“It’s always been my dream to play this festival, but I didn’t think we would start off on the main stage with all these people here,” RAYE says to the packed crowd at Reading 2023. “This is fucking crazy.”
It’s been an immense couple of years since the Camden singer shared her emotionally raw debut album ‘My 21st Century Blues’. This year alone, she’s sold out London’s iconic O2 arena and made history after taking home a record-breaking six trophies at the 2024 BRIT Awards. It’s a pretty impressive feat, given her battle to re-establish herself as an independent artist in recent years.
However, with her set at Reading today (August 24), the singer is adamant that this isn’t the time for looking back at past struggles but rather embracing the joy that follows when you overcome them. “I’m going to take you through some different motions in this set, and we’ll have some good times. I promise,” she says at one point.
For any artist, making a festival debut on the main stage is a challenging feat. But while some could shrink away when placed in front of a crowd of thousands, for RAYE, the stage immediately feels like a second home. It’s clear from when she launches the set with ‘Flip A Switch’ and makes her presence immediately known, her powerful vocals just about managing to cut through the eruption of applause.
Ironically, it turns out that the track the singer is most apologetic for today ultimately became the poignant moments of the set. “I hope it’s OK with you that I play one sad song, just one,” she says, introducing ‘Ice Cream Man’, the soul-bearing track she wrote that documented her experience of sexual assault. “I promised myself when I became an independent artist I wanted to make honest music. I wanted to make music that was honest to the things that I’d been through.”
By this point, the heartfelt aspects of RAYE’s performance have become an almost integral part of her on-stage presence. This time around, though, tracks like ‘Body Dysmorphia’ and ‘Mary Jane’ are left out, instead substituted for more of a summer feel. An Afrobeats version of ‘Bed’ – which she shared back in 2021 with Joel Corry and David Guetta – instead brought the energy to the set, as did dance-imbued renditions of ‘You Don’t Know Me’, ‘Prada’ and ‘Escapism’.
A huge wave of success has followed since RAYE shared her debut album last year, and now, given her slot at Reading alone, it is clear that all of the milestones up until now only mark the beginning of her story. From delivering heartfelt sentiments to dazzling the crowd with her powerhouse vocals, as far as festival debuts go, it’ll be hard for anyone to reach the same heights as this.
RAYE played:
‘Flip A Switch.’
‘Decline’
‘Worth It.’
‘Genesis’
‘Ice Cream Man.’
‘Bed’
‘You Don’t Know Me’ (Jax Jones song)
‘Secrets’
‘Black Mascara.’
‘Prada’
‘Escapism’
Follow all of the action as it happens on the NME Reading & Leeds liveblog here.
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