Watch Raye perform new single ‘Genesis’ on an active train station platform with a jazz band
To celebrate the release of her new single ‘Genesis’, Raye performed the track on an active train station platform in London – check out the footage below.
The singer posted a video on Thursday (June 6) shortly before the single dropped, which showed her singing just a couple of feet away from the train tracks. A jazz band play alongside her, not missing a beat even when a train speeds past behind them.
She wrote alongside the clip, “‘Genesis’ will be yours at midnight.”
Raye performed at Selhurst station, located just a few minutes away from the BRIT School – which she attended for two years from the age of 14 – and not far from Croydon, where she grew up.
Raye first showcased ‘Genesis’ at a pop-up exhibition in New York City earlier this month. She said she was “so proud” of the seven-minute track, her first new material since her critically acclaimed and BRIT Award-winning debut album ‘My 21st Century Blues’, released last February.
“There is a Nina Simone quote, ‘It is an artist’s duty to reflect the times’,” she said. “This quote is everything to me and I believe the best way I can try to do this is through my art and my music.
“There is so much darkness and pain in this world we live in, and I wanted to create something both as deeply personal and as raw as I could find myself to be about my own mind and the world I see around me.”
She added: “The song is a seven-minute piece that I have crafted and scrutinised over the last year and a half, experimenting with different genres and sonic expressions, beneath all the layers and the lyrics, the underlying message is ‘Let There Be Light’.
“It is a prayer and a plea and a cry for help, and I really hope this song will be able to bring some hope, the way this music does for me, to those who need it most.”
RAYE has a packed summer of touring ahead, including a performance on the main stage at Reading & Leeds 2024.
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Adam England
NME