- Written by Mark Savage
- BBC music correspondent
With a record-breaking six wins and seven nominations at this year's Brit Awards, Ray has put one of pop's biggest comeback stories to a complete halt.
The pop star, whose real name is Rachel Keene, has been passionate about the record industry since she was a teenager. To the casual observer, things seemed to be going well.
She has written for big names such as Beyoncé, Little Mix, and Charli XCX. She produced records by Rihanna and John Legend. She collaborated with Stormzy and David Guetta. Her songs like “You Don't Know Me” and “Secrets” sold enough to buy her a house.
However, as a solo artist, her music was always questioned and rejected.
In 2021, five years after she signed a four-album deal with Polydor Records, the label still refused to release her debut.
Not knowing what else to do, Ray posted a video message on social media tearfully explaining his frustration.
Dozens of potential hits have been “gathering dust in folders,” she said, while others have been given to big stars “because they're still waiting for confirmation that they're good enough.” said.
“I've done everything [Polydor] “I changed genres and worked seven days a week,” she said. “Either they listen to me anymore or leave so they can save themselves this headache.
“Because I feel like I’m going crazy.”
The decision to post that video was “absolutely unplanned,” she later told the BBC. “It was more of a desperate cry to be free.”
Public reaction to Polydor was sympathetic. A spokesperson said the company was “saddened” and had contacted Ms Ray's manager (actually her father, Paul) to “offer our full support”.
Behind closed doors, they told Ray to stop doing interviews.
However, in the end an agreement was reached. Ray was released from her contract and allowed to keep the songs she wrote. This included “Escapism,'' a dark and terrifying song written in the depths of despair as she self-medicated with drugs and meaningless sex.
I never liked Polydor. Ray gave the song to other labels and they agreed.
“People were like, 'Yeah, this is cool.' [but] It’s just something Ray needs to get out of his body,” she told me last year.
Raye disagreed and released it independently. The song quickly went viral on his TikTok, reaching number one after tens of millions of streams.
The singer has released her long-awaited album “My 21st Century Blues''. Her gritty, triumphant and catchy song showcased her ability to jump genres between jazz, soul, hip-hop, dance and gospel without losing her own identity.
By the end of the year, it had sold over 60,000 copies and was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Ahead of the Brit, she has already won the coveted songwriter of the year award at the ceremony.
“It's great when you can prove people wrong,” she said of her success.
“It’s not a simple story, but it just goes to show that no matter what people say, you should stand by yourself.”
So how did she get here? Let her go back to January 2017. At the time, Ray was a newcomer to the BBC's Sound Of 2017, where she placed third.
Now 19, she gives us a tour of her childhood bedroom in south London, where she started making music.
“Don't let me out!'' I demanded a handwritten sign on the door. “I'm doing something private! If you're in a hurry, please knock!”
She had a photo of her sister Abby taped directly below it with Blu-tack, revealing a kind heart beneath her tough exterior.
When I walked in, it was a typical teenage room. A poster of Gustav Klimt's The Kiss hung on the wall above the bed, and a cluttered desk was stuffed with makeup brushes, school photos, and half-used candles.
“This is my favorite place,” she said. “A lot of things are starting to happen, but this is still my home base. It's nice to be close to my family.”
Music and religion were woven into her home life. Her Yorkshire-born father led worship at the local Pentecostal church, and her mother, a Swiss-Ghanaian mental health worker, sang in the choir.
After Sunday services, Ray's father taught her how to play worship songs on the piano.
“I sat on his lap and pushed his hand out of the way. I was like, 'I can do this!'”
The 7-year-old reused melodies from children's TV shows and passed them off as her own. This was her first foray into songwriting, a kind of plagiarism.
Four years later, she wrote a “proper” song for the Year 6 graduation concert, which was performed by the whole school at Southwark Cathedral.
At the age of 14, she auditioned for Brit School, where she spent two years learning the basics of screenwriting and producing. But as it turned out, it wasn't appropriate.
In 2016 she said she was “all about cool, underground, independent artists.” “I wrote a song called “HotBox,'' and I was scared to play it in front of people because I thought, “Oh, my friends might think it's too swampy.'' [embarrassing]”
A smoky, hazy R&B track about her first encounter with drugs, HotBox was inspired by progressive R&B artists like Jhene Aiko and Frank Ocean.
And despite Ray's misgivings, it was crucial to her career. The song was discovered by Olly Alexander of Years & Years and performed on his record label Polydor.
“The first album was pretty much ready before I joined the label,” Ray later told Vogue. “By the time I was 17, they had spent three years wooing me over fancy dinners.
“But it didn't take long for me to realize that the dreams they had seduced me into were hot air.”
After signing the deal, fans who fell in love with Hotbox and Ray's self-released EP Welcome to Winter noticed that her music leans heavily towards pop.
Initially, she defended the change. “'Welcome to the Winter' made me realize that no one cared about me except the cool kids in London,” she explained in 2016.
“So I had to find a way to do what I wanted to do in a way that people could hear.”
Before long, she began to score big hits on the dance charts. Her first big paycheck came for co-writing Blonde's All Cried Out. And in 2017, she hit the Top 10 as guest vocalist and co-writer of Jax Jones' bold and brave club anthem, “You Don't Know Me.”
This success required caution. Polydor wanted to create more dance hits. They argued that only once Ray established a name for herself could she take creative control.
However, that never happened and the songs she was pressured to write meant little to her.
“I'm really, really bored,” she admitted. “It's not my favorite song, but my bank account loved it.”
“So what?” you may be thinking. If you can make a living churning out Identity Kit dance anthems, where's the harm?
The truth is that Ray's spirit was being destroyed by every common kick drum at one time.
To get through it, she turned to alcohol and then drugs.
“I was kind of sedated, so I was able to continue my career,” she told Theroux.
Ray has always been open about her experience with sexual assault in the music industry. Her song “Ice Cream Man” is based on an incident when she was 17 years old when a music producer shoved his hand between her legs.
Shockingly, it wasn't an isolated incident. “This happens all the time to girls in the studio,” she said. “everytime.”
By the time her debut album, Ice Cream Man, was released, the updated lyrics enumerated a list of abuses.
”I was 7, I was 21, I was 17, and I was 11.,” she sang.”If I were ruthless, they would go to jail.”
Those memories came flooding back along with a bad breakup, her career took a turn for the worse, and things took a turn for the worse.
“If you keep things inside like that, it eats away at you from the inside out,” she says.
“And, sadly, for me, substance abuse was tied to numbing the trauma that I had experienced. I got pretty deep and at some point became really dangerous.”
“Escapism” depicts the moment he hits rock bottom, snorting cocaine in a taxi with strangers and hoping a one-night stand will erase his bad thoughts.
It was only when she reconnected with the church that she pulled out of the abyss.
“There's a world out there where I might not even be here if I didn't find my faith again,” the singer said.
“And when I sobered up, I realized what I had done to myself…to try to be the person they wanted me to be.”
It, among other things, sparked a dramatic protest against Polydor and sparked her journey to independence.
The closed door suddenly opened. She performed on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage, won the Ivor Novello Award for Escapism, and concluded the tour with a major television gig at the Royal Albert Hall.
Her record-breaking nominations and awards mark the long-awaited arrival of a pop star with a captivating yet unique voice.
“I'm finally here and I'm finally in control of my career,” she told me. “The situation is very positive and I am really grateful.
“But you know, Mark. It was a bloody minute.”