Raye is one of the biggest UK music stars to emerge in recent years, and all the while, she has faced comparisons to another icon from the area: the late Amy Winehouse. That is part of the reason why, Raye admits, she was hesitant to work with Mark Ronson, a noted Winehouse collaborator with whom she has a new song, “Suzanne,” coming this week.
Raye told People:
“Honestly, I’m not gonna lie, I actually was quite nervous and scared to work with him. […] I just do want to say that I know I can never, ever, ever, ever, ever attempt to replace or imitate Amy. I’m in awe of her. We all are, and we miss her. […]
It’s quite a tough thing to even allow myself to create so freely with him. But I really just wanted to be like, ‘Do you know what? I just need to forget what anyone else is gonna say about this.’ I absolutely love this producer. I’ve always wanted to work with this producer since I was a little girl.”
She also spoke of her upcoming album, saying, “I don’t have an album title. I’m like, ‘What is it gonna be called?’ It’s stressing me out right now, I can’t lie, because I’ve got the music starting to really come there. I just don’t know what this album’s gonna be called. In my humble opinion, My 21st Century Blues is such a fire album title, and I can’t hand in an album title that’s less good than that.”
