Raye review: Thrills galore as London star sparkles at 3Arena in Dublin
A recent image of Raye, who plays 3Arena, Dublin, on Wednesday and Thursday. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)
★★★★☆
There is a particular kind of bolshiness required to open an arena show with a song nobody has heard before.
Dressed in a floor-length white fur coat, black gloves and cat-eye sunglasses, Raye appears stage-left in one of the evening’s most restrained moments.
“Some people say I remind them of Amy,” the London singer-songwriter coos, referencing the inimitable Winehouse. “Some spit through their keyboards, I’ll never amount…
“And I, I will overcome.”
Then, the curtain drops, and a 20-piece band appears on a raised platform. As the crowd explodes, they launch into one of 2025’s most persistent earworms,
“I’ve performed here as a support act many times,” a beaming Raye says by way of welcome. “From the bottom of my heart... thank you for selling this out. No one has got to rush off anywhere this evening, have they?”
What follows is a two-hour plus setlist that fully incorporates and celebrates every iteration of Raye the artist: the songwriter once confined to featuring as the nondescript female vocal on some DJ’s track, writing hits for everyone from Beyoncé to Charli XCX while being prevented from releasing her own body of work.
Today, she is a multi-award-winning, Grammy-recognised artist, lauded for her tireless advocacy for songwriters — a genre-defying performer as comfortable collaborating with Lisa of BLACKPINK as she is with Stormzy.
From soul to disco, house to R&B, gospel to dance, genres seamlessly blur into one another on Wednesday night, tethered by Raye’s stunning vocals and effortless stage presence, and underpinned by a formidable live band that elevate every track to new heights.
Given the tour is titled This Tour May Contain New Music, the audience shouldn’t be surprised to find a number of songs from forthcoming record peppered throughout the setlist.
Of the new offerings, feels primed to become the radio hit. sounds a bit Fred-Again and might indicate she hasn’t entirely left the club scene behind, while brings some gospel-inspired feel-good factor to proceedings, made all the sweeter as she welcomes her sisters Amma and Absolutely — the night’s support acts — back to the stage.
The moment of the night, though, might have to go to Katerina, a young woman in the crowd with a sign asking, ‘Can I sing with you?
“We have to make that happen,” Raye pledges after spotting it. Within minutes, Katerina is on stage, matching her almost note-for-note.
Having seen Raye four times now in Ireland — from intimate club venues to headline summer shows and festival sets — the moment almost doesn’t surprise us. No matter how big the stage (or the crowd) gets, the 28-year-old never seems to grow tired of going off script, of being vulnerable, of trying to find an intimate connection with those in her audience.
It means you leave every show feeling you witnessed something truly one-of-a-kind.
Read More
I Will Overcome
WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!
The Thrill Is Gone
Suzanne
Beware the South London Lover Boy
Flip a Switch / Decline
The Winter Woman
Hard Out Here.
Genesis, pt. ii
Fly Me to the Moon (Kaye Ballard cover)
Worth It
Nightingale Lane
Ice Cream Man
I Know You're Hurting
Oscar Winning Tears.
Click Clack Symphony
Secrets
You Don't Know Me
Black Mascara.
Prada
Joy (with sisters Amma and Absolutely)
Escapism
