RAYE’s ‘Escapism’ surpasses 1billion streams on Spotify

‘Escapism’ by RAYE featuring 070 Shake has surpassed 1billion streams on Spotify.

• READ MORE: RAYE: “I became a ‘rent-a-verse’. People knew my songs, but they didn’t know me”

The musician was confirmed as having hit the milestone yesterday (April 27), two years after the track’s initial release. It is the first song by either artist to reach the 1billion mark.

It comes after the song landed RAYE her first UK Number One single in 2023, which she told NME was the “ultimate validation” at the time, given the turbulent journey she’s been on within the music industry.

The track comes from her 2023 breakthrough album ‘My 21st Century Blues’, which has gone on to see the artist break records for her number of wins at the 2024 BRIT Awards, perform at the 97th Academy Awards earlier this year, play on the main stages at both Glastonbury and Reading, and much more.

RAYE’s road to success has been rocky, with the multi-BRIT winner speaking to NME in 2022 about her label struggles, 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.”

After calling out her former label Polydor for preventing her from releasing her debut album in 2021, RAYE parted ways with the label weeks later. She went on to release her debut album independently in 2023, with NME calling it “bold, brilliant and unapologetically her own.”

Earlier this month, she revealed that she is working on new material, but is feeling a sense of pressure given the huge response to her last release.

It comes after she told fans in October that there would be “no second album any time soon” after her writing books were stolen along with her car.

Going forward, RAYE has a number of live shows planned for this summer, including a slot at Victoria Park in east London for All Points East on Saturday, August 23. The Maccabees and Barry Can’t Swim have also been confirmed for next year’s festival. Visit here for tickets.

She’s also up for two Ivor Novello awards for Best Song Musically and Lyrically with ‘Genesis’, and PRS for Music Most Performed Work with ‘Prada’.

Earlier this year, King Charles III shared his love of RAYE, and described the singer as “a great ambassador for British music”. The comments came as the royal shared a personally-curated playlist of his favourite songs on a one-off radio show last month, and recalled meeting the star.