with her record label Polydor Records. I love RAYE. She is such a brave, refreshing, open and talented artist. Whilst she was still reaching her full potential on Euphoric Sad Songs, she is a stunning songwriter who is going to grow and grow. To me, she is a Pop icon of the future! I also wonder whether there is going to be an album this year – now that she is free of Polydor. I will come to her recent Ivor Novello nomination. Before that – and I will drop in songs to show how great RAYE is -, there are a couple of interviews that are worth mentioning and including here, as they spotlight RAYE in a transitional and quite tense period. In fact, what I will do is mention one interview and pop that in, then come to a recent interview, before wrapping up with my thoughts. This is what RAYE said to The Guardian when she was interviewed last year:
“Towards the end of June, while waiting to be interviewed on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch, Raye found herself desperately trying not to cry on live TV. With more than 17 million monthly listeners on Spotify, seven Top 20 hits to her name and songwriting credits for the likes of Beyoncé, John Legend and Little Mix, the south Londoner’s career appeared to be going from strength to strength. But then, on a lumpy turquoise sofa in a Shepherd’s Bush studio, the rictus pop star smile started to wobble. There to promote her dance bop Call on Me, – the latest in a long line of make-or-break singles – she found an innocuous query about the status of her elusive debut album triggering emotions she had suppressed for years. Two days later, sitting alone in her bedroom, she opened Twitter and shattered the illusion for good.
“I have been on a 4 ALBUM RECORD DEAL since 2014,” she vented to her 50,000 followers. “And haven’t been allowed to put out one album.” She detailed how her “music sat in folders collecting dust”, and were being gutted, with songs passed on to other artists “because I am still awaiting confirmation that I am good enough to release an album”. Aware there was no turning back with her label, Polydor, she added: “I’m done being a polite pop star.” In mid-July, she announced she had been released from her contract: “Today I am speaking to you as an independent artist.”
Weeks later, in a hotel lobby in central London, the 23-year-old, real name Rachel Keen, is still processing what happened. She tries to return to the headspace she was in before she blew up her career in order to save it; one clouded with the streaming stats she’d obsessively pore over daily, knowing they could unlock her future. “It would dictate my mood, my anxiety,” she says. “Even creating a bitterness [towards] some of my closest girls in the industry.” She had been certain that Call on Me was leading towards an album. “Then it was like, ‘I don’t think it’s going to happen.’” She takes a deep breath. “I was ready to just give up and not be an artist any more.”
How did she feel after the tweets? “I felt better but I also felt terrified. I’d put my neck on the line.”
While Raye’s honesty felt unique, the situation she found herself in is not. Pop is littered with artists, from Chlöe Howl to Sinéad Harnett, who have signed with major labels and then been sidelined, perhaps because of shifting commercial expectations, reluctance to finance an album campaign, or simply because the person who signed them left the company. Some of pop’s biggest household names – Mabel, Anne-Marie, even Dua Lipa – endured EPs, mixtapes, dance music collaborations and tastemaker tracks on their long road to debut albums.
Signed by Polydor off the back of the success of her self-released 2014 EP Welcome to the Winter, Raye’s early tracks were a combination of hazy R&B and hip-hop. The excellent Second EP, released in 2016, featured a pre-fame Stormzy. Collaborations with the rappers Stefflon Don and Mr Eazi followed. Early tracks like pulsating kiss-off Shhh and the boisterous banger The Line, which zoomed in on a night out gone awry, showcased pop’s secret weapons; attitude, personality and an ability to switch styles, taking in everything from Afrobeats to disco.It was her collaboration with producer Jax Jones on Top 3 smash You Don’t Know Me that proved a turning point with the label: suddenly Raye seemed to be repositioned not as a long-term recording artist, but as a featured vocalist on other people’s songs.
When the label head who signed her left in 2016, Raye says she became less of a priority. Communication with her new bosses slowly disintegrated. One exchange, from Christmas 2019, is seared into her mind: “The head of the label said to me: ‘It’s like you’re 6-0 down at half-time.’” She notices my shock. “I was like: ‘OK, noted, I’m going to figure out how to bring that back.’” She quickly scored a UK Top 10 with the Brit-nominated Secrets, a collaboration with DJ Regard that has been streamed 280m times on Spotify. “I did get to 6-6,” she says with a shrug.
Late last year there was a breakthrough of sorts with the release of the mini-album Euphoric Sad Songs. For Raye, it was a body of work her fans could really dig into. For her label, it was seen as a flop because it did not make the Top 40 (six of its nine songs have passed 15m streams). “What actually should matter is having artists who build fanbases and sell out shows and stream music, regardless of what genre it is,” she says. “Having a Top 10 is not defining. What it showed me was that we were aiming for two completely different things and we always have been. What makes them proud isn’t what makes me proud”.
If Euphoric Sad Songs showed a major talent coming through who, perhaps, needed a bit more time to hit her peak, I think that time is now! Showing resilience and dignity when speaking in interviews about her experiences and struggles, she is also someone who is looking out for new songwriters. Speaking with NME recently at the Ivor Novellos, she experiences her concerns for new artists and songwriters:
“RAYE has spoken out about the challenges facing young songwriters, and what needs to change with major labels in the shifting musical landscape.
The singer made headlines when she parted ways with Polydor Records last year after claiming that the label had refused to release her debut album, despite signing a four-album deal in 2014.
Speaking on the red carpet at last week’s Ivor Novellos – where she was nominated for Songwriter Of The Year among the likes of Adele, Dave and Coldplay – the singer told NME that she had “found peace” with her former label, but that many more changes were still needed in the music industry to make songwriters feel valued and financially stable.
“Songwriting is a craft that people don’t see, because it’s done in the darkness in studios and behind closed doors,” said RAYE. “I don’t think people realise how essential songwriters are in an industry based on songs.
“Things need to be put in place to protect our future songwriters – to nurture them and make them feel special and important.”
The singer told NME that the shortlist for her category at the Ivors proved that there was “an openness that there hasn’t been before in styles, flavours, genres and different types of expression” in modern music, and how the major label model needed to respond to this.
“For the first time, we’re seeing that the ‘we need a hit’ model is fading,” she said. “It doesn’t work anymore. I think major labels are realising that you can’t blackmail the system anymore. You used to be able to slap a bag of money down on the table and be like, ‘Play my artist’. That’s how it used to work.
“Streaming has taken over and now the people decide. That’s what is opening the market to different flavours of excellence to be shining through”.
Even though RAYE lost out to Dave for the Songwriter of the Year award at the Ivors, she is someone who is poised to release her best work. As an independent artist who has so much attention her way, this is an artist who is not crushed by that pressure and expectation. Instead, I get the feeling of ambition and hope from RAYE. Even if streaming models are bad and things are not great for songwriters, the music RAYE has put out in the past year or two shows that she is building this foundation. An incredible songwriter and bright artist who has so many fans and supporters behind her, I wanted to celebrate and salute her huge talent. I also wanted people to tune into her music. Some of the reviews for Euphoric Sad Songs were mixed. I think that was more to do with a young artist still trying to find her voice. There is plenty of brilliance on that release. As she looks to the future and has a loyal fanbase behind her, eyes will be on her next move. For RAYE, it is about going at her pace and putting out the music that she wants to. You can feel and here this artist about to produce something magnificent – another reason as to why I wanted to write this feature. Inspired by her Ivors nomination and the buzz she has been getting from crowds recently, you can feel this renewed artist who is looking ahead to brighter times. The brilliant RAYE is…
AN artist to be very proud of.