Who is Raye? Singer breaks record for most BRIT award nominations in a year

Escapism singer Raye has secured for herself a total of seven nominations for the upcoming 2024 BRIT Awards. The iconic singer-songwriter from South London has consequently set a new record for scoring the most BRIT Award nominations in a single year.

The songwriter has earned two nominations for Song of the Year, one in the Best Pop Act, Best R&B Act, Best New Artist, and Artist of the Year categories. Her debut studio album, My 21st Century Blues, was also nominated for Album of the Year.

Escapism, released shortly before the singer-songwriter's album, which has received widespread critical acclaim, is one of the nominees for the Song of the Year award.

This isn’t the first time the singer-songwriter has been nominated for the BRIT Awards. In 2022, her collaborative song with David Guetta and Joel Corry, Bed, was also nominated for British Single of the Year. While she might not have won the award back then, this year she is in the running to win a few awards.

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Raye entered the music industry as a teenager

Raye, originally known as Rachel Agatha Keen, was born in 1997 in Tooting, South London. The 26-year-old began composing music when she was 17, and her debut EP, Welcome to the Winter, was released in 2015. It was in the same year that she signed a four-album record contract with Polydor Records.

The songwriter first gained popularity through her guest appearances on successful singles like Jonas Blue's By Your Side and Jax Jones' You Don't Know Me at 19.

While Raye's music was gaining prominence, Polydor Records expressed issues with releasing her debut album. The conflict went on for a couple of years until Raye decided to part ways and go independent in 2021.

According to the BBC, the split was caused by both parties having "different goals artistically," and it has been nothing short of a blessing in disguise for the star. Two years later, Raye finally launched her debut album, My 21st Century Blues, in February 2023, which quickly gained international recognition.

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The Mary Jane singer comes from a family of musicians

Singer-Songwriter Raye (Image via Instagram/@raye)

Raye's parents worked at a church, with her father leading the worship while her mother sang in the choir. Her grandfather was also a musician and songwriter. It appears as if music has been passed down in the Keen family. Alongside Raye, her younger sister also happens to be a singer-songwriter, popularly going by the name Absolutely.

While Raye has written songs for legends like Beyonce, Ellie Goulding, and John Legend, Absolutely is behind some of Ariana Grande's and Selena Gomez’s songs. The Keen sisters were raised singing the gospels with their mother as she practiced for the church. Their early exposure to music has helped them develop a unique style of music that is both fresh and authentic.

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Raye’s music follows a ‘no holding back’ policy

Talking to Rolling Stone about her debut album, in a February 2023 interview, Raye said:

“There’ll be songs you might hate and songs you might love. It’s a mosaic of different fragmented pieces from the last seven years of my life, with no sonic consistency and no holding back.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the songwriter also opened up about the story behind the Ice cream Man, revealing the singer had both directed the video and acted in it. Sharing her filming experience of the song, she said:

“I only managed to do about three takes in the whole day, and I spent most of the day hidden in a small room with a radio.”

She added,

“I think you do have to go there, and it’s both awful and beautiful at the same time, which is how the song makes me feel. And for a song that I wrote so many years ago and I made edits based on my perspective now, it’s just tough. It’s tough, but it’s beautiful and it’s hard to listen to for me sometimes. But sometimes I need to listen to it.”

The British songwriter has released over 35 singles, 10 of them as a featured artist. She also has one studio and one live album, with over 30 million monthly listeners on Spotify. Her song, Escapism, has won two times platinum in both the UK and the UK charts as a topping single.