To avoid confusion with Ray BLK, we’d better introduce you to Raye this week too. Rachel Keen is another new London singer, lighter and poppier next to BLK’s soulfulness.
While she came a mere third on the BBC Sound of 2017 list, she’s statistically doing better than any of the other hot tips in the UK right now, with two songs in the top 40.
Like Jess Glynne, who she recently supported on tour, or Ella Eyre, who like her attended Croydon’s Brit performing arts school, she’s starting out as the voice of other people’s dance hits.
You can currently hear her on Jonas Blue’s By Your Side and Jax Jones’s You Don’t Know Me.
She’s a bit more innovative on her solo song, Shhh, from her EP last summer, with it’s stop-start beats and growling bass. It suggests she has more interesting things to offer than that introductory dance pop. Then there are her collaborations with Nas, Stormzy and Charli XCX, and she’s still only 18. So that’s two Ray(e)s looking at a 2017 full of sunshine.
Feb 9, XOYO, EC2 (020 7354 9993, xoyo.co.uk)
