Midway through a week celebrating the independent music industry, on Wednesday night (June 10), one of the world’s most groundbreaking indie artists, RAYE, performed an unforgettable private concert at New York City’s Blue Note Jazz Club in preparation for Billboard’s Indie Live event.
The iconic West Village jazz club was a much smaller venue than the London native is accustomed to, having just completed a headlining North American tour of major theaters and currently gearing up for a stadium show in support of Bruno Mars. But that didn’t take anything away from RAYE’s singular performance ability, as her larger-than-life voice filled the room as she mixed jazz classics with songs from her 2023 debut album, My 21st Century Blues, and 2026’s critically acclaimed This Music May Contain Hope.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I really, really love singing jazz,” she said after giving a stunning rendition of “Cry Me a River,” which she said was “one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written. Please, not the Justin Timberlake version.”
“That’s what makes me the happiest,” she continued, drawing cheers of agreement. “We’re doing our best to keep it alive.”
At multiple points, RAYE would whisper to the drummer, bassist, guitarist, four-man brass section, and keyboard player from behind his hands, calling out songs he felt like playing at that moment. “We completely rearranged the set list. It’s so funny,” she said, adding, “I like to keep the band feeling very unstable on stage,” to laughs from the audience.
Instinctively, she started playing Hope’s “Goodbye Henry.” She filled in the spoken parts of the studio songs without Al Green with effortless, deft scatting, and also performed “neo-soul” versions of the blues hits “Escapism” and “Worth It.” Both albums were released by Human Resources via The Orchard, whose executives were in attendance, along with Billboard staff and independent music leaders, in a compact crowd.
Surprisingly, not included in the set list was RAYE’s Billboard Hot 100 hit “Where Is My Husband!” –But she said she couldn’t bring herself to perform the song because she felt too “single” when she woke up in the morning. However, to make up for it, she performed her live debut song “Happier Times Ahead.”
“I already have a title for my third album…it’s going to be called ‘And then She Falls in Love,'” she says casually on the topic of happy days — although she hasn’t made much progress on her next project yet. The hitmaker candidly added that she “refuses to write a single song” until she actually falls in love in real life.
“I’m looking forward to that moment, but not yet,” she said, further enthralling an already rapt audience. “We’re not going to write a third album about ‘this guy sucks’. Those days are over and we’re looking forward to a great and positive chapter.”
“Don’t date rappers,” she concluded. “That’s what I 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 New York. Surrounded by copies of her first Billboard cover issue, which delves into the vocalist’s difficult career trajectory, she gave a moving speech urging artists, especially independent artists like her, to always “dream bold dreams.”
“There are people in this world who think they know best — sometimes in suits — who think they can look you in the eye and say, ‘This is your ceiling…this is all you’re going to get,'” she said from the stage. “I just want to encourage people to ignore those lies.”
That fearlessness was on full display as she brought down the Blue Note House on Wednesday, with the hard work she’s put into her career accentuating every beautiful note and musical choice she made on stage. Check out RAYE’s Billboard Indie Live setlist and performance clip below.
“Suzanne” “Goodbye Henry” “Cry Me a River” “Escapism” “Worth It” “Happy Times Ahead”
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