Raye hopes her latest track ‘Genesis’ will help listeners embrace their imperfections.
The 26-year-old BRIT Award-winning star released the single last week and has revealed she is using the song to urge people to accept their insecurities.
During an appearance on the ‘Capital XTRA Evening Show with Kamilla Rose’, she said: “I just wanted to be really transparent and really open on it.
“And we all think these things and we're all kind of battling with these things in our head. And I'll be the first to say who I am now, so I put this song out.
“I’ll take a picture and be like, ‘Oh it would be better if I was sucked in a little bit more’, or, ‘If my jaw looked a little bit less square in this angle.’
“It’s just insecurities that we all feel about ourselves and stuff like that, so I think it’s also quite liberating being so open about that.
“Because then it’s like, ‘Yeah, sometimes I edit my pictures, and?’
“It feels nice to say it.”
When she released the single, the ‘Escapism’ hitmaker said the seven-minute track was “as raw as [she] could find myself to be”.
In a statement, she explained: “There is a Nina Simone quote, ‘It is an artist’s duty to reflect the times.’ This quote is everything to me and I believe the best way I can try to do this is through my art and my music.
“There is so much darkness and pain in this world we live in, and I wanted to create something both as deeply personal and as raw as I could find myself to be about my own mind and the world I see around me.”
She added: “The song is a seven-minute piece that I have crafted and scrutinised over the last year and a half, experimenting with different genres and sonic expressions, beneath all the layers and the lyrics, the underlying message is ‘Let There Be Light’.
“It is a prayer and a plea and a cry for help, and I really hope this song will be able to bring some hope, the way this music does for me, to those who need it most.”
