RAYE unveils new single "Black Mascara"

"Hard Out Here" marked RAYE's first release as an independent artist, just over a year on since parting ways with Polydor Records, and last night (24 August) she unveiled a second outing called "Black Mascara".

"This song is about another story that has contributed to my 'blues'," RAYE explains of the Punctual-produced song. "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."

She adds, "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."