Raye on the fight to release debut album My 21st Century Blues: ‘It’s been a real wild journey’
In 2021, Raye parted ways with her label after claiming on social media that she had been held back from releasing an album. Now, she is a record-breaking Brits nominee with a number one single and MOBO and Ivor Novello awards under her belt. Here is our interview with the star from January 2023, in which she spoke candidly about the fight to make music on her own terms.
Raye is gaining her power back. Not just from the industry that made her feel “mediocre” for so many years, but over past traumas she kept bottled up for a long time.
“Some of my closest friends didn’t even know some of the stuff I’m discussing on my album,” she tells Sky News. “It’s probably the most honest I’ve been. It’s deep and it’s real.”
Raye, real name Rachel Keen, is only 25 but already a music industry veteran; a platinum-selling performer and a songwriter with credits for everyone from Charli XCX and Little Mix to John Legend and Beyonce.
She was just 15 when she released her first song and 17 when all her dreams came true, in the form of a four-album contract with record label Polydor. But after years of what seemed to be a successful career as a vocalist collaborating mainly on other artists’ dance hits, in 2021 she posted a string of tweets claiming the label was holding her back from releasing her own album.
“I’m done being a polite pop star,” she wrote, her frustration and anger palpable. The singer says after years of “trying to make it work”, she had reached the point where she had nothing to lose. “You get to that breaking point, really.”
Shortly after her tweets, it was announced she and Polydor were parting ways, with the label saying the decision had been “amicable and mutual” and wishing her “all the very best for the future”.
Raye claimed her first number one with Escapism at the beginning of 2023. Pic: Official Charts
Fast-forward to now and Raye is in a very different place; making music as an independent artist, in January 2023 she topped the UK charts for the first time with viral hit Escapism. The following month, the debut album she fought so hard to make, My 21st Century Blues, charted at number two. No longer pigeonholed or stifled, this is the real Raye, she says, and it’s been a long time coming.
“The album is discussing a lot of different topics… the deepest depths of really ugly stories about assaults and body dysmorphia and environmental anxiety. I think there’s no limit on what I’ve really spoken on in terms of my perspective on my blues as a woman in the 21st Century.”
‘It’s things I’ve been silent about for so long’
Always outspoken, Raye is not an artist who sticks to trotting out lines of approved PR-speak when she’s being interviewed, and this candidness is evident throughout her music. “Being real and transparent is really important to me, to skip out metaphors and similes and cut straight to the point of what I’m talking about,” she says. “Some of these things I haven’t also entirely healed from.
“It’s definitely going to be a rollercoaster for sure, but one that I’m making the decision to go on. That’s kind of the artist I like to be, transparent, honest. I think that’s what I’m like in real life.”
One song, Ice Cream Man, deals with sexual assault. “It’s things I’ve been silent about for so long and swallowed for so long and self-managed for so long in non-constructive ways,” she says.
“I’ve written pretty transparently about sexual violence… multiple things that occur in a life that you just bury, bury down, hide in a box, don’t tell anyone. And it just festers and manipulates itself into something quite ugly.”
As with Escapism, a dark electro banger about using alcohol, drugs and casual sex as coping mechanisms for dealing with emotional pain, the album is a contrast of often melancholy or dark lyrics, with beats that will fill a dance floor, as well as a range of genres.
“You’ve got songs with a contrasting sonic landscape,” she says. “I find it really exciting to tell a story and then the music feel the opposite so I think there’s a lot of juxtaposition there.”
Irony in its ‘most hilarious and ridiculous form’
Escapism’s success feels ironic to Raye. “With the previous music, not in a bad way, but it was more about the song than about the artist. The big dance songs or whatever, they don’t necessarily say anything about me as a person. I never necessarily wanted to be someone who did huge, huge hits, but without depth and substance or discussing things I’m passionate about, or breaking a couple of rules.
“Escapism is such a personal story. It’s kind of dark. It’s extremely explicit and honest and raw… I really told myself on the beginning of this next chapter, I’m not creating music with the intent or purpose to sell loads of copies, it’s about integrity and telling these uncomfortable stories that I think are really important.
“I had all the preparation in the world for building a small, steady fanbase bit by bit, and to not expect anything in terms of mainstream reflection. So this is like irony in its most hilarious and ridiculous form, that this is the biggest song of my entire career.”
Read more on Raye:
‘I was right to back myself’: Raye rises to first number one
Raye speaks out after leaving record label
Despite it not necessarily being the plan, she admits topping the charts does feel like vindication.
“[I feel] like anything is possible and I was right to back myself,” she says. “Never give up on your dreams. For someone who [felt] so, like, mediocre and… such a disappointment, actually, for so long, to just receive all the affirmation in the world that I was right to back my music is just…”
She doesn’t need to finish the sentence. “For someone who puts words together for a living, I don’t necessarily really have the best words to describe how crazy this is.”
‘Fear is the driving factor of secrets’
Emboldened, Raye says artists need to speak out more about the inner workings of the industry. And despite moves to improve diversity and equality making headlines in recent years, she says misogyny is still rife.
“We do need to be telling these stories more,” she says. “I think things that happen in the darkness have so much more power than they do when they’re brought out to the light, you know? Fear is the driving factor of secrets, and truths and stories being withheld. But there is still that very sad view that women need to be guided and controlled and taught and given instructions to follow and meet these requirements.”
She sighs. “I don’t know… I think it’s probably the same for all artists but especially for women, especially for everything I’ve witnessed in 10 years in the industry. I think a lot needs to change, but I don’t think anything will truly be equal and fair until we’ve got the same amount of female CEOs as we do male CEOs, we’ve got the same amount of female staff working a video shoot as male staff, the same amount of female A&Rs, and the same amount of, you know, different ethnicities in these same roles.
“Balance overall is so important, and until we have that, there’s always going to be issues and problems when you have men deciding what they think is best for women.”
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‘Seven years old, wide-eyed with a dream’: The album cover for My 21st Century Blues
Raye is looking to the future. She says she has had little communication with her former label bosses since she left, but wants to make it clear it wasn’t all bad. There were “some great people there who really believed in me… but obviously it came down to the big people making big decisions”, she says.
I ask her about the artwork for My 21st Century Blues. It features a little girl, dressed for the workplace but teetering in red stilettos hanging off her heels, standing atop a pile of instruments and recording equipment bearing the names of her songs, grabbing hands reaching out from inside. It feels poignant.
“That’s actually my baby sister on top of that big structure we built,” says Raye. “But that little girl up there is me, you know, seven years old, wide-eyed with a dream, not realising what the next 10 or 15 years of my life would be like.
“All the different life – in the industry and out of the industry – that I’ve had to navigate, process, understand, learn in my transition to being a woman, to being an artist, to being an independent artist. It’s been a real wild journey.”
Raye’s debut album, My 21st Century Blues, is out now
Entertainment
Gavin & Stacey star Laura Aikman’s family only discovered her secret return while watching show
The family of Gavin & Stacey star Laura Aikman only found out she was returning to the sitcom while they watched the finale on Christmas Day.
The 39-year-old actress shared a video on her Instagram showing her family screaming in shock as her character Sonia appeared in the episode.
Sonia, the ex-girlfriend of James Corden’s character Neil “Smithy” Smith, appears in the final Christmas special in a crucial plot twist.
Laura Aikman. File pic: PA
One member of Aikman’s family can be heard shouting “press pause” while another tells her “you never told me”.
“We never told anyone,” Aikman replies.
Sharing the video on Instagram she wrote “the moment my family realise Sonia is ruining Christmas again” and captioned it: “I take an NDA very seriously.”
She also shared a photo of a cast board of all the Gavin & Stacey characters, with a space missing where her picture would have been.
Aikman joined Gavin & Stacey as Sonia in the last Christmas Day episode in 2019, when Smithy brought his girlfriend to meet his family and friends.
Pic: Toffee International Ltd/Tom Jackson/PA
But she did not get on with the group and left before Smithy could propose to her as he had planned.
Vanessa “Nessa” Jenkins, played by Ruth Jones, later got down on one knee and confessed her love for Smithy, but before he could respond to her proposal the episode ended on a cliffhanger.
Fans have waited five years to find out his answer, with the 2024 Christmas Day episode opening with the family of Stacey Shipman, played by Joanna Page, and her husband Gavin, portrayed by Mathew Horne, preparing for a wedding.
The BBC said the episode secured the highest overnight Christmas Day ratings since 2008.
The 90-minute episode drew an average audience of 12.3 million, according to overnight figures, surpassing the show’s 2019 Christmas special by more than half-a-million viewers.
Entertainment
Gavin & Stacey – The Finale: After 17 years, it’s finally goodbye – but did Smithy say yes to Nessa?
It’s been five years since since we last caught up with Gavin and Stacey, and, more importantly, since Nessa got down on one knee to propose to Smithy.
Left on a Christmas cliffhanger, not since Rachel got off the plane has the nation been so invested in the fate of a will-they-won’t-they. Because Gavin and Stacey might have sweetly brought the worlds of Billericay and Barry together, but Nessa and Smithy’s anti-romance provided the comedy heart.
At a screening just before Christmas, series creators and stars James Corden and Ruth Jones were both emotional as they spoke about saying goodbye. This is a series that means so much to its cast and creators, as well as its millions of fans.
So. Seventeen years after that eventful first night in a central London hotel room (and en suite), one of the most beloved British comedies of all time has finally come to an end.
* Warning – some spoilers for Gavin & Stacey: The Finale ahead *
The Barry gang are on their way to Essex for a wedding. Pic: Toffee International Ltd/Tom Jackson/PA
Gavin and Stacey are getting ready for a wedding. There is talk of suit fittings and bridesmaids and Smithy standing at the end of the aisle.
It’s the night before the stag and the hen dos, an occasion in itself, and in Essex, Gavin’s mum Pam is stressing about the “flow of the buffet”. Dad Mick is now retired, so her home, her sanctuary, is filled with golf balls and “Sky Sports blasting”. In Wales, Stacey’s mum Gwen appears to have a secret and Uncle Bryn is worrying about his roof rack and whether everyone will be ready to hit the road in three hours and 11 minutes.
So it seems Smithy did indeed say yes. Hurrah! But does this all feel a bit too easy? In John Lewis for official wedding list business, we finally catch a glimpse of his bride-to-be.
And… she isn’t Nessa. She is, in fact, Sonia, the girlfriend he fleetingly introduced five years ago, who left the 2019 Christmas celebrations early. Back then, they didn’t appear to be a match made in heaven. Have things changed?
“I’m so excited,” Sonia tells her fiance. “Somebody’s already bought the handheld Dyson.”
Smithy is excited for his stag do. Pic: Toffee International Ltd/Tom Jackson/PA
Smithy is more concerned about his stag – “the most important day of my life”.
Elsewhere, Stacey is keen to spice up hers and Gavin’s sex life, Dawn and Pete have finally ended their marriage (but not their sniping), and Nessa and Smithy’s son, Neil the Baby, is now 16 and about to start a plumbing course.
Over the course of an hour-and-a-half, we find out what happened five years ago and what Smithy did, or didn’t, say to Nessa. In a turn of events no one was expecting, there was Cossack dancing involved. Now, she wants to bail on Sonia’s hen do – “full Gareth” – and later reminds Smithy she won’t be at the wedding itself, but not because she has other plans. “We both knows that.”
As the families and friends are reuniting for a wedding, the finale is filled with familiar faces: Budgie and co are back (of course, when there’s a stag do involved), Smithy’s little sister makes an appearance, despite him blocking her on Snapchat, and Dave Coaches also has an unexpected new role…
Dave Coaches is back! Pic: Toffee International Ltd/ Tom Jackson/ BBC
We also hear more celebrity anecdotes from Nessa – she “done The Knowledge back in the day” and drove a black cab, which is how she “fell in with Hale and Pace” – and jokes referencing everything from Byker Grove to Baby Reindeer.
And of course, the infamous fishing trip. The finale gets tantalisingly close to revealing what happened, but Bryn is saved by the bell; or in this case, Gwen’s omelette and a fire alarm.
As always, the laughs and emotion are perfectly balanced, with one particularly lovely moment coming from Mick’s stag-do speech. He and Pam weren’t able to have another child after Gavin, he tells the boys, but when a seven-year-old Smithy came into their lives, “it didn’t feel like there was anything missing anymore”. There’s no time to get too sentimental though – not when there’s a foam party on the horizon.
As the big day approaches, Smithy’s friends start to voice their doubts. We see he still has Nessa’s ring. But she’s thinking of leaving Barry and returning to the ships…
Jones and Corden were emotional at the BBC preview event for Gavin And Stacey: The Finale. Pic: PA
At the preview screening, Corden and Jones were joined by castmates, who all shared their experiences of filming the final scenes.
“I remember just getting to the end and thinking, my God, I’m never going to get through that,” said Joanna Page, who plays Stacey, of the first time she read the script. I [knew I was] going to find that so hard to film because they’re all my friends and it’s such memories.”
Larry Lamb, who plays Mick, described the script as “another miracle from the dream weavers” Corden and Jones, and became emotional as he added: “I do not think I can ever remember being so moved by something either that I’ve been involved with or not involved with.”
Alison Steadman, who plays Pam, said she was “completely choked” watching the episode back. “It’s been one of the best jobs of my whole career,” she said. And it was never hard, she added, for her and Lamb to feel “like husband and wife”.
Up there with presents, turkey and Wham!, Christmas TV specials are as much a part of the UK’s annual traditions come 25 December. The best, from the soap drama of EastEnders and Coronation Street to the comedy of The Royle Family and The Office, are always remembered.
In saying goodbye to Gavin and Stacey, Nessa and Smithy, Corden and Jones have left fans with a pretty much perfect ending. Tears, laughs, joy – it has it all.
The finale sums up what is at heart a show about family, the one we are born into and the one we build. Gavin & Stacey is loved because it is so relatable, particularly at Christmas, capturing so well those wonderful snapshots of life spent with very different friends and relatives, whose paths otherwise might not cross.
“You just want it to feel satisfying,” Corden said of the ending. The last day in particular, he said, “was probably the most emotional film set that I’ve ever been on”.
Expectations around a final episode for a show as big as this one are always high. Get it wrong, and you might end up with a petition on your hands.
Did Corden and Jones pull it off?
Let’s just say it was crackin’. Truth be told.
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