By Frankie Elliott and Molly Clayton and Dolly Busby
23:19 02 Mar 2024, updated 01:13 03 Mar 2024
Raye’s journey from musical obscurity to global pop star reached new heights on Saturday night as she made history by sensationally winning six Brit awards.
The London-born singer, full name Rachel Agatha Keen, was overwhelmed as she broke the record for winning the most gongs in one night, going up each time to collect her awards barefoot.
She was nominated seven times – the most ever for a single artist in a year – but couldn’t possibly have won more than she did as she was shortlisted twice for song of the year – for Escapism, which won the title, and for Prada.
At the ceremony at London’s O2 arena, the 26-year-old collected prizes for best artist, new artist, R&B act and songwriter as well as a song and album of the year.
The songwriter’s success represents one of music’s greatest ever comebacks, coming just three years after her former record label Polydor refused to release any of her albums.
This led to Raye leaving the company and releasing her critically acclaimed, and now award winning, debut My 21st Century Blues as an independent artist.
Raye was seen in floods of tears as she collected her awards and even brought her grandmother on stage to collect Album of the Year.
The star of the night also took to the stage to perform a trio of hits – Ice Cream Man on piano, an orchestral version of Prada before ending with Escapism.
The singer/songwriter scooped the Song of the year award for her hit Escapism ft 070 Shake, shortly before also taking home the R&B Act gong and Best New Artist.
’I’m shaking. I don’t really know what to say right now, but… thank you. I’ve always dreamed of saying that,’ she said as the reached the podium to accept her first award of the night.
Accepting Best New Artist just minutes afterwards, the emotional star told the crowd: ’What is actually happening right now ’cause I just don’t understand!’
Raye’s recent success comes after she parted ways with her former label, Polydor, and released her critically acclaimed debut My 21st Century Blues as an independent artist. She referenced her new beginning in her Best New Artist Speech.
’I have to thank my mum and my dad who are also part of my team, and my grandma. Yes grandma! I, in ways, do feel like a new artist. I released my first song when I was 15, my first mixtape when I was 16, don’t go and listen to it because it’s not that good any more.
’But I do feel like a new artist, I got to start again. The artist I was three years ago would not believe what she’s seeing today. I’m my own boss now, I’m in control. Thank you!’
She also scooped the first ever BRIT Award for R&B act, which is voted for by the public via Instagram and is a new standalone genre category after musicians and fans complained about R&B being conjoined with the pop last year.
Raye acknowledged the the uproar in her speech, telling the crowd: ’Look I just wanna say, when I was about 16, 15 years old, I wanted to be an R&B artist, that’s what I would say. And I was told, I think, a lie that R&B doesn’t sell in the UK so I needed to learn how to make different kinds of music.’
’I know that’s a bit shady but I need to say R&B is so important and there are so many R&B artists in the UK eating it up. I wanna shout out to Mahalia, who campaigned for this award, Cleo Sol, who’s immaculate, Sault. This really is a lot – thank you.’
Raye also won Songwriter of the Year, which was announced ahead of the live ceremony, with host Clara Amfo handing her the gong in a surprise moment after her Best New Artist win.
The prize, which began in 2022, has previously been won by Suffolk singer Ed Sheeran and British record producer Kid Harpoon, who worked with Harry Styles on the album Harry’s House.
The artist then gave an impassioned plea to the music industry, taking the mic to declare: ’Whilst I’m here, British record music industry please, I just wanna have a brief conversation about normalising giving songwriters master royalty points.
’It can be net costs, it doesn’t have to be at your expense, but it means if songs win big the writers win big too. Please allow that to happen.’
Later in the show, the star scooped one of Saturday night’s top prizes – Artist Of The Year.
The non-gendered Artist Of The Year Award sparked outrage last year, after it replaced individual Male and Female categories, but then failed to include any female or non-binary artists among its five nominations.
This year however, thanks in part to the category being doubled in size, there were six female nominees out of the 10, including Raye.
Arlo Parks, Jessie Ware, Lil Simz, Olivia Sims and Dua Lipa made up the female nominees, while Central Cee, Dave, J. Hus and Fred Again… were also nominated.
’There are so many ridiculously incredible artists here tonight, so this is especially overwhelming,’ Raye told the crowd after her fifth win.
’Man, what is happening? What the hell is happening? Shoutout Croydon! South London! What! Shoutout my team! My sisters! My best friend Carly, I love you so much Carly, don’t start me off!’
’Thank you, this is unfair, this is unfair, this is wild. Somebody take this mic off me, I’ve had my first drink. Thank you to the Brits, thank you so much!’
Raye bought her grandmother on stage as she won Album Of The Year, which was presented to her by her BRIT School headteacher Stuart Warden, who she had earlier given a shout out to.
Speaking on the red carpet before the ceremony at London’s O2 on Saturday, Raye admitted she was struggling to take it all in.
She told red carpet hosts Layton Williams and DJ Harriet Rose: ’It’s a joke. I was trying and hustling for years. It’s too much. My main thing tonight is that I have to enjoy it. Otherwise what is the point.
’It’s really hard to process things in real time.’
Raye vowed to celebrate the night away at the after-parties at exclusive locations such as Soho House’s 180 venue where record label Universal hosted a bash, and the Nomad hotel.
Born in Tooting to a Ghanaian-Swiss mother and English father, Raye began singing in the church choir. At the age of 14, she was accepted into the Brit School for performing arts, but dropped out after two years saying she felt ’confined’.
She first found fame in 2016, aged 19, when she featured on Jax Jones’s You Don’t Know Me which peaked at No 3 on the UK singles chart.
But in 2021 she revealed that record label Polydor had refused to release any of her albums, despite having signed her seven years earlier. She took to Twitter to say : ’I have been on a four album record deal since 2014. And haven’t been allowed to put out one album.’
Her debut album My 21st Century Blues was released independently last year made No2 in the charts – as well as securing her the Brit Award last night.
Raye has previously told how she was assaulted by a music producer who forced his hand between her legs when she was 17 – an experience she drew upon for the album track Ice Cream Man.
Her history-making night comes after the singer, real name Rachel Keen, delivered a show-stopping performance on the main stage at Glastonbury last summer and received a Mercury Prize nod for My 21st Century Blues.
But the Brit School graduate has been climbing her way through the ranks for many years, having signed to Polydor Records as a teenager.
She later lent her vocals to top five hits by David Guetta and Jax Jones and wrote lyrics for Beyonce and Rihanna.
Despite her obvious talent, her solo work did not reach the same heights and in 2021 she expressed frustration at her label not letting her release her debut album yet.
In a series of posts to X, formerly Twitter, she wrote: ’Imagine this pain. I have been signed to a major label since 2014… and I have had albums on albums of music sat in folders collecting dust, songs I am now giving away to A list artists because I am still awaiting confirmation that I am good enough to release an album.’
She said she had ’done everything’ they asked her to do, including switching genres and working long weeks.
’I’m done being a polite pop star. I want to make my album now, please that is all I want,’ she said.
She told the Sunday Times she was resentful of the music industry executives who took advantage of her youth.
She said: ”When you’re young your mind is malleable, your opinions not always your own.
”As a kid in this industry I had horrible paranoia and insecurity projected on to me. I was told to fear all of the women doing well at the time, like we were competition.
”Apparently there was only one seat at the table and I had to fight to make it mine. That was such a confusing narrative for me.”
Raye’s stunning success on a strong night for female musicians will delight Brit Awards organisers after last year’s controversy.
Then, not a single woman was nominated for artist of the year – which was ultimately won by Harry Styles – after organisers scrapped separate male and female awards in favour of gender-neutral categories.
Producers also changed the gender balance of presenters this year, replacing 2023 host, Mo Gilligan, with Love Island anchor Maya Jama, and radio DJs Clara Amfo and Roman Kemp.
A record 98 artists were up for the new 2024 BRIT award, which has been designed by British visual artist and painter Rachel Jones.
As well as Raye’s huge successes, Dua Lipa won best pop act while Kylie Minogue – who had a massive comeback hit last year with Padam Padam – picked up the global icon award.
Dua Lipa picked up the fan-voted Pop Act gong, gushing to her fans: ’I guess for more reasons than one my fans are the reasons why I’m standing here today, so I wanna say a massive thank you to each and every single one of you who have voted for me.’
’This means so much, I’m so, so happy to be here. You guys give me this radical sense of confidence that I can do anything, I can try and experiment … and all the love and optimism and support is what inspires me, so thank you so much. Beyond that, it takes a village, so I want to thank my dad-ager.’
American singer-songwrier SZA, 34, won international artist of the year while Miley Cyrus, 31, won international song of the year for her hit, Flowers. American feminist indie band Boygenius were named international group of the year.
All three performed at the show too, with Ms Lipa opening the ceremony with her hit Training Day as more than 30 dancers twisted and span from invisible wires 50ft above the stage.
The only men to get accolades were Calvin Harris for dance act; Sheffield quartet Bring Me The Horizon in the alternative/rock category; Casisdead for best hip-hop, grime or rap act; and duo Jungle for group of the year.
Collecting their first Brit, frontman Oli Sykes said: ’We don’t know what to say, we didn’t think we would be winning this.
’Thanks to the Brits for making a voting system so complicated only our fans could be a**** to vote.’
Calvin shouted out Ellie in his speech, telling her: ’I wouldn’t be on this stage this year if it wasn’t for you. What you brought to Miracle was unbelievable, I couldn’t have done this with anybody else.’
The Producer category was won by Chase and Status shortly before taking to the stage with Becky Hill.
Before the show started, stars walked the red carpet, with 28-year-old Ms Lipa wowing in a plunging leather Versace gown.
She said: ’It does feel like a particularly strong year [for women] and it’s wonderful to see so many incredible female artists who I love and I admire and I listen to.To be alongside them feels really special and we need more girl energy. It’s great.’
Ellie Goulding, 37, made her first public appearance since she confirmed she had split from husband Caspar Jopling after nearly five years of marriage.
Fresh off the plane from Costa Rica where she was seen frolicking in the sea with surf instructor Armando Perez, Ms Goulding was dressed in a stunning nude coloured floor-length silk gown by Italian label Alberta Ferretti and a pair of £954 Jimmy Choo Max Bing shoes.
She also took to the O2 stage with Harris to perform their Brit-nominated hit Miracle.
Other stars to stun in on the red carpet included actresses Joanne Froggatt, Jaime Winstone, Isla Fisher and Marisa Abela, who plays Amy Winehouse in the forthcoming biopic of the tragic singer, Back To Black.
Also on the red carpet were model Abbey Clancy with ex-footballer husband Peter Crouch, former Spice Girl Mel C and singer Charli XCX.
Comedian Rob Beckett left guests stunned and amused when he arrived in an inflatable giraffe outfit – apparently plugging his forthcoming stand-up tour, which is called Giraffe.
