RAYE announces O2 Arena show and responds to record-breaking BRIT noms
A massive week for the singer.
By Nick Reilly
RAYE has announced her biggest show to date at London’s O2 Arena, as well as explaining that her responded to breaking a new BRIT Awards record in 2024, saying it is beyond her “wildest dreams”.
The singer will perform at the venue, backed by a full orchestra, on March 15. The announcement comes just a day after she secured seven BRIT nominations – the most ever secured by a single artist in one year. Tickets for that show will go on sale from Tuesday (January 30) at 10AM.
Speaking to BBC News about her BRIT nominations, RAYE said: “I’m a BRIT kid, innit? I went to the BRIT School and it was the goal, the ultimate goal, to find my way somehow to the BRIT Awards.”
She added: “As far as the industry was concerned, I was down and out. Never in my wildest dreams would I think trying again would mean seven BRIT nominations. This is a whole different thing. Best Album? Are you sick?”
RAYE is up for Album Of The Year, Artist Of The Year and two separate Song Of The Year nods.
She added in a separate press release “I am completely floored to be recognised seven times this year. I was a BRIT school student and I remember how deeply I dreamed of one day being recognised at the BRITs. I am currently a mess of overwhelming emotions and confusion as to how this even happened to be honest.”
It’s a huge achievement for the singer, who openly told Rolling Stone UK last year how she shook off the shackles of a record label that didn’t want to release her debut record before she ditched them to become an independent artist.
“There’s no sonic through-line,” she previously said of her debut album My 21st Century Blues. “It was just creating whatever feels right for the story I want to tell over it. It just feels free.”
“There’s things on there that some of my closest friends don’t even know about me,” Raye added. “Even though it’s difficult and tricky at times, I do believe art is about being ruthlessly honest.”