In the middle of a week celebrating the independent music industry, one of the world’s most groundbreaking indie artists, RAYE, delivered an unforgettable private concert at New York City’s Blue Note Jazz Club on Wednesday night (June 10) for Billboard‘s Indie Live event.
Having just finished a headlining North American tour through large theaters — and now gearing up to play stadiums as support for Bruno Mars — the iconic West Village jazz club was a much smaller venue than the London native is growing used to. But that didn’t take away from RAYE’s singular performance abilities in the slightest, with her larger-than-life voice filling the room as she coursed through a mix of jazzy classics and tracks from her 2023 debut album, My 21st Century Blues, and 2026’s critically acclaimed This Music May Contain Hope.
“Really and truly, ladies and gentlemen, I love singing jazz,” she said after an incredible rendition of “Cry Me a River,” which she’d called one of her “favorite songs to have ever been written — not the Justin Timberlake version, please.”
“It’s what makes me happiest,” she continued, earning cheers of agreement. “We’re doing our best to keep it alive.”
At multiple points, RAYE whispered to her drummer, bassist, guitarist, four-person brass section and keyboardist from behind her hand, calling out whichever song she felt moved to play in the moment. “I’ve completely rearranged the setlist, it’s hilarious,” she said, the audience laughing as she added that she likes to “keep my band feeling super uncertain on stage.”
Her instincts led her to play “Goodbye Henry” from Hope — sans Al Green, whose spoken part on the studio track she filled with effortless, dexterous scatting — as well as a “neo-soul” version of breakout hit “Escapism” and “Worth It” from Blues. Both albums were released through Human Re Sources via The Orchard, executives from which were present in the compact crowd alongside Billboard staffers and leaders in the indie music space.
Surprisingly absent from the setlist was RAYE’s Billboard Hot 100 smash “Where Is My Husband!” — but she shared that she’d simply woken up that morning feeling too “single,” so she couldn’t bring herself to perform it. To make up for it, though, she gave one song its live debut: “Happier Times Ahead.”
“I’ve already got the title for my third album … it’s going to be called And Then She Falls in Love,” she casually revealed while on the topic of happier times — although she hasn’t gotten much further on the next project than that. The hitmaker added candidly, “I refuse to write a single song” for it until she actually does fall in love in real life.
“I’m excited for that time, but that’s not yet,” she said, further charming the already enraptured audience. “I’m just not going to write a third album about, ‘This guy sucks.’ I’m done with that era. We’re going to look forward to a nice, positive chapter.”
“Just do not date rappers,” she concluded. “That’s what I’ll say to that. What a delusional person I was.”
The private concert comes just one day after Billboard presented RAYE with the Indie Spirit Award at the annual Indie Power Players event in NYC. Surrounded by copies of her first-ever Billboard cover issue, which delved into the vocalist’s challenging career trajectory, she gave a moving speech motivating artists — particularly independents like herself — to always “dream audaciously.”
“There are people out there — in suits, sometimes — who think that they know best, who think that they get to look you in the eyes and tell you, ‘This is your ceiling … This is all you’re ever going to amount to,’” she said at the podium. “I just want to encourage us to ignore those lies.”
That fearlessness was on full display as she brought the Blue Note house down on Wednesday, the hard work she’s put into her career underscoring every masterful note and musical choice she made on stage. See RAYE’s Billboard Indie Live setlist and watch clips of the performance below.
- ”Suzanne”
- ”Goodbye Henry”
- ”Cry Me a River”
- ”Escapism”
- ”Worth It”
- ”Happier Times Ahead”
