Raye was born Rachel Keen in Tooting, South London to a Ghanaian-Swiss mother and an English father.
Inspired by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Aaliyah, and Amy Winehouse, Raye started composing her own songs at the age of 10. She auditioned for Britain's Got Talent a year later, but never made it through.
Raye signed a publishing deal at 14. At the same time, she enrolled at South London's BRIT School, home to alumni such as Amy Winehouse, Adele and Jessie J. Raye took the train after class to songwriting sessions, often "working with 35-year-old white guys," she recalled to
Billboard. "It was important to get my skills up."
She quit the BRIT School after two years. "Songwriting was a dominant part of the next course, and I just don't think you can teach someone to write a song," Raye shrugged to Q Magazine. "I'm trying to be different - I don't want to sit in a class of 30 people being taught the same thing."
Raye self-released her debut EP, Welcome to the Winter, in December 2014 and signed a four-album recording contract with Polydor Records soon after. It was then that Rachel Keen transformed into Raye. "It was actually a really confusing day for me. I wasn't really understanding what was going on," she recalled to MTV News. "But as a kid from South London who had no clue how to get into the music industry, it was my first step closer to achieving my dreams."
Raye scored her breakthrough in 2016 when she featured on two UK Top 20 hits by English producers: Jonas Blue's "
By Your Side" and Jax Jones' "
You Don't Know Me." A year later, Raye achieved her first UK hit under her own name with "
Decline." But her early success was bittersweet. "I was ushered down a path sonically that I didn't necessarily intend for myself," she told Billboard.
She left Polydor Records in 2021 as the label had been withholding her debut album for several years. Raye went indie and released her debut studio album,
My 21st Century Blues, on February 3, 2023. It included her first ever UK #1 single, "
Escapism."
Raye was raised in the Christian faith. Her father was the musical director of their church in Croydon, and her mother sang in the choir.
After years of hedonism and substance abuse, which she recounts in "Escapism," Raye rediscovered her faith. "There's a world in which if I didn't find faith again, I might not even be here," she told the BBC. "There's a lot of demons trying to claw at you and drag you to somewhere you don't belong, so I'm really grateful I have this faith. It's honestly pulled me out of a really dark place."
Raye was nominated for seven awards at the 2024 BRITs, breaking the record for most BRIT nominations in a single year. Gorillaz, Craig David and Robbie Williams were the previous record holders with six nominations.
Raye won six categories at the 2024 BRIT Awards, breaking the record for most awards awarded to an artist in one night in the history of the ceremony. She took home the prizes for:
Mastercard album of the year for
My 21st Century BluesArtist of the year
Best new artist
Song of the year for "
Escapism" featuring 070 Shake
Best R&B act
Songwriter of the year
Raye told BBC's Newsbeat she's been a "huge gamer" since her childhood, when she first picked up a Nintendo DS. Her love for gaming is so strong that she's even contemplated getting a tattoo of a mushroom, a classic power-up from the Super Mario series.
Raye finds gaming to be an essential escape from her busy schedule. She enjoys the way it helps her connect with others, often inviting friends to join her gaming sessions while on tour.
When she was around 8 or 9, Raye used to type out entire imaginary albums - tracklists, credits, concepts, and fake release schedules - in Microsoft Word. The songs didn't exist yet. She was just rehearsing what it would feel like to be an artist with a full body of work.
Her 2026 album
This Music May Contain Hope is very personal and emotional, with 17 tracks divided into four "seasons" as Raye charts her journey starting with a low point in 2021 when she was frustrated with her record label and using drugs and alcohol to cope. The seasons concept came about when her co-writers used parts of the classical composition "The Four Seasons" (by Vivaldi) on the song "
Winter Woman."
Her album
This Music May Contain Hope is largely orchestral, with contributions from the renown composer Hans Zimmer and the London Symphony Orchestra. Chris Hill, another composer who co-wrote nine of the songs,
told Songfacts the magic came from "Real, live performances" and "a complete and utter rejection of AI."
Her younger sisters Lauren Keen (Amma) and Abby-Lynn Keen (Absolutely) are successful singer-songwriters in their own right and both have opened for Raye on tour.
