RAYE Shares What Music Shaped Her—And What's on Her Playlist Now

If you ever wanted to know who is on your favorite singer's playlist, or what albums inspired the latest “it girl” the most, tune in for Marie Claire’s resident music franchise Listen Up. In this interview series, we ask musicians about their listening habits and the specific records that informed their taste—and inherently their journey as an artist.

RAYE had “zero expectations” to hear her name when the 2025 Grammy nominations were announced in November 2024. The British singer-songwriter’s acclaimed debut album My 21st Century Blues went unacknowledged during the Recording Academy’s 2024 awards cycle, just months before she broke the record for most BRIT Awards won in one night. The soul artist thought her Grammy dreams would have to wait until she released her eventual sophomore project. Instead, she received three nods: Best New Artist; Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical; and Best Engineered Album (for her work on Lucky Daye's Algorithm).

“It’s so hard to put into words,” RAYE says of her response to the nominations while chatting with Marie Claire via Zoom from her home in London, just days before Christmas. “I was in a zombie trance-like state of tears and just extremely overwhelmed and so grateful. When I found out, I felt this flipbook flicking through my mind of everything I've been through and everything I've worked for, even how the dreams started in the first place.”

There were many years for the flipbook to cover: RAYE first fell “madly in love” with songwriting when she “was literally a child.”

“I started making GarageBand beats when I was 13—making awful songs, but the passion was there,” the 27-year-old says. Then at 14, she began participating in songwriting sessions, honing her craft but fighting to impress the “35-year-old white guys” in the room who wouldn’t take her seriously. But by the time she was 17, she earned her first official songwriting credit. “I was ecstatic,” she recalls. “I remember being in Subway and ordering my tuna cheese sub with extra onion and relish, and hearing my first cut on the radio. I was like, 'Oh my God, this is what it feels like.’”

All these years later, at the height of her career, RAYE still counts songwriting as her “first identity as a musician,” so it’s fitting that she has made history once again as the first artist to be nominated for Best New Artist and Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical, in the same year. “[Songwriting] is my true love, and it is something I've relentlessly pursued for so many years,” she says. “This is the pinnacle of that acknowledgment in the form of a nomination. It hit very, very deep, and I'm very ridiculously proud to be nominated alongside such incredible writers.”

RAYE is also excited to celebrate alongside her Best New Artist nominees who experienced similar career ascensions in the past year, like Chappell Roan, Doechii, Sabrina Carpenter, and Shaboozey.

“All the artists on that Best New Artist list, we have all climbed our individual mountains, and been heartbroken in the trenches,” she says. “It's such a beautiful thing to be among those incredible artists who have also fought their way to just being on that list. [Like,] ‘Yeah, I’m still here.’ I wake up and sometimes I forget. You know when you're in a dream and then you wake up like, ‘Oh wait, it's real.’ I'm on cloud nine about it.”

Ahead of the 2025 Grammys on February 2, RAYE opened up to Marie Claire about her music taste, from the Nina Simone record she can’t live without to her memorable time in the studio with Charli xcx, to the Nicki Minaj song she’d blast at a party.

I grew up in church and had been largely exposed to mostly gospel music, or whatever was on the radio when we were in the car. My love for jazz formed really early. The first song I ever liked to sing was “Let There Be Love” by Nat King Cole, so I was always kind of in that world. The first song I learned to play properly on the piano was [the version of] “Summertime” by Ella [Fitzgerald] and Louie [Armstrong]. So I was always in love with those songs and those feelings.

The first album that really moved me was Jill Scott, Who Is Jill Scott? when I was about 11-years-old. It completely blew my mind how the story was really what mattered first. “A Long Walk" was the first song I heard… I found myself focusing on her lyrics, and I formed such a connection with her. Even her song [“Exclusively”] about shopping in the store where she's looking at the lady on the till, and she's like, ‘Why are you looking at me like this?’ You could picture it. It was so visceral. It was so detailed and also casual and not fluffy. When you think about songwriting, sometimes you think, perfect rhyme, pairs, round shapes, something easy to remember. When you're a kid, that's the stuff you'd listen to or gravitate towards. But for me, Jill Scott completely blew my mind.

The first album I bought myself was Alicia Keys, The Diary of Alicia Keys. What a fricking album. I used to sit on the floor in my living room and look through her picture booklet, where she had the beautiful braids and half a piano over her face, and she'd do these poses next to the piano. I'd look at them like, Wow, what an amazing artist. I used to come home from school and dance to it. I'd shut the doors in the living room and be like, “What goes around comes around” and make dance routines. I was so attached to it.

Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall. Her live renditions are so beautiful. She sings her songs differently every time. She is such an emotive singer. It's not about perfect notes. It's about telling the story.

Nina Simone is everything to me. When I first moved into my house when I was independent, [a framed] picture [of her] was the only bit of furniture I had in my bedroom. I didn't even have a bed yet. There's a quote on it that says, “It's an artist's duty to reflect the times.” That meant everything to me, and that's why I actually broke down and was like, I can't do this anymore. Because Nina had done the most daring thing she could possibly do in her career when she was at the height of her success. She could have gone on all these TV shows, done all these big things, and been exposed to all these big audiences. But instead, she chose to make art that reflected the times. That is so powerful.

I did a session with Charli xcx and we wrote a song called “After the Afterparty” years ago. It was one of my first experiences being in the room with an artist who I really admired, so my senses were extremely heightened. I remember the clarity of a lot of that session. I also remember how lovely she was, how respected she made me feel, and how valued she made me feel. I remember just being so proud of myself that I'd even made it into that room with her. I was so happy with the song that had come out and I was so proud of it. That was a beautiful day, and I remember it really fondly.

“Jolene” by Dolly Parton. What a perfect song. That song will continue to live on when my grandkids have children. I love the juxtaposition when a song feels warm and light, but the lyrics are heartbreaking. So you have this kind of marriage of different worlds that you could just listen to and sing along like, ‘Jolene, Jolene…’ But if you are in that space, you can also listen to it and be like, I relate to this feeling right now.

“We fight, but we must make amends/Arrest me and read me my rights/I plan to steal your heart again/on Saturday and Sunday nights,” [on the Beyoncé song “RIIVERDANCE”].

I really love that lyric. It's so dramatic, but just vivid and powerful and beautiful.

We're having Aretha Franklin headlining the main stage. We're having Ella Fitzgerald headline the jazz stage, which is equally as big as the main stage, but just for jazz lovers. We are having Louis Armstrong or Miles Davis come out as guests during Ella Fitzgerald's set. We are having Nina Simone close the entire festival, and all the other stages shut down and everyone has to come and watch her performance. And the gates closed, so you can't leave and you have to witness greatness. We are having Betty Carter, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, Duke Ellington [playing] the set before Ella. And then, with her full and entire consent, only if she wants to do the festival, we're going to have Britney Spears on a different stage, opening with “Womanizer.”

I use Shazam a lot. I'm always traveling, so if I'm in a car or an airport and I hear a song and I like it, I'll be like, Oh my gosh, what's that? and I'll search it. I love it when the sound finds me.

If I actually want to cry, I’d listen to Joni Mitchell.

If I was going out out, it would be new hip-hop like Travis Scott, or some R&B, PARTYNEXTDOOR vibes, or The Weeknd’s old stuff. Something synthy and moody and to get you just feeling like a bad B. If I'm going out to dinner, I'll do some jazz or something light and cute. I'll put on a nice dress, do my lipstick, and pretend it's 1954.

The car is one of my favorite places to listen to music. I love to consume an album from top to bottom while driving. The last couple of car journeys I did, it was Kendrick [Lamar]’s To Pimp a Butterfly. That's just a timeless, brilliant album.

If [it’s] me personally with my group of friends, it'll be Nicki Minaj, “Did It On‘em.” It's going down, and me and my best friend Kylie are rapping in each other's faces every single lyric.

In another demographic where you've got lots of age ranges and different people, [I’ll] go in for a classic ‘70s banger. [Like,] “That's the Way (I Like It),” KC and the Sunshine Band. Get the party started. The older guys are like, I can do this. The young kids are like, This is nice. Never heard this before. It's a unifying vibe.

My music is for the gays, the gals, the moms, the grandmas and the granddads, and the dads if they like it. And anyone who really wants to listen.

It’s so dramatic, but I'm going to say Frank Sinatra, “The Best Is Yet to Come.” I've been listening to that song and it makes me feel hopeful and positive. It's such an optimistic, encouraging song. I'm 27 and, yeah, the best is yet to come. I'm going to find love one day. I'm going to achieve my goals. I'm going to work on myself. I'm going to improve on the skills I want to.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.