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Raye review – the sweet sound of revenge


Ahead of this week’s Brits, where she’s up for a record seven gongs, the singer-songwriter draws on her famously hardwon debut album in a show poised between raw truths and joyous bangers

The night’s theme is, apparently, honesty, and Rachel Keen is the kind of glamorous pop star who, like Adele before her, shrinks the room by gassing about nerdy detail or confiding secrets of the trade. Tied to a major-label record contract that did not serve her interests, Raye’s elastic guest vocals made her a successful featured artist on dance-pop hits – not least You Don’t Know Me with Jax Jones from 2017. Although sections of a nine-track EP, Euphoric Sad Songs(2020) established the emotive appeal of her solo work – tonight we get Natalie Don’t, Raye’s update of Dolly Parton’s Jolene from that record – Polydor continued to stall her debut album.

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