{"id":2479843,"date":"2026-06-29T02:07:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T02:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2479843"},"modified":"2026-06-29T02:07:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T02:07:48","slug":"raye-on-her-uncompromising-rise-to-stardom-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/raye-on-her-uncompromising-rise-to-stardom-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Raye on her uncompromising rise to stardom \u2013 interview"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Rachel Keen, the award-winning British singer-songwriter now known as Raye, has fond memories of being 13. Specifically, songs she wrote then in her urgency to make music, the thrill of turning an inner monologue, brimming with emotion, into a melody. \u201cI always had this thing of wanting to cram as many words into a short space, as small as possible, wanting to fill every [note] with a word, my melody being weird and complex,\u201d she says, chuckling, in a recent Zoom interview.<\/p>\n

Anyone who\u2019s heard her viral 2025 track \u201cWhere Is My Husband!\u201d would be able to identify those signifiers, clear as day, upon first listen. That firecracker of a song clocks in at three minutes and 17 seconds of exhilarating wordplay, with Raye\u2019s breathless vocal acrobatics squeezing in verbose lines (the bridge about wanting a diamond ring has been looped endlessly on social media). \u201cIt\u2019s so emotional, actually,\u201d the singer, now 28, says of listening to her old demos again, pausing to collect herself. \u201cEven when I look at \u2018Where Is My Husband!,\u2019 the bit that connected was this bit. It was so [reminiscent of] the writer I was when I was 13.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Raye<\/div>\n

Raye has been writing songs since she was 13. Photo: Audemars Piguet<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For those who have followed Raye\u2019s journey since her early days gigging at universities and singing generic dance tracks that weren\u2019t really her sound to begin with, seeing her step into the spotlight on her own terms feels like watching an old friend succeed. The singer attended the famed Brit School, which counts Adele and Amy Winehouse as alumni, but later dropped out, and penned songs for other major artists instead. But since separating from her former music label and going independent as an artist in 2021, her star has risen steadily. In 2025 alone, Raye made the Grammy shortlist for best new artist, became a brand ambassador for Audemars Piguet, and dropped major collaborations with Lisa of Blackpink<\/span><\/a> and producer Mark Ronson, the latter facilitated by her partnership with the Swiss watchmaker.<\/div>\n

\u201cGiving myself permission to be in charge of my life, my decisions and my music has been so rewarding,\u201d she says emphatically. \u201cI\u2019ve got to bet on myself, my tastes and the way I want to express myself, without compromise.\u201d She points to her latest album, led by \u201cWhere Is My Husband!\u201d, as proof of renewed faith in herself to perform under pressure as an artist, expectations running high following her successful debut, My 21st Century Blues. \u201cIt\u2019s a pop song, it\u2019s got a big round chorus, but it\u2019s also to my rules. That\u2019s what this album really has been. I\u2019ve not allowed myself to simplify or dumb it down or make it less. I\u2019ve not allowed myself to live by those rules enforced and taught in pop music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Raye<\/div>\n

Raye split with her previous label and went independent in 2021. Photo: Audemars Piguet<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

After the years spent not knowing when she might make it to the big league, this moment \u2013 and all it comes with \u2013 feels well deserved. \u201cI was working like someone was chasing me,\u201d says Raye, who believes only time, practice and patience could have prepared her to find still greater tenacity and confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hours you put in are what you get out,\u201d she muses. It\u2019s strange to hear someone like Raye admit she was \u201cnever necessarily the best singer\u201d, but the more she opens up about how much hard work has gone into refining her sound, the more you believe her. Every hour of training sounds audible in her voice now, as velvety smooth during this interview as it is belting out bold, brassy jazz standards on tour. \u201cThe singer I was on stage five, six years ago was nowhere near capable of the things I\u2019m doing now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Raye<\/div>\n

Raye has worked hard to improve her singing voice. Photo: Audemars Piguet<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Speaking of stages, it\u2019s worth noting that Raye has performed on some of the best and biggest the world has to offer, from Glastonbury\u2019s Pyramid stage to the legendary lakeshore of the Montreux Jazz Festival, which has hosted rock bands like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, as well as jazz legends Miles Davis and Nina Simone. Every concert, big or small, is a reflection of her creative direction; every aspect of the orchestration, set list and set design an extension of the unwavering dedication that got her there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.scmp.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rachel Keen, the award-winning British singer-songwriter now known as Raye, has fond memories of being 13. Specifically, songs she wrote then in her urgency to make music, the thrill of turning an inner monologue, brimming with emotion, into a melody. \u201cI always had this thing of wanting to cram as many words into a short […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2479844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[354483,371598,364098,35543,466253,366307,27396,309614,354270,488114,488113,367642,346976,22821,488112],"class_list":["post-2479843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-adele","tag-amy-winehouse","tag-audemars-piguet","tag-blackpink","tag-brit-school","tag-glastonbury","tag-grammy","tag-lisa","tag-mark-ronson","tag-montreux-jazz-festival","tag-my-century-blues","tag-olivia-dean","tag-raye","tag-spotify","tag-where-is-my-husband"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Raye-on-her-uncompromising-rise-to-stardom-\u2013-interview.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2479843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2479845,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2479843\/revisions\/2479845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2479844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2479843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2479843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2479843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}