“They say your twenties are the best years of your life/ But I feel like I’m spending mine missing sunsets/ Because I’m busy on my phone watching other people.” It is with an admission of sadness that “Genesis”, the latest track by British singer Raye, begins. Trusted by more than 6.4 million people on TikTok, the title points out the omnipotence of telephones and the isolation it causes. Then, blue light replaces that of day, when the spoken preamble ends, and opens onto real life playing out outside. “It’s about the insecurities and pressures of social media, and these algorithms that we’re all addicted to, including me. I tried my best to encompass all of that in one song and say, ‘Let’s have a little hope,’ summed up the musician Harper’s Bazaar US of this month of June 2024.
Paradoxically, it is also social networks that have allowed the 26-year-old artist to climb the steps of success one by one. His latest title “Genesis” inspires Internet users who repeat it thousands of times on Instagram And TikTok. Yet it was the opposite of a commercial title. Extending over 7 minutes (the average stops at 3min49 in 2024), the song frees itself from the codes of TikTok which shortens the pieces. “This song is not always pleasant to listen to. […] But personally, I like intense and indulgent musical experiences,” retorted Raye in Harper’s Bazaar US. His influences vary between jazz, hip hop, R&B, gospel and pop, creating original rhythm breaks. A song on which she “put to the test” but whose efforts paid off. At the Brit Awards last March, Raye won six awards and no one had ever done it before her.
Raye, how to find your way(s)
Rachel Keen, her real name, was born in 1997 in London and grew up with a Swiss-Ghanaian mother and a British father. In 2014, she released her first EP Welcome to the Winter on the platform SoundCloud. It will be necessary to wait two more years for the young artist, with dreams in her head, to make herself known. That year, she released two featurings alongside DJ: By Your Side with Jonas Blue and You Don’t Know Me by Jax Jones. If his songs are starting to break through, his name is still struggling to be remembered. In 2018, she released her third EP Side Tape And begins his first tour with eight dates.
His electro collaborations with David Guetta on “Stay (Don’t Go Away)” and Martin Solveig and Jax Jones on “Tequila” open it to other audiences. Just like Julia Michaels or Jack Antonoff, Raye is also one of those musicians who write for others. Charli XCX, Ellie Goulding, John Legend, Beyoncé and Little Mix have all benefited in turn from the British woman’s pen. A shadowy work which now opposes his emerging notoriety. Chosen to open for SZA, she was sold out during her two French dates at La Cigale last year. Two dates during which she performed songs of which she is proud, far from the injunctions imposed by her record company…
Raye – 1, Polydor – 0
“It’s no longer about chasing hits and charts, it’s about finally being allowed to come out with my truth, to express myself without fear”. In July 2021, Raye announced via her account Twitter that she leaves the Polydor label with which she had worked for seven years. Too assimilated to electro because of her collaborations, the singer wants to stand on her own two feet. Eager to show the extent of her vocal possibilities, the artist embarks on the adventure of independence, literally and figuratively. Two years later, she released her first album My 21st Century Blues, an orchestral disc recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In the single “Hard Out Here”the interpreter of “Escapism” settles accounts with his former record company : “And I’m gonna make all these guys cry/ You didn’t even try/ You were sitting on diamonds/ You’re gonna see me now.” Finally in tune with herself, the composer has not finished introducing us to her inspired and inspiring mythology…
