RAYE opens up about feeling pressure to make new hits: “The bar is definitely high”
RAYE has shared that she is working on new material, but feeling a sense of pressure given the huge response to her last release.
The London singer shared the update with fans in a new video on social media. In the clip shared to TikTok, she revealed why she has been keeping a relatively low profile online and confirmed that she has been back in the studio.
Plans for new music come on the heels of her 2023 breakthrough album ‘My 21st Century Blues’, which has gone on to see the artist break records for her number of wins at the 2024 BRIT Awards, perform at the 97th Academy Awards earlier this year, play on the main stages at both Glastonbury and Reading, and much more.
However, these milestones have seemingly led to a sense of pressure when it comes to writing new material, and RAYE has said that the expectations left her reduced to tears in the studio because she “couldn’t write anything”.
“I was overthinking everything and I definitely cried. So I’ve been offline because the bar is definitely high,” she said.
“I just want to trust my gut, hope I make the right decisions and, more than anything, just believe in it if no one else does because I do,” she added. “I have to think like that, that’s why I’m offline.”
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RAYE’s road to success has been rocky, with the multi-BRIT winner speaking to NME in 2022 about her label struggles, saying: “When you sign with a record label, technically they work for you: you’re signing to a company for them to work for your career and take you to that next level.
“But as a woman, it just doesn’t feel like that. It feels like you’re working for them. And you know, some of the things I had to put my body through to even be able to that… it’s really quite sad.”
After calling out her former label Polydor for preventing her from releasing her debut album in 2021, RAYE parted ways with the label weeks later. She went on to release her debut album independently in 2023, with NME calling it “bold, brilliant and unapologetically her own.”
In October, she told fans there would be “no second album any time soon” after her writing books were stolen along with her car.
Going forward, RAYE has a number of live shows planned for this summer, including a slot at Victoria Park in east London for All Points East on Saturday, August 23. The Maccabees and Barry Can’t Swim have also been confirmed for next year’s festival. Visit here for tickets.
Earlier this year, King Charles III shared his love of RAYE, and described the singer as “a great ambassador for British music”. The comments came as the royal shared a personally-curated playlist of his favourite songs on a one-off radio show last month, and recalled meeting the star.
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Liberty Dunworth
NME
