{"id":1020,"date":"2025-10-03T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/10\/03\/2025-10-03-uprising-star-raye\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T23:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:08:27","slug":"2025-10-03-uprising-star-raye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/2025\/10\/03\/2025-10-03-uprising-star-raye\/","title":{"rendered":"Uprising star\u00a0Raye"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Andrew Hutchinson<\/a> · Contributing Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u2014 INSTAGRAM<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you are familiar with American pop music, the dominance of singers like Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift should be obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only last week, Eilish\u2019s 2019 album \u201cWhen We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go\u201d fell off the Billboard Top 200 for the first time since its release. This continued dominance, paired with the worldwide obsession with American popular culture, means finding international gems takes work. However, the British artist Raye has earned her place among the greatest musical talents of the modern era. And hold on, because she is just getting started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raye has been in the music industry for the past few years, working primarily as a writer for artists like Little Mix, Beyonc\u00e9, Charli XCX and John Legend. Her own music was limited to British EDM and much of it received poor critical reviews for a lack of originality. In 2021, she told social media that her record label, Polydor Records, was preventing the release of her debut album, and by the next year she had split from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Raye released \u201cMy 21st Century Blues\u201d to critical acclaim and indisputable popularity. The song \u201cEscapism\u201d went platinum and was No. 1 on the Billboard UK charts, and the album peaked at No. 2 on UK charts. She proceeded to break the record for the most Brit Awards received at a single ceremony (five), got her first Grammy nomination and performed at the 97th Academy Awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, she has appeared at many pop and jazz festivals, and the crowds she drew served as further proof that she has cemented her place in the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the viewpoint of this classical musician who adores popular music, Raye stands above the current slate of American singers. The continued supremacy of the same artists for nearly a decade has led to a lack of originality, as seen in albums like \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department,\u201d \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d and even \u201cMan\u2019s Best Friend,\u201d a harshly explicit album that, despite a good reception from its audience, has more audible homogeny than Sabrina Carpenter\u2019s other releases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raye\u2019s self-released album could not be further from the bland similarity of those albums, and she includes Hollywood ballads like \u201cOscar Winning Tears\u201d with chill sing-rap in \u201cFive Star Hotel\u201d and \u201cEscapism.\u201d Her sound varies even more in some of her singles, including jazz in \u201cWhat a Difference a Day Makes,\u201d \u201cGenesis\u201d and a bit of genre-bending in \u201cWorth It.\u201d If you take a fancy to most forms of music that have constituted \u201cpopular music\u201d over the last 70 years or so, she has done it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most recently, she released the single \u201cWhere Is My Husband!\u201d and at the same time announced a new album and world tour. The song, which features a jazzy brass section and immaculate genre-blending between big band jazz, soul and rap will likely resonate with a number of Grovers for a shared desire for marriage!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past week, the song has accumulated 23 million streams on Spotify, and in a world of Jack Antonoff synth and Taylor Swift melancholy, Raye\u2019s power shines through in a vibe reminiscent of a posh, British version of Lana Del Ray, with even better vocals. Whatever you like to listen to, Raye may have what you have been looking for, and I hope you enjoy her irreproachable live vocals, stage presence and down-to-earth personality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you are familiar with American pop music, the dominance of singers like Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift should be obvious. Only last week, Eilish\u2019s 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[84,21,32],"class_list":["post-1020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-andrew-hutchinson","tag-entertainment","tag-issue-2025-10-03"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-12-uprising-star-raye-1.jpg",564,544,false],"thumbnail":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-12-uprising-star-raye-1.jpg",150,145,false],"medium":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-12-uprising-star-raye-1.jpg",300,289,false],"medium_large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-12-uprising-star-raye-1.jpg",564,544,false],"large":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-12-uprising-star-raye-1.jpg",564,544,false],"1536x1536":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-12-uprising-star-raye-1.jpg",564,544,false],"2048x2048":["\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/09\/2025-10-03-12-uprising-star-raye-1.jpg",564,544,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ian Schartner","author_link":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/author\/schartnerij23\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"If you are familiar with American pop music, the dominance of singers like Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift should be obvious. Only last week, Eilish\u2019s 2019","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1020"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1020\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuorgs2.gcc.edu\/thecollegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}