Early in Raye‘s show at the Greek Theatre on Tuesday, May 12, the English singer-songwriter made a confession: She sometimes reads what people say about her online.
“Someone made a TikTok, and they were like, ‘Raye talks too much,’” she said to laughter and shouts of “No!” from the audience on Tuesday, the first of Raye’s two sold-out shows at the Greek this week.
“Oh, my God!” Raye continued in mock horror. “Now, I’m not gonna let them destroy me, right? Just gonna be, like, cautioned I don’t overdo it, alright?
“Because I do love to chat,” she added in her South London accent.
Of course, that was just the intro to five minutes more of a shaggy dog story about a disconsolate, lovelorn woman – “Not me, of course, goodness, I couldn’t relate to such a tragic story,” she said to more laughter from the crowd – who finds hope inside a little jazz club called Raye’s.
So yeah, Raye really does love a good chat. But you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone at the Greek on Tuesday who didn’t eat up every word she said, every lyric she sang in a performance that felt like a kind of arrival for the 28-year-old talent who months ago had sold out every show on the North American leg of her This Tour May Contain New Music Tour.
The tour takes its name from “This Music May Contain Hope,” her second full-length album, which arrived at the end of March. Over its 17 tracks, many of which feature spoken-word interludes – short chats! – The narrative arc runs the gamut of human emotions from heartache and loss to resilience and courage, and finally happiness and hope again.
The music is just as varied, expanding on the soul, jazz, and R&B of her 2023 debut, “My 21st Century Blues,” to include songs with touches of dance music, hip-hop, vintage pop, and more. That’s a lot of genre-jumping, but there’s seemingly nothing this powerhouse vocalist can’t sing.
The night opened, as does the album, with “Intro: Girl Under the Grey Cloud,” the crimson stage curtains still closed, Raye’s voice arriving from somewhere offstage. “Allow me to set the scene. Our story begins on a rainy night in L.A., cue the thunder,” she says, substituting Los Angeles for the Paris of the original, strings swell behind her voice.
Then continues, as the curtains open, with “I Will Overcome,” a moody modern take on songs like “I Will Survive,” before Raye and her 20-piece band, which included seven musicians in the horn section and seven more on strings, launch into the ’60s soul-inspired “Where Is My Husband?” Raye and her two backing vocalists are doing choreographed dance moves a la the Motown training school.
“Skin & Bones” bemoans the sorry state of available men in 2026 with a little hip-hop rhythm to some of the verses. “Beware.. The South London Lover Boy” expands on that with a sense of humor to the lyrics and the horror movie-like visuals that accompany it.
“Girls, stay safe out there,” Raye sang as the words appear in B-movie fear font on the screen. “Best you stay prepared.” How scary are these lover boys? “He’ll pull up on you in an all-black car/And start reading poems out the window,” the vocals and terror typeface continue. “He’s not looking for a heart, just your pillow to rest his head.”
It’s an exhilarating run through musical and lyrical themes, and it’s very – well, let Raye tell you.
“I’ve got some very important news,” she announces after “Beware.” “In case you couldn’t tell, I’ve officially entered my dramatic phase.”
“You ask, ‘Raye, well, what does that mean?’” Raye explained when the cheers and laughter died down. “We have a fan out here.”
As in a literal fan, which starts blowing fog over her as she sings the first verse of “Winter Woman,” her hair is blown horizontally by the Santa Ana-like gusts.
“This is a bit much, isn’t it. But we’ll go with it,” she adlibs as the band plays, the fake wind howls, and an amused smile spreads across her face.
A few songs later, the mood shifts again with Raye’s arrival in the jazz club setting for a cover of the standard “Fly Me to the Moon,” followed by a pair of her songs, “Worth It,” a positive affirmation of selfhood, and “Nightingale Lane,” which was introduced with a story about how the worst breakup she’d had in her life and its setting inspired the song.
That song is a sad one, but “Ice Cream Man,” which followed, is her most devastating and powerful. Inspired by a sexual assault when she was a teen, it’s her story of determination to not let that define the rest of her life. Where many of her stories were funny, her introduction shared not only her own story but her empathy for anyone in the audience who’d experience something similar.
The mood lightened after that with the electronic dance feel of “Lifeboat” – “A song where we say I’m not giving up 100 times and then we jump up and down” – followed by the classical oomph of horns and strings of “Oscar Winning Tears” and the new “Click Clack Symphony,” for which film composer Hans Zimmer collaborated with Raye on the songwriting.
As the end of the night neared, lightbulb-illuminated letters spelled out RAYE above the stage before the Y was lifted into the rafters and a V descended to spell RAVE. Now, fans who’d been dabbing at tears a few songs earlier were on their feet grooving to a long medley of her most danceable numbers, including “Secrets,” “Black Mascara,” and “Prada.”
The encore opened with “Joy,” one of the final tracks on the new record, with Raye’s sisters Amma and Absolutely, both of whom played their own sets to open the night, joining her. “Escapism,” a dance take on a breakup song, then wrapped the night up.
Earlier, Raye spoke several times about how thrilling it was to play the Greek, the biggest venue she’s headlined in Southern California. But there are sure to be much bigger stages in her future.
In September and October, she’s opening four nights for Bruno Mars at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. A bigger stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, where she was a 2024 highlight in the Mojave Tent, seems a no-brainer. And her stage show and style seem like a natural fit for the Hollywood Bowl one of these days, too.
All of which should give her plenty to talk about, and we’re here for it, no matter what the TikTok critics say.
