Today, Raye is a bonafide pop star with a record-breaking number of wins at this year’s Brit Awards and a headline slot at next year’s All Points East festival, but it wasn’t always this way. Back in 2021, she was frantically worried her dreams might never be realised and frustrated by her label’s refusal to release her debut album. She took to Twitter to tell her fans all this: “I’m done,” she said, “being a polite pop star.” The post went viral and she was released from her contract, but it wouldn’t be the last time Raye would take the industry to task.
2022 brought the devastating single Ice Cream Man, which left everyone in the studio in tears, Clara Amfo told me. The track opens with: “So, this producer hit me up on the DM…” before unfurling into a vocalisation of Raye’s experience of sexual assault at ages “seven, just 21, was 17, was 11.”
