Raye on Finding Her Voice—and Her Future Husband

The record offered an unflinching look at her struggles with substance abuse and heartache. In one track, “Ice Cream Man,” she details the sexual assault she experienced as a young woman in the music industry. The song resonated with audiences worldwide and won the Harry Belafonte Best Song For Social Change Award at this year’s Grammys. “A lot of my first album was very cathartic,” she says. “We touched on some heavy stuff. We were able to create a space of emotion and reckoning.”

If Raye’s first album documented her unraveling, her sophomore record, This Music May Contain Hope, captures her piecing herself back together. The album, which has been shortlisted for a Mercury Prize, covers a whole spectrum of emotion, with hope at its center. Songs titled “I Will Overcome” and “Happier Times Ahead” are infused with powerful affirmations, the kind one might repeat in the mirror before they face the day: “Happier times are coming, alright?/ The sun exists behind the clouds/ It’s right there, just hold onto happier times, alright, darling.” That determination and resilience runs through the 17-track record. “In the wild and difficult times the world is in right now, I just wanted to make something that had hope laced in it,” she says. “I knew I needed some, and I knew from playing so many shows that the audiences needed some, too.”