Multi-platinum recording artist RAYE continues to evince herself as a powerhouse star with the release of her “Escapism.” music video out now — check it out here. Giving an emotional, adrenaline-rushing performance, RAYE reenacts her darkest days of numbing her pain with temporary fixes. The visual includes a rare, special appearance from featured artist 070 Shake and is the latest offering from RAYE’s upcoming debut album, My 21st Century Blues., set to release on February 3rd, 2023 via Human Re Sources / The Orchard and is available for pre-order here.
“We worked really hard to create an honest depiction of where I was at that time in my life,” RAYE shares. “It was fun and wild. We shot it over a couple of days and wore point-of-view cameras during a wild night out at many different clubs. I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and I ran 150 meters in 5 inch heels. We really took it there! I am really proud of it and hope everyone enjoys the visuals.”
Today, RAYE announces her headlining 2023 world tour, M21CB, which includes US dates in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York City. Pre-sale will begin on Wednesday, November 16th at 6:00am ET. For more details on ticketing, visit RAYE’s website HERE.
The success surrounding RAYE has been exponential. Most recently, she is celebrated as Spotify’s EUAL Artist of the Month for November. Spotlighting her achievements as a woman in music, billboards will be up the next two weeks in her hometown of London and in Times Square in New York.
It’s been a year since RAYE, the mononym for South Londoner Rachel Keen, blew up her career in order to rebuild it. Frustrated at the fact she’d been continually denied the chance to release her debut album by her then major label — despite more than 10 million monthly Spotify listeners, seven top 20 UK singles, and 4 Brit Award nominations to her name, plus songwriting credits that have clocked more than 3.5 billion global streams for other chart-topping acts like Beyoncé, John Legend, Little Mix and Charli XCX to name only a few— she posted a series of viral tweets that shed light not only on her own struggles but on the plight of female artists caught in an endless loop of faceless dance features and broken promises.
A straight shooter, RAYE has always relished being a maverick. Brought up in a musical household (her dad and grandad were both songwriters), RAYE knew from an early age that she would carry on this songwriting lineage. At 14-years-old, RAYE decided she wanted to attend the Brit School, the creative hothouse that had helped shape the likes of Adele and Amy Winehouse, but left two years later to jump start her career. That same year she released the independently-funded, blissed out Welcome To Winter EP on Soundcloud.
In between penning hit records, such as “Bigger” for Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift album and “Bed” with Joel Corry & David Guetta, RAYE released a series of projects, including Second EP in 2016, Side Tape mixtape in 2018 and Euphoric Sad Songs mixtape in 2020. Her solo catalog alone has over 3 billion cumulative streams. She garnered early support from BBC Radio, The Guardian and Vogue, and continues to be championed by global names, including Bulgari, Christopher Kane and JW Anderson. Furthermore, she’s toured with Halsey, Khalid, Rita Ora, Years & Years and Jess Glynne.
Now, with My 21st Century Blues completed and proper infrastructure in place to capitalize on her extensive experience as a hit-maker, RAYE is ready to launch stage two of her career and build out her discography. Over the summer, RAYE made her comeback as an independent artist with “Hard Out Here,” a no-holds-barred anthem that easily earned widespread support from critics at The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Billboard, PAPER, and more. She followed up with “Black Mascara” in August and last month, her double release of “Escapism.,” featuring 070 Shake, and “The Thrill Is Gone.” coincided with her performance of the singles on the critically acclaimed British show “Later… with Jools Holland.”
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Listen to “Escapism.” & “The Thrill Is Gone.”
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