Raye biography
Home / Celebrity Biographies / Raye biography
"I'm doing private stuff! Songs like You Don't Know Me and Secrets sold enough to buy her a house.
But, as a solo artist, her music was constantly questioned and rejected. When she was 14, she was accepted into the Brit School for Performing Arts, whose alumni include the likes of Adele, Lily Allen and Katie Melua. Her song Ice Cream Man was based on an incident where a music producer forced his hand between her legs when she was 17 years old.
Shockingly, it was not an isolated incident.
Then came her record-breaking haul at the Brits.
"It's just brilliant when you get to prove people wrong," she has said of her success. Gritty, triumphant and catchy, it showcased her ability to genre-hop between jazz, soul, hip-hop, dance and gospel without losing her sense of identity.
It's been a bloody minute."
Who is RAYE?
Some strong Scorpio traits are loyalty, ambition and passion.
RAYE’s discography
RAYE’s album ‘My 21st Century Blues’ was released in 2023 and the songs on the track list included ‘Escapism.’, ‘Buss It Down’, ‘Flip A Switch’ and ‘Mary Jane’.
You’ll also know her for ‘Prada’ with Casso and D Block Europe, which blew up on TikTok in 2023.
Before she released her debut album, RAYE collaborated with a number of DJs for dance tracks like ‘BED’ with Joel Corry and ‘Tequila’ and ‘You Don’t Know Me’ with Jax Jones.
What is RAYE’s net worth?
There’s no confirmed figure for RAYE’s net worth, but online reports estimate between $6 million (£4.7m) and $10 million (£7m).
Who are RAYE’s parents?
RAYE’s dad, who works as her manager, is British and her mum has Ghanaian and Swiss heritage.
They have three other daughters, two of which, Abby and Lauren, are following in their big sister’s footsteps as songwriters.
Does RAYE have a boyfriend?
It’s not known if RAYE is currently dating anyone, but she’s documented a lot of her relationship learnings in her songs, singing about being broken up with on her 2022 single ‘Escapism.’
Read more music news here:
Listen live to Capital, and catch up on any shows you missed, on Global Player.
"I was seven, was 21, was 17, and was 11," she sang.
"If I was ruthless, they'd be in the penitentiary."
Those memories resurfaced at the same time as a bad break-up and, with her career in tailspin, things got dark.
"When you keep things in like that, they eat away at you from the inside," she said.
"And for me, sadly, substance abuse was entangled with numbing the trauma that I had experienced.
The rising sensation became a household name after her debut album ‘My 21st Century Blues’ which had songs like ‘Escapism.’, RAYE's first Number 1, and the poignant ‘Ice Cream Man’ about her experience with sexual abuse.
A year after releasing her first album, RAYE was nominated for seven BRIT Awards in 2024, including Best New Artist, Album of the Year and Pop Act.
But who is RAYE?
Let's go back to January 2017, when Raye was a newcomer who'd placed third on the BBC's Sound Of 2017.
Then aged 19, she showed us around the childhood bedroom in South London where she'd started making music.
"Keep out!" demanded a handwritten sign on the door.
Her Yorkshire-born father led worship at the local Pentecostal church while her mother, a Swiss-Ghanaian mental health worker, sang in the choir.
After the Sunday services ended, Raye's father would show her how to play worship songs on his piano.
"I'd on sit his lap and push his hands out of the way, like, 'I can do it!'"
Aged seven, she repurposed a melody from a kids' TV show and passed it off as her own, a sort-of plagiaristic first venture into writing.
Four years later, she penned a "proper" song for her Year 6 leaving concert, which the whole school performed at Southwark Cathedral.
From her age, parents and net worth to what songs are on her discography?
To get through it, she turned to drink, then drugs. When I was 10, my dad made a little set-up in the house. But, ultimately, it wasn't the right fit.
"It's all cool, underground, indie artists," she said in 2016.
"I did a song called HotBox, and I was scared to play it to people because I was like, 'Oh, my friends might think this is moist [embarrassing].'"
A smoky, blurry R&B track about her first encounter with drugs, HotBox was inspired by progressive R&B artists like Jhene Aiko and Frank Ocean.
Her debut album "My 21st Century Blues" (2023) topped the UK charts and earned critical acclaim.
"Because I'm about to make it a headache."
The decision to post that video "wasn't at all planned", she later told the BBC. "It was more of a desperate cry to be free."
Polydor's public response was sympathetic.
"By the time I was 17, they had spent three years wooing me... And she has also revealed how she had been sexually assaulted by a record producer earlier in her career. Aged 19, she was the vocal on Jax Jones’ dance hit You Don’t Know Me which reached number three in the UK singles chart.