Raye wouldn’t have got her record deal without Years & Years’ Olly Alexander.
The ‘Cigarette’ hitmaker has revealed it’s thanks to the ‘Sanctify’ singer that her label Polydor signed her up, after he discovered one of the songs she released on the music blog aggregator Hype Machine called ‘Hot Box’, and sent it to them.
Speaking to NME magazine, Raye was asked if she knew who the 27-year-old star was when he’d offered his help, to which she replied: "I didn’t, no. I think he’s kind of responsible for my record deal! He found one of my songs called ‘Hot Box’, one of my early releases, on Hype Machine, and then played it to Polydor, who then reached out and wanted to see a show. And I’m with Polydor right now! He’s so lovely, and I supported them on a couple of shows. They were one of my first artist relationships."
The ‘You Don’t Know Me’ singer has co-written songs for the likes of Charli XCX and Hailee Steinfeld, and John Legend’s latest single ‘A Good Night’ featuring BloodPop.
The 20-year-old star admits it’s "crazy" being in a room with artists she’s looked up to, but says she and John "vibed instantly" on the track, which also features a writing credit from Charli and Camila Cabello’s collaborator, Sasha Sloan.
She said of working with the ‘All of Me’ hitmaker: "That was amazing – he is great. It’s been like meeting people recently that I was listening to growing up, is so weird because you’re just looking at them like ‘I really loved your music through my whole childhood.’
"So you go into a room and you’ve gotta act like everything’s fine, but you’re like this is crazy! We vibed instantly and the song happened so quickly, I ended up singing backing vocals on it. It’s his current single now, which is really exciting."
Raye: Olly Alexander is responsible for my record deal
