RAYE kicks off the U.S. leg of her tour Tuesday night in Sacramento, California. She's been performing on the trek with a full band, horn section, backing vocalists and occasional string section, a far cry from what her live shows were like when she was first starting out.
Early in her career, RAYE was a featured vocalist on a series of dance tracks, many of which were successful on the U.K. charts. But as she explained, that kind of music didn't require anything special.
"When I started releasing some of the dance hits back in the day, what was I? Like ... 18, 19. You just go out with a DJ in front of thousands of people and just, like, hop around," she laughs. "So it's been really beautiful, I think, over the last couple of years, the progression for me, in terms of the energy from crowds and the way I present the shows."
For her current tour, the "Where Is My Husband?" singer has created a full production show to better allow herself to perform her new 17-track album, This Music May Contain Hope. As she explained, having real instruments as backup up is key.
"I'm very much in a place now where [a] live band, [it] doesn't matter how much it costs, I need the band," said the award-winning star. "Like, it's so important to me to present my music in my album through live music. And that's just been such a beautiful experience."
The U.S. leg of RAYE's THIS TOUR MAY CONTAIN NEW MUSIC tour wraps up in LA on May 13. Starting in August, she'll open for Bruno Mars on his The Romantic Tour.
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