Raye
Main Stage
★★★★★
Raye is a vision of vintage glamour as she takes to Electric Picnic’s Main Stage as the penultimate headline act of the 2024 festival.
Magnetic and raw, the Londoner who won a record six Brit awards this year takes the crowd on a journey from the 1920s to the 2020s with a soulful, jazz-influenced set incorporating her solo work and the dance hits she has collaborated on with other artists.
Accompanied by a big band and Dublin Gospel Choir, she sets out with The Thrill Is Gone, from her album My 21st Century Blues before confiding in the crowd that she has broken one of her red-tipped French-manicured nails and forgotten her “tit tape”. There is no pretence with Raye, and her colossal talent and relatability are a winning combination on the night.
The only misstep she makes is to refer to the Co Laois crowd as a Dublin one once or twice, but surely she can be forgiven, given that she is sharing the stage with a Dublin choir.
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On Raye’s latest release, Genesis, she showcases all that she does best, combining confessional verses on modern life – “They say the 20s are the best years of your life / But I seem to be spending mine missing sunsets / ’cause I’m busy on my phone observing everyone else / How I compare and obsess” – with honey-toned doo-wops and an irrepressible beat.
A hush comes over the crowd as Raye introduces her story of sexual assault in Ice Cream Man; as the big-screen camera pans across the crowd you can see we’re hanging on every word as she infuses the refrain “’Cause I’m a woman, I’m a very f**king brave strong woman” with unfiltered emotion. This leads to a stunning rendition of It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World that allows her to show off her incredible voice.
Then she lets us know it’s time to “bring the party up” with Bed, her song with Joel Corry and David Guetta – or, more accurately, she prompts the crowd to sing it. Everyone seems to know the words. She keeps the party going with Black Mascara, from My 21st Century Blues, and Secrets, her 2020 dance track with Regard.
Then comes the bop that probably drew a lot of the crowd to the main arena, Prada, which Raye released with Cassö and D-Block Europe, on which she sings the catchiest chorus going around socials right now: “Pull up in a Bentley, I want Christian, I want Fendi, I want Prada, ah-ah, ah-ah.”
She’s full of praise for the crowd as she introduces Escapism as her final song, and because us “crazy motherf**kers” had it as our Christmas number one in 2022, she’s going to scream it with everything she’s got, and she doesn’t care about a video of her popping up online afterwards.
Raye’s Electric Picnic set would have been an education for many in her work beyond the dance anthems. Her stellar performance has no doubt recruited many loyal Irish fans.
