RAYE‘s star has exploded in the past couple of years — and with that, she’s faced more scrutiny than ever. But one specific critique involving the late Amy Winehouse has bothered her in particular, something she addresses on her song “I Will Overcome.”
In her Billboard cover story published Thursday (May 7), RAYE told staff writer Hannah Dailey why she chose to sing about people comparing her to the British soul-pop icon — who died in 2011 from accidental alcohol poisoning — on the opening number of her March album This Music May Contain Hope. On the track, she sings, “Some people say I remind them of Amy/ Some spit through their keyboards, I’ll never amount/ And the evil in insults, the arrows from your tongue/ [Are] the same devils you tortured her with.”
“It just strikes me as so funny, darkly funny, that someone can rip into me in the most evil, horrible way, ‘defending’ Amy,” RAYE explained to Billboard of including the lyric. “What you’re saying to me is a microcosm of what Amy went through. Amy went through being berated and annihilated through words — by the press, by the public, by everyone.
“It’s one thing to not like me, that’s fine,” she continued. “It’s just the irony of someone being so horrible, so dark, so nasty. It’s the same evil. I just wanted to say that, because … I get a lot of beautiful, lovely, kind things. Unfortunately, the negative things are just louder.”
This Music May Contain Hope debuted at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 and reached No. 1 in the U.K., RAYE’s first LP to do so. The feat comes after a long uphill struggle to make her name as an independent artist following her split from her first label, Polydor Records, in 2021.
Elsewhere in her Billboard cover story, the musician touched on her experiences with mental health, sexual assault and finding light in her life again. She also shared her current mindset on dating, having declared her desire to find love on the hit single “Where Is My Husband!,” which has so far peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“It’s been genuinely so many years that it feels alien to me,” she said. “Sometimes I’m very assured and confident and happy with my life, and then some days I’m watching a rom-com, and I’m like, ‘Where? Where?’ But it’s not serious. I’m not crying myself to sleep every night — just some nights.”
Watch RAYE address the Amy Winehouse comparisons below.
