Grammy-Nominated Biracial Artist Raye On Feeling the Need to Pass for White

If you watched Raye belt out her hit song “Oscar Winning Tears” during the Feb. 2 Grammys broadcast, she looked like a young woman on top of the the world. The British-Ghanaian singer-songwriter, who was nominated for three Grammys, including Best New Artist and Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical, was the subject of plenty of online chatter after her soulful performance.

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But Raye – whose mother is of Ghanaian-Swiss heritage and whose father is British – has struggled with both her musical and her racial identity in an industry that tends to favor racially ambiguous artists. In a September 2024 interview, she opened up about the pressure she’s felt to hide her Blackness from the rest of the world.

“Because I visually don’t look Black, I can hide it. And I’ve been hiding it subconsciously,” she said. “When people know me now and look up my songs now, I make dance music. But when I signed my record deal, I was an R&B artist. I used to make beats. I used to sing four-part harmonies. I grew up in church. I was so so connected to my Black culture and my heritage.”

She added that she’s struggled to battle second thoughts about her sound, believing she needed to suppress some of the soul and “embrace the white” in her.

“It’s a tricky thing to even say out loud because I’m grateful for that opportunity, but the fact is I felt like I didn’t have a choice,” she said.

Raye has let some of her frustration with play out in public, posting a June 2021 rant against her former label Polydor on X, writing in part, “ALL I CARE ABOUT is the music. I’m sick of being slept on and I’m sick of being in pain about it; this is not business to me, this so personal.”

This time around, Raye says she couldn’t be prouder of her music, calling “My 21st Century Blues” an independent chapter of her career. Released on independent label Human Resources, it’s a creative mix of dance music, pop and dancehall, something she told the Recording Academy had special meaning to her because she was in complete creative control – a goal she’s had since the beginning.

“My purpose isn’t to be the number one artist. It’s to be the most honest and authentic I can be,” she told The Independent in a 2022 interview. “To honor all these different sides of me.”