With a record-breaking seven nominations to her title in a single yr, Raye has already made Brits historical past. Tomorrow on the O2 Area in London, she may make it as soon as once more if she sweeps the board. However whatever the awards she takes house – together with doubtlessly album and artist of the yr – this recognition from the British music {industry} represents an enormous vindication for 26-year-old London-born Rachel Eager.
Three years in the past, Raye was signed to Polydor and flush with Prime 40 success as a visitor vocalist on songs by the likes of Joel Corry and David Guetta. However behind the scenes, she was battling to launch her debut album regardless of having been signed to the label since she was a young person. In June 2021, she posted a tearful plea to social media and tweets alleging that she had carried out the whole lot the label had requested, but was nonetheless “awaiting affirmation that I’m ok” to launch a full-length report. A month later, Polydor launched Raye from her contract and he or she went it alone as an unbiased artist.
Her subsequent industrial and demanding acclaim has absolutely brought about her former label to eat humble pie: in 2022 she scored a UK No 1 and world hit with Escapism (that includes rapper 070 Shake), a track Raye has mentioned that Polydor turned down. (The label has wished her nicely publicly.) In February 2023 she launched her debut album, My twenty first Century Blues, which reached No 2 on the UK album chart and earned her an Ivor Novello award for her songwriting and a nomination for the Mercury prize.
Her lyrical candour – addressing sexual assault throughout the music {industry}, physique picture points and substance abuse – and straightforward straddling of rap, R&B and digital manufacturing has attracted a fervent younger listenership, and she is going to carry out excessive on the invoice at this yr’s teen-focused Studying and Leeds festivals. In the meantime her agile voice and soul nous has additionally commanded an older viewers beguiled by her musicianship, which was on present when she carried out a sold-out present on the Royal Albert Corridor in September.
“I believe the explanation listeners are connecting with Raye is as a result of she really has worn her coronary heart on her sleeve,” mentioned Clara Amfo, a bunch of this yr’s Brit awards and a departing BBC Radio 1 presenter who has identified the musician since her teenagers. “Her cry for assist was so honest and clearly coming from such a helpless place. It’s been an actual testomony to her grit and willpower as a result of she may have given up her pursuit of eager to be a solo artist and carried on writing for different artists. However she has stable conviction in what she brings.”
In 2024, pop followers have a better understanding of the machinations of the music {industry} than ever earlier than, thanks largely to Taylor Swift’s venture to re-record and reclaim possession over her first six albums after the grasp recordings have been offered by her former label. New artists who seem to have risen to prominence suspiciously quick face accusations of being “{industry} crops”. Raye’s post-major label wins play notably nicely on this atmosphere, mentioned Guardian music critic Alexis Petridis: an anti-industry success story that may play out in entrance of your entire British music {industry} tomorrow.
“Individuals need to consider that the music {industry} is horrible and expertise is held again and he or she has circumvented that. She’s carried out this herself – so it’s attainable that you can too. On stage, she doesn’t look too choreographed, she dances along with her sneakers off. It doesn’t look as if she’s been given a set of speaking factors, it doesn’t really feel contrived. Her present success wasn’t assured – it’s a narrative taking place in actual time, you’ll be able to’t assemble that sort of success.”
Raye’s record-breaking nominations are additionally emblematic of a extra various Brit awards. In 2021, the British Phonographic Business (BPI), which runs the Brits, introduced that it was scrapping gendered classes however confronted controversy final yr when all 5 spots within the generic finest artist slot have been males. This yr the class has been expanded to 10 artists and options 50-50 illustration, whereas girls make up greater than half of the general nominees.
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The course correction is reflective of the Brits’ scramble to stay related. Younger music followers have a diminished relationship with dwell tv, and viewing figures for the ceremony dropped frequently till final yr, when it moved from a weeknight to a first-rate time Saturday slot, the place it stays this yr. The 2023 Brits drew the very best share of 16-34-year-olds for an ITV1 broadcast in additional than a decade, mentioned Dr Jo Twist, CEO of the BPI and a member of the Brits organising committee.
Twist insisted that regardless of Raye’s success exterior the apparently restricted imaginations of her former label, artist funding and improvement by British report labels “play a vital function in signing, nurturing and selling expertise and amplifying them globally, and so are central to this total success. All through their careers artists have alternative and may realise their inventive and industrial potential by taking the trail they really feel works finest for them.”
For Raye, that meant exiting and beginning afresh. For all of the awards she is up for tomorrow, essentially the most symbolic, 9 years after her debut EP, could also be finest new artist.
