RAYE has shared her emotional reaction to news of her Grammy nominations.
- READ MORE: RAYE: “I became a ‘rent-a-verse’. People knew my songs, but they didn’t know me”
The ‘Escapism‘ singer earned nods for Best New Artist alongside Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Shaboozey, Boone, Teddy Swims, Doechii and Khruangbin – and she’s also up Songwriter of the Year, making it the first time she has ever been nominated for a Grammy.
She is also up for Non-Classical and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for her work on Lucky Daye‘s album ‘Algorithm’. See the full list of nominations here.
RAYE took to her social media accounts in wake of the nomination news, sharing tearful clips on TikTok and Instagram.
“i woke up feeling worried and overthinking my future then got nominated for two grammys,” she wrote on the video sharing site, with Olivia Rodrigo congratulating her in the comments: “well deserved congrats angel.”
@raye grammy nominated tears 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 #raye #grammys #oscarwinningtears
♬ oscar winning tears – 🎧🫀
Over on Instagram, she added: “God knows all it took to get here 😭😭😭 This is too much 😭😭😭 i can’t stop crying 😭😭😭”. The video was soundtracked by ‘Oscar Winning Tears.’ from her 2023 debut ‘My 21st Century Blues‘, and she joked that they were now “Grammy nominated tears”.
RAYE’s road to success has been rocky, with multi-BRIT winner speaking to NME in 2022 about her label struggles, saying: “When you sign with a record label, technically they work for you: you’re signing to a company for them to work for your career and take you to that next level.
“But as a woman, it just doesn’t feel like that. It feels like you’re working for them. And you know, some of the things I had to put my body through to even be able to that… it’s really quite sad.”
After calling out her former label Polydor for preventing her from releasing her debut album in 2021, RAYE parted ways with the label weeks later. She went on to release her debut album independently in 2023, with NME calling it “bold, brilliant and unapologetically her own.”
RAYE was commended by Garbage‘s Shirley Manson for the way she dealt with the label conflict: “What a fantastic triumph of art over industry. It’s really a thrill. I heard that record last year and thought it was really interesting,” Manson told NME.
“She’s talking about very different things to the factory-made pop stars, and as a result she’s fucking swept the board.”
After discussing her output so far at last year’s Mercury prize, she told NME recognition for her work was something she wanted “for a really long time”.
“It really feels like people have taken the time to dig into this album and I know that this shortlist will bring even more ears to people who have never heard it or heard of me,” she said. “It’s growth, it’s stepping stones, but it’s also just ridiculously unexpected. You know, all of the positive words in the dictionary listed here.”
More recently, she told fans her long-awaited second album isn’t coming “any time soon” however, after her writing books were stolen along with her car.
