Raye

“You should never see another women as your competition, unless they're nasty to you or give you a reason for that.”

“As a Ghanaian-Swiss Brit, I grew up with so many different cultures.”

“My dad would go into companies, learn about them and set them goals.”

“There is a Nina Simone quote, 'It is an artist's duty to reflect the times.' This quote is everything to me and I believe the best way I can try to do this is through my art and my music.”

“I love music that's on the radio, but I wanted to make pop music my own way. I had so much fun trying to break the rules.”

“My mum works in the NHS. I know they get paid terribly.”

“Because I grew up singing in church, I got used to performing in front of people from a really young age.”

“I did as many little charity gigs as I could.”

“Making music that says nothing, means nothing - that's not why I got into this. Music is medicine to me, but it was making me ill.”

“I never necessarily wanted to be someone who did huge, huge hits, but without depth and substance or discussing things I'm passionate about, or breaking a couple of rules.”

“At the end of the day it should come down to a creator believing in what they've created.”

“When I was 10, my dad made a little set-up in the house. We'd put a duvet over the door so it acted as a sound buffer and I started recording songs, covers using a mic we'd bought.”

“The studio is such a vulnerable space.”

“I grew up in the church around my mum singing in the choir and my dad leading worship. Music runs in my family.”

“Especially with my first album, asking me to choose one sound to represent who I am; it just feels impossible.”

“Men will roll their eyes, but it really is so much harder as a woman. Then you bring race into it, and it's just a completely different game entirely. The darker your skin, the tougher it is.”

“I've always been a proud feminist and I think it's clear that climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity - it is heart-breaking to know that the most devastating effects of the climate crisis are weighing most heavily on women and girls.”

“I love songs that don't do what you expect them to.”

“That's kind of the artist I like to be, transparent, honest. I think that's what I'm like in real life.”

“When you think, 'I want to be an artist,' there are a few things you think of, the first thing being: album.”