RAYE returns with dancefloor smash 'Black Mascara'

RAYE has returned with a new single called ‘Black Mascara’ – watch the official video for the dancefloor smash here.

The singer has been teasing her debut album across 2022, and describes the new track as “the only upbeat dance track on the album.”

RAYE said: “This song is about another story that has contributed to my ‘blues’. I used the juxtaposition of an upbeat dance track to tell this awful story of being misled by someone I really loved and trusted. While it was a dark low moment, it was also cathartic for me. The lyric ‘once you see my black mascara run from me to my mother’s hands’ is me saying, ‘if only you could actually see the damage that’s been done.’

“But I don’t want the story to end there, it’s meant to be empowering, to lend a voice to women like me who may have experienced their own blues in this 21st century.

“That’s what my album is about really – tackling all of those blues that we experience as a generation. Ironically, this is the only upbeat dance track on the album, but I used my voice this time to tell a raw unfiltered story.”

Watch RAYE’s ‘Black Mascara’ video below.

The singer made headlines when she parted ways with Polydor Records last year after claiming that the label had refused to release her debut album, despite signing a four-album deal in 2014.

Earlier this year, she teamed up with Disclosure for the collaborative single ‘Waterfall’. News of her debut album proper is expected in the coming months.

Speaking to NME this month, RAYE discussed her label troubles, saying: “When you sign with a record label, technically they work for you: you’re signing to a company for them to work for your career and take you to that next level.

“But as a woman, it just doesn’t feel like that. It feels like you’re working for them. And you know, some of the things I had to put my body through to even be able to that… it’s really quite sad.”