Elegantly styled in a sequined black dress, RAYE sang with striking delivery. The orchestral arrangements and backing vocals brought a grandiose sound to the proceedings. In the song’s outro, her delicate vocal runs earned a roar from the crowd. She received a standing ovation, with the camera catching Beyonce, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys smiling and raising their hands. You can watch the performance below.

@raye #raye #grammys #oscarwinningtears ♬ Oscar Winning Tears. – RAYE

RAYE was nominated for three Grammys this year, ‘Best New Artist’ and ‘Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical’. She missed out on both, with Chappell Roan taking ‘Best New Artist’, and Amy Allen taking home ‘Songwriter of the Year, Non-Classical’. She was also nominated for ‘Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical’ as a contributor to Lucky Daye’s album ‘Algorithim‘. While she may have lost out on the awards, the nominations were a proud feat for the Tooting-born singer. In November, she shared an emotional clip on Instagram after learning she’d been nominated for this year’s awards. With crying eyes, she wrote in her video “Grammy nominated tears”, and in her caption put “God knows all it took to get here”.

In an interview with People in 2024, RAYE said that winning a Grammy was a childhood dream of hers. “When I was little, the first image I saw was that gorgeous golden gramophone,” she said. “For a British girl, you watch the Grammys at home, like, ‘Wow, one day maybe I’ll make it there.’”

She humbly acknowledged the strong competition for ‘Best New Artist’, appearing alongside fellow nominees Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Teddy Swims, Benson Boone, Shaboozey, Doechii and Khruangbin. “And I think that’s why for that award, I’m not even holding my breath,” she joked.

She added, “I’m just happy to be listed amongst these incredible artists who are just absolutely killing it and having Billboard No. 1s and selling out freaking huge arenas. I still feel like I’ve got a lot of work to do and a long way to go, but it’s just a really beautiful thing.”

RAYE was one of many live acts on the for the 2025 Grammys – Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan, Lady Gaga also gave memorable performances. There was a surprise appearance from The Weeknd, who had previously boycotted the awards show. Doechii and Sabrina Carpenter took to the stage, and a Quincy Jones tribute featured Janelle Monáe, Stevie Wonder, Cynthia Erivo, and jazz legend Herbie Hancock. You can see a full list of the performances here.

Adetunji, who was born in London, moved to Belfast at the age of 10. The 25-year-old debuted in 2019, making music whilst still at school and uploading it Tiktok. After gaining their attention, he then signed a contract with RCA records. ‘Kehlani’ is by far his most popular song on streaming services and has multiple versions, including a remix with the popular r&b artist Kehlani.

On his official website, Adetunji is categorised as an Alternative Hip Hop Artist and says he merges rap and r&b post punk to make his own unique genre. His other songs include “Zack & Cody” and most recent release “Options” which features Lil Baby. He has been featured on official Spotify playlists such as Alternative Hip Hop, Chillmatic, New Punk Tracks and Fresh Finds Rock. Featuring on playlists helps artists to reach an audience that may not already know about them, but are interested or trying to learn about that genre.

In talking about his beginnings, in an interview with the BBC, he said “It’s taught me a lesson to keep going, no matter what the circumstances are. Your phone is your tool…You can do it all. You can do it all from your bedroom.” He speaks of his humble beginnings, making music from his room using his phone. Progressing from there to being a Grammy-nominated artist is something even he could not believe, saying in the same interview, that it was a surprise and that he thought when the news came out that it might be from a “fake prediction list”. In an Instagram post on the Grammy nomination, Adetunji mentioned that he recorded the nominated song with an interface that cost just £100.

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A post shared by Jordan Adetunji (@jordanadetunji)

 

Next year’s Grammy Awards is set to take place February 2, 2025. During this year’s announcement of nominations many artists received a plethora of nominations. Women evidently dominated the nominations this year with Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Charli xcx, Billie Eilish and Chappell Roan all having nominations in major categories. While British pop icon Dua Lipa was among many artists that were arguably snubbed.

Dua Lipa snubbed with 0 GRAMMY nominations for ‘Radical Optimism.’ pic.twitter.com/2VbA1m4ONO

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) November 8, 2024

Beyoncé received the most nominations of the year, 11 in total, bringing her career total to 99 – making her the most nominated artist in Grammy History. She released ‘COWBOY CARTER’ earlier this year, which has ridden the wave of success following its viral track ‘TEXAS HOLD ‘EM’.

Congratulations @beyonce on becoming the most GRAMMY nominated artist of all time! 11 this year and 99 for her career pic.twitter.com/fT5n0azSR3

— Parkwood Entertainment (@parkwood) November 8, 2024

Lipa released ‘Radical Optimism’ back in May making the LP eligible for nomination. All eligible works had to be released between September 16, 2023, and August 30, 2024.

The English-Albanian singer was a favourite ahead of this year’s nominations following her win of Best New Artist in 2019. Additionally, she won another Grammy for her sophomore album ‘Future Nostalgia’ earning the crown for Best Pop Vocal Album in 2021, against Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, for the same award.  

Last year, Lipa’s track from the Barbie soundtrack ‘Dance the Night’ gained two nominations: one for Song of the Year, the other for Best Song Written for Visual Media.

The ‘Don’t Start Now’ singer released her Tame Impala-produced, funky dance track, ‘Houdini’,  which would later become the lead single to ‘Radical Optimism’, in 2023, however, the track peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100, compared to its peak position of number 2 on the UK’s Official Singles Chart. This would project the lack of fortune for the remainder of ‘Radical Optimism’’s success in the US, as Lipa’s follow up singles ‘Training Season’ and ‘Illusion’ would fail to breakthrough charts. These shortcomings would lead to Lipa’s latest album to be ignored completely from this year’s nominations.

‘Radical Optimism’ served as the perfect sequel to Lipa’s second album, ‘Future Nostalgia’ released in 2020. It’s fiery, energetic, full of dance tracks and relatable lyricism. Despite the Grammy’s failing to acknowledge ‘Radical Optimism’, Lipa has begun her 2024 and 2025 World Tour, where she’ll perform to fans in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America in both arenas and stadiums. With cold reception from her fans aimed at the Grammys due to Lipa’s lack of nominations, it is no doubt this latest album is a fan favourite which will encounter highly anticipated success during the 2025 award season, particularly next year’s BRIT Awards.