scares the living daylights out of me, honestly. singer—songwriter raye has had the kind of year other artists can only dream of. after leaving her label and going independent, she's won six brit awards... i can only describe it as a miracle. ..and is the first woman to have won songwriter of the year. her debut studio album, my 21st century blues, was a critical and commercial hit and it cemented her as one of the top artists in the game right now. bbc 100 women spoke to her about the pressures of social media, being a woman in the industry and going independent. # sleazing and teasing, i'm sitting on him. # all of my diamonds are drippin on him. # i met him at the bar, it was 12:00 or something. # i ordered two more wines cos tonight, i want him. # a little context if you care to listen. # ifind myself in a...position... raye, hi. hello. thank you for sitting down with 100 women. how are you doing today? yeah, i'm good.

i woke up maybe, like, an hour and a half ago, i'm not going to lie. just adjusting to a new day. slow morning. yeah. so, let's reflect on your year a bit. one of the standout moments for you probably was the brit awards, where you broke a lot of records. you won six out of the seven categories you were nominated for. you were the first female songwriter to win best songwriter. how did that feel? i've recorded it on the telly but i still haven't watched it back, so i'm looking forward to — i finish work on the 12th of december. when i finish, i'm going to sit down and watch it. but it was just kind of very surreal, out—of—body experience. and it kept getting more and more. like, "wait, what?" iwas... it was so disorientating and amazing. it was... yeah. for me, my grandma is everything to me. she moved from ghana when i was born to take care of me while my parents worked full—time. so that's like my second mother, in a way. she's just everything. so i think for how much love and sacrifice she poured into me, into my childhood, into all my sisters�* lives, as well, getting to honour her

in that way was just... yeah, money can't buy that. it was just... yeah. i'll never forget that night. so it was a huge year for you. also a huge year for women in music, i would say. like, a lot of the top charts at the moment are filled by women... yeah. ..like chapell roan, sabrina carpenter, new names coming through. yes. yeah. how does that feel? why do you think this is happening now? women are great? i don't know. ithink... i think it's a beautiful time, in a way, how music is discovered and consumed now. you know, ithink the people decide. i think the gatekeepers that really used to be able to control what people were exposed to and got to discover, it's changed now because of social media and all of this stuff. so i think it's a really beautiful thing in that great art is finding its way to the surface. also, a song never dies. it can come to the surface at any time. do you know what i mean? it's kind of like a new time. and i guess people are seeing

these incredible women doing incredible things and being like, "this slaps. "let's share it. let me listen to it." it's great. i'm so proud of the girls. mm. it kind of levels the playing field as well, like you said, because the people get to decide what does well. the people... yeah. people decide. do you know what i mean? i think there's a real thing that you can get kind of wrapped up into, which labels can't help but encourage, like, "find the hit. find the hit. "find the hit." you know? and it's like, what even is that? and then before long, you're making music not for you. you're making it to try and chase those... ..what those people want, and you lose your way. mm. but i think it's a beautiful thing that when you're an artist making art, that you're proud of and you're

like, "this is me." like, "this feels... i love this. this is right. "this is from me. this is a great feeling." yeah. you've spoken a bit before about that and how you signed to polydor in 2014? yeah. polydor records. yeah. and you've spoken a bit about how you felt you kind of had to fit this certain mould, or you felt they were pushing you in a direction. what do you think they were trying to aim for with that? well, i think kind of there's a formula of dance—pop, whereas a woman making dance music, you would need to be attached to a dj and then you would have... i think the idea was i'd have some hits with djs, then i can swap the names around. it could be me featuring a dj. and then all of a sudden, i'll be allowed to release a song without a dj. mm. i think that was the formula they were trying to go for with me. and how did you feel when that was kind of put onto you? well, ijust got on with it, didn't i? yeah, i think...it�*s hard to summarise seven years in one question, do you know what i mean? because it was a wild roller—coaster of a journey. but...yeah. i think the position i'm in now, and i think having gone through everything i went through then, i've learnt so much about what i'll never, ever put myself through again. and i think integrity

to your art and loving it and believing in it is paramount. mm. and i can't say there's any worse feeling than breaking yourself to sell a record that disgusts you. that sucks. do you know what i mean? and when it gets to that, the worst of times, i don't wish that on an artist. it's a horrible feeling. so you've released songs that you've listened to and been like, "i don't like it like." like, that's an understatement. yeah. really? yeah, yeah. so how does it...? and i was selling the thing, doing interviews, like, "all right, tell us about your new song." and i'm like, yeah, la, la, la. and you're there like, "i hate this." mm. this is horrible. so it must feel amazing. your album that came out this year, my 21st century blues, not often does a debut album go to number two on the charts. that must have felt really good when it's music that you love. oh, yeah. it was incredible. and i think also for me having that validation of my album

being something like the album of the year award at the brit was so mind—blowing to me. i was just bawling my eyes out...because it was just a validation of this album does matter to some people, you know? and it wasjust like, wow. and that's all i've ever really wanted, to make albums that some people care about. door shuts sorry about that door. lots of people in and out. things come in and out of this house. i have no idea what's going on. # mm, mm oh what a tragedy... as well as eight top—20 singles and an impressive six billion spotify streams, raye has added a record—breaking three grammy nominations to her list of achievements this year, including best new artist and songwriter of the year, making her the first artist ever to be nominated for both

categories in the same year. i found out on the telly with...when... ..0n the youtube thing. i'm still trying to wrap my head around life right now. but despite smashing so many records, she still feels like her progression in the music industry is far from guaranteed. i want to read you back a quote that you said at the brits in your acceptance speech. you said, "the artist i was three years ago would not believe "i'm in control, i'm my own boss." aww. why would you have not believed that, and what kind of made you finally believe you could be your own boss? years ago, or three years ago from that point was just sitting in the opposite kind of seat that i am now. and i think... ..i think me specifically, i'm just the kind of... ..like to be in control of my life. like, that's a nice thing, you know? and something that...when you don't have that, it's all you really know. does that make sense? yeah. i don't know. was there any moment you can pinpoint where you were like, "i'm not doing this any more. iwant to do it..."? well, yeah. that was the breaking point that i hit that i've spoken quite a lot about over the last...whenever it happened. i kind of got to the point where i was ready to just be like, "i'lljust be a songwriter." because i think you have to be

willing to take that risk, the way that i was just so frustrated and spoke out about what i had kind of been experiencing, that i... yeah. you have to just be prepared to know that your life is in the contract, is in a contract, and that's in the hands of people that are going to decide. they have permission to decide what they get to do with your life and choose. and so, yeah. i just got to the point where i was like, "do you know what? after seven years of this, "i'd rather be a writer than go "through another year of this. " mm. but i'm lucky that i managed to find my way out. everything was fine. did a lot of therapy, and then set about understanding and trying to get my head around what being in control of and in charge of my career actually look like. do you think you found that now? i think so. yeah. so if you could change one thing about the music industry right now, what would it be? probably the fact that songwriters don't get paid royalty points and that needs to start being normalised and should just be mandatory. yeah, i'd change that. i wanted to talk about song lengths...

mm—hm. ..because a thing we've heard a lot about recently is tiktok�*s impact on the music industry and how songs have to be tiktok viral to be successful. a lot of new artists have said they felt the pressure to keep their songs really short and have that sound that goes viral. yeah, yeah. i feel like i've seen a lot of your songs very organically on tiktok. whether it's people clipping up your performances or... escapism went insanely viral. yeah... have you not felt that pressure? because one of your latest songs, genesis, is seven minutes long. you've not felt that pressure, then, to kind of compact your songs and make them able to go viral, i guess? truly chasing virality or whatever is just another kind of "find the hit, find the hit" kind of energy, which is a pressure that is so horrible. and also, ijust believe it's kind of one of those things you can't control. so i think i try tojust make sure that i'm not making music in that mindset. i think the goal has to be for me to make something great, that i think is great by my own standards. and then if anyone else thinks it's great, too, that's great. and if someone likes 15 seconds of it...

and god bless. i have, like, three tiktok stan accounts that work as if they're on a payroll. like, i want to find out who these people are and just hug them and give them free tickets to every show because these people cut up my things, speed up the audio, slow it down. really are, like, doing god's work for me, you know? but that's what i mean. it's kind of... it's not something i can control or force. mm. so i think the worst thing would be for me trying to make music specifically for someone to find 15 seconds and love it. i think that's not... do you know what i mean? yeah. i need to... i want to make four minutes and love every second of it, you know? and then if that translates, that's great. but ijust think it's an unhealthy mindset to get into.

yeah. i mean, the most random things go viral on tiktok. literally. you can't predict what's going to be... you absolutely can't. yeah. and you know, that's... yeah. the people just choose. in your recent song environmental anxiety, you touch on a lot of topics. mm. you speak about climate change, british politics, social media, drug use. are these all things that are worrying you? what worries you the most at the moment? these are all things that i think i'm worried about, i think a lot of us are worried about. and they're also things that are so overwhelmingly huge that no one person can really make a difference. it has to come from people with actually the power to make these kind of changes, you know? are you just singing out of frustration then, would you say? or do you have an aim to change anything by writing about them? well, i think music is that way that you can express feelings and worries and anxieties. mm. and in a way, that's kind of how i'll use my voice, if i have one. do you know what i mean? yeah. it also reminded me of this article i actually saw on the bbc the other day. this is off topic, but it was about fertility rates and how people just

aren't having babies any more. . . yeah. ..because they're so concerned about... everything's so expensive now. like, i'm sorry. if you was trying to have kids... do you know how expensive it is to have a kid? like, one of...my best friend is a mother. and i'm like, this is crazy. mm. so i don't... my car got stolen the other day. and do you know what? i'm so upset about my books in the back. but i get it. it's hard times out here. so i understand. well, another thing you wrote about... so some of your lyrics from environmental anxiety also. # little girls aren't safe at home # she's scrolling up —— # little girls aren't safe at home # she's scrolling up and down her phone # she hates her life, she hates herself # and she's 12 years old. yeah. where did those lyrics come from? i'm the older sister of three sisters, so my sisters are my little girls. and i'm so proud of them and very protective of them, you know what i mean? and i think you canjust see... i think for our generation or whatever, we had,

like, facebook and that stuff was introduced when we was... ..i was in year seven, year eight. so i was 11, 12. and i wasn't even allowed a facebook account. i made a facebook account... me neither. babe, i made a facebook account with my friend's name, and she doesn't know the email, so it's still out there. i'm not even telling you the name, but there are some awful pictures of me in year six... do you know who will find it? your tiktok fans will find it. they will! and i'm praying they don't. i feel like they won't. they can't, because the name is so random. 0k. but yeah. that's. .. so i need to get that off the internet asap. i've messaged facebook and everything. they're like, "without the email, there's nothing we can do." i'm like, "guys, we need to get this off the internet." but what my point in saying that is, it's something that was new and something that was, like, whoa, what's this? you know what i mean? mm—hm. i remember seeing the iphone 3g for the first time and being like, "whoa, this is crazy technology!" and yeah. kids are growing up with... i remember my baby sister was playing the ipad game. this game. she was like... she couldn't even talk. and she was slaying the thing down. i was like, "how is this...?" so technology and that stimulation of... ..you look at an ipad. but it's the people

who develop these apps and... yeah. ..these softwares explaining how you turn on a phone and you get dopamine. you get a message and it's like, huh! and it's this whole psychological thing. and it really worries me, obviously, for the future of how addictive these things are for the future generation, how they're going to be able to put them down and go for a walk in the trees and find balance and not needing to find validation from how many messages you have or how many likes you have, which, for someone like me, who... this is... i didn't grow up with this in my childhood. do you know what i mean? i really struggle with that thing. i don't even have... i don't even allow myself access to my social media accounts. one of your lyrics also is about facetune and ring lights and things... yeah. ..and editing photos, basically. yeah. is that why you stopped using your social media, or was itjust general pressures? i think it's the whole thing. i don't think it's good

for anyone to be on there for a for a long period of time. i think you start to, like, compare yourself, resent yourself, analyse yourself, pick yourself apart, and that's just not a nice feeling. yeah, but i think there's a lot of us going on a — to film yourself for a story or a selfie video or whatever, that we're all like, "oh, i'd prefer "to put a filter on my face and just look at what "my face looks like." yeah. and that's just the world we live in now, do you know what i mean? and that's — and i think a lot of us have even become a bit numb to the fact that we're just doing that. we've spoken a bit about, like, the topics that you cover in your songs and they're quite personal — personal stuff that you're writing about. yeah. who do you go to when you first write these lyrics? like, who's the first to hear them or read them? probably my dad. really? yeah. well, he's my manager and we talk about all of these things together. and do you talk through where you got the lyric from or...? nah, it's never that deep. you keep it... he'lljust analyse it as a song.

do you know what i mean? 0k. laughter. so he'll be like, "oh, i like this song." yeah. it's never, like, "how are you feeling about this?" i tend to also just keep a lot of the things i write to myself until i'm ready to share them and i chip away at stuff over time, so... yeah, but probably my dad, yeah. do you ever worry about oversharing and thinking, like, "i shouldn't have spoken about that, and now it's "out there forever"? ifeel like i'm a bit far gone, do you know what i mean? i feel like... yeah, fair. yeah. ifeel like — i think as artists, we have a choice. as writers and musicians, we have a choice about what the intention is behind your art. do you want to create something to make someone feel good? or do you want to create something from a raw and an honest place? and that's not something that you have to do, it's not something that is make or break. but i think it's the artist that i chose to be and i think that comes with its pros and cons. but i think maybe it's kind of a bit how i'm like as a human being. yeah. if i'm going to meet a guy at the pub or bump into someone and be like, "hey, how are you doing?"

and we get to know each other, i'm kind of like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. here's my life! yeah. yeah! so, i guess — i guess that translates to my songs, yeah. # sleeping on her, sleeping on me. # i'm in yourface now. being herself has been the defining feature of raye�*s journey so far. how are you feeling, raye? great. screams. why did i wink at the camera? that was lovely! and while she still has career dreams, including breaking the us and possibly opening a jazz bar in london, she's also worried about the challenges that level of fame brings. so, the theme of this year's bbc 100 women is resilience. if you have a look back at your career and your life, what do you think you've learnt about resilience over the course of your career? well, what — difficult times in your life... no, no. ..where you've had to just... i think resilience is the key word. ..overcome stuff. when pursuing a career in music, you just have to have bags of it, yeah. i think also allowing yourself to feel, mourn, be upset, feel how you feel,

but then bounce back. there's a lot of times you could find yourself being like, "well, after this experience, or this or that, "i'm going to give up." but it's aboutjust picking yourself back up and going for it, but yeah, i think, yeah, i think artists have to have — especially women — i think you have to have a lot of that. yeah. i'm smiling because it'sjust like, yeah, you have to be tough and get on with it. and i think often for women, as well, because i think the standard of how you have to carry yourself and be is so different for women and men. so i think on top of that resilience, being polite, being kind and being a good person, even if you're going through it, finding it within yourself to put what you're going through there and just get on with itand be... do you feel like you've had to kind of prove yourself more as a woman, then, in the industry? 0rjust be held to a higher standard of regulating your

emotions? yeah, i mean... is it more that? ..there�*s definitely a double standard, i'd say. if a guy was to do something, they're having a bad day and they push the paparazzi back or whatever, i'd be like, "0h, he was having a hard day". do you know what i mean? does that stop you sometimes from doing or saying things, and you're like, "oh!" girl... "it might go viral. "i might be slandered." no. honestly, i don't — i'm really at such a — i'm at a place where i've achieved some insane things but i'm still relatively new or undiscovered in terms of the world, do you know what i mean? so where it's, like, these — these artists and — female artists who are put on these huge, huge pedestals scares the living daylights out of me, honestly. i actually am — like there are times where you're like, "do you want to be...?" i still have big dreams, but it's, like, do i even want to?

it's really scary, i think. i think it's actually quite scary. so, it puts you off kind of reaching those levels of... oh, yeah. it's terrifying. what is it you're scared of, then? just when that level ofjudgementjust becomes so micro and you just have to always be this perfect thing orthis well—spoken, polite, — do you know what i mean — good person all the time — which no human is. that's just not real life. do you know what i mean? just being judged on that scale terrifies me. we've obviously heard some awful stories recently, like the p diddy case, where he's been charged with sex trafficking. it's a topic you've touched on in your music as well, sort of abuse of power in the music industry. mm. what do you think needs to be done to make sure women, particularly, stay safe? i mean, that's a huge question. i don't have the answers for that but i think it's clear that nothing should be done from — like, it's really sad that one solution may be that as a woman, you have to be squadded up or have people with you and be protected and have accountability and make sure... do you think it often falls to women, then, to kind of solve that problem?

well, yeah, right. yeah, i'd say right now. i think the music industry is still very guarded and protected place. i think it's — yeah, there's a lot of things that aren't right that happen and are happening and yeah, i think you just hope that it will stop happening. so the government did a report into misogyny in music. i'm just going to read you the conclusion of their report, which came out injanuary 202a. it says, "women have significant additional barriers "to pass to get a foothold in the music industry and must "navigate acts of passive aggression, ridicule "and misogyny to have a sustainable career." what do you make of that? would that sum up how you feel? i think especially as a new artist, when you're beginning your career and you're being put in all these rooms with — most of the time you'll be the only woman inside of the rooms. mm—hm. yeah, you're completely —

it really became a thing, i remember, consciously of, like, this kind of "i need "to prove myself, be kind of worthy before "i'm taken seriously". and you kind of feel like that in every room you kind of walk into. and maybe you see this kind of in your line of work where you kind of — if you're walking in a room and no—one knows who you are or what you're about or whatever, you're like, "right. "no—one�*s taking me seriously right now. "i know that." you're just treated a certain way until — and then, my thing was ijust developed this — i was 1a when i started going around and doing sessions and i developed this thing. i was still a kid at the time. so part of me was, like, "is it because i'm young?" where you go in a room and you're like, "0k, "i need to make everyone in this room respect me before "i can leave. " and i'm going to do that by working as hard as i can, to be lovely, get on the mic,

do some insane freestyles — by my standard that i can achieve — write some amazing lyrics, be a vibe, la, la, la, la la. and then by the end of the session, if i feel like, hopefully, i've achieved that, then i can give myself peace to leave and feel like, "0k, cool. i've done good work for the day." but it's never the mindset of getting in there and making a great song. at the time, it was, like, get in there and just do enough so that everyone respects me as a musician and as an artist. so you're overworking just to get to the baseline of... oh, yeah. ..respect. and then you think... and then once you're there you're, like, "0k, "now let's make a great song." yeah. but getting that every time was a real thing. yeah. and i think, yeah, thejourney of becoming when you're new and you're up—and—coming or when you're trying it out or you're diving into that world, you experience that over time. well, we've alreadyjust had an album from you. you've written about all sorts of things in that. what can we expect next from you?

next, i need time to make a second album. ifeel like in my head, the bar is really high. mm—hm. i think it's going to take a long time. you've got a lot of records to smash! girl, like... you've come on too strong! this is overwhelming. amazing reaction to my first body of work. but the bar is, like, yeah. so a long way in the future — actually, i was thinking about this today — i really would love to open a jazz club. 0oh! you know? in south london. mm! and be there five days a week and just have a great time. are you performing there? yeah, maybe i'll sing, like, once a week. nice. i like it. but i'd host it and there'll be the best cats in town, come down and just play. and it would just be thriving and be great. because i think ronnie's is so beautiful and so important. and we have loads of little nice jazz venues. but i think we need a south london... yeah, i would love to do that in the future. but yeah, i need to make a couple more albums first. build my repertoire a bit more and yeah — but i would really love that. yeah.

don't know why i told you that, but yeah. i like it! future dream. i'll be there! yeah. i'll be there! raye, thank you so much for speaking to 100 women. thank you. thank you so much for having me. hello. thursday was a very grey, gloomy day, really — a lot of low clouds, some mist, some hill fog and some drizzle. in fact, during thursday, we actually had a weak warm front that moved across

england, introducing some more humid air — and that's what resulted in the drizzle. at the moment, the computers are underdoing the amount of drizzle out there as well. it's pretty extensive, really, across much of england, into parts of eastern wales. and we've got mist and fog patches around as well. frost is relatively rare but there are a few patches in scotland — that's where the lowest temperatures are heading into friday. now, the next 36 hours sees this cold front dive southwards. that's going to introduce some patches of rain and again, some slightly colder air following that feature through for a time. here's the weather picture, then, into friday. we start off grey and gloomy with some low cloud, some hill fog patches and remember that extensive drizzle — england, eastern areas of wales, there'll be a few patches elsewhere, too. now, through the day, we get this weather front move into the northwest of scotland. that will bring some heavier rain and the winds will tend to pick up here. for most, temperatures will range between six and eight celsius but there will be some colder spots in scotland. heading into the weekend, we'll get this cold front move

southwards. it's going to be very weak, bringing some patches of rain, some colder air following that through during saturday. but as the front pushes southwards, taking the patchy rain with it, actually, behind that feature, it'll be a much brighter kind of day with a slice of sunshine for a time before we see the next system start to move into western scotland and northern ireland with cloudier weather returning back into the afternoon, so grab the sunshine when it does appear in the sky. now, heading into sunday, we see a big change in the weather patterns as these milder southwesterly winds start to move in off the atlantic — and these are here to stay for quite some time. now, sunday itself will probably have quite a lot of cloud, still with some bits and pieces of rain left over across western areas of the country. there'll be a few breaks here and there, so you might see some glimpses of sunshine but overall, it looks like it'll be turning cloudier and we've got some heavy rain that will end up across the northwest of scotland. temperatures, though, much, much higher — 11—13 celsius, turning a great deal milder. and that milder weather

is here to stay next week as well but often, as we see at this time of year with these kind of mild weather spells, we often have a lot of cloud and bits and pieces of rain and that's certainly in the forecast next week.

live from 0ksibil, this is bbc news. syria's interim government suspends the constitution and parliament

for several months as they work out how to govern. processes in soul clash with president yoon. us presidentjoe biden commutes sentences for 1,500 people — the largest single day act of clemency in modern history. welcome to newsday. i'm steve lai. we start in syria where parliament has been suspended, along with the constitution for the next three months. rebel leaders who ousted the long—time dictator bashar al—assad has said the moves are necessary to allow for a smooth transfer of power. a spokesman says syria's religious and cultural diversity won't be threatened. us secretary of state antony blinken arrived in the us on thursday for meetings with jordan's king the us on thursday for meetings

withjordan's king abdullah. with jordan's king abdullah. and withjordan's king abdullah. and turkey's