{"id":50495,"date":"2026-04-29T13:23:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=50495"},"modified":"2026-04-29T13:23:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:23:25","slug":"singer-raye-says-faith-not-instagram-helped-save-her-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/04\/singer-raye-says-faith-not-instagram-helped-save-her-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Singer Raye Says Faith, Not Instagram, Helped Save Her Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ben Houdijk \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UK singer Raye, born Rachel Agatha Keen, is on a meteoric rise to fame. With that fame, however, can come a lot of criticism and attacks, particularly through social media. \u201cI\u2019m terrified of people picking me apart and eating me alive. At the end of the day not everyone\u2019s going to love it but I know somebody out there will,\u201d she told The Times<\/em><\/a>. Her solution has been to focus less on what\u2019s on Instagram and more on what\u2019s on her Bible app. \u201cI think since I\u2019ve come offline it\u2019s been much better. Ignorance is bliss. If someone said I look awful in a dress, it\u2019d make me sad. If I don\u2019t know someone said I look awful in a dress\u2005\u2026So I\u2019m really [big] on being offline. It\u2019s taken me so long to get here, I\u2019d be terrified to jeopardize all of that by giving someone a bad impression of me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old South Londoner has been in the business since 2014, but her career started in the shadows. Despite signing a four-record deal with record label Polydor at the age of 17, by 2021 the brand hadn\u2019t released a single album for her, having her write hits for other artists like Beyonc\u00e9 and Charlie XCX. She left Polydor and went independent, with her song \u201cEscapism,\u201d shooting her into fame. Now her career is a family affair, with two of her sisters, Abby and Lauren, providing vocals under the stage names Absolutely and Amma. Her parents, Sarah and Paul, serve on her management team.<\/p>\n

Raye\u2019s appeal comes from her raw songs that deal with her own insecurities about her body, being sexually assaulted, and seeking comfort in meaningless sex. Raised in a Christian home (her parents met at church and led worship), Raye found herself somewhat disconnected from the faith her family surrounded her with. \u201cEscapism\u201d deals with how she sought answer through drugs and sex. \u201cI was raised in a Christian household and I think I had quite a difficult relationship with it all in the early days. But there was a moment where I really found God, in the time that I really needed it and it saved my life\u2026I really owe my life to my faith, it\u2019s kept me going and it\u2019s kept me okay, it\u2019s given me strength,\u201d she said in an earlier interview with The Line of Best Fit<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

She has slowly found her way back, claiming her faith has literally saved her life. Her song \u201c21st<\/sup> Century Blues\u201d includes the line \u201cYou start to wonder why I\u2019m Christian \/ without the Lord I\u2019d take my life.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s a world in which, if I didn\u2019t find faith again, I might not even be here,\u201d she once told the BBC. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of demons trying to claw at you and drag you to somewhere you don\u2019t belong, so I\u2019m really grateful I have this faith,\u201d she added. \u201cIt\u2019s honestly pulled me out of a really dark place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UK singer Raye, born Rachel Agatha Keen, is on a meteoric rise to fame. With that fame, however, can come a lot of criticism and attacks, particularly through social media. \u201cI\u2019m terrified of people picking me apart and eating me alive. At the end of the day not everyone\u2019s going to love it but I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":50498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nSinger Raye Says Faith, Not Instagram, Helped Save Her Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Raye says faith and going offline helped her survive fame, criticism, and past trauma as her music career reaches new heights.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2026\/04\/singer-raye-says-faith-not-instagram-helped-save-her-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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