Ravyn Lenae: ‘My identity was picked apart’

It might come as a shock to some, but Ravyn Lenae is not British. The 27-year-old singer was born and raised in Chicago, but fans online and in person are constantly surprised to learn that she’s American and not English. “I have people come up and ask if I’m British, without even knowing me,” she says through a syrupy Chicagoan accent. 

She may not have grown up here, but the UK has played a pivotal role in her journey as an artist. In her early teens, when she first started uploading tracks to SoundCloud, the highest percentage of her listeners were based in London. Her first ever European show took place in London in 2018 and tickets sold out in an hour. 

As for why she’s so popular over here, Lenae has her own theory. “I think [it‘s because] there’s more of an acceptance and tolerance for Black women to move freely between genres in the UK,” she says. “You look at so many of our [American] alt-Black stars, like Santigold or Kelis or Donna Summer, and they’ve had huge careers across the pond. A lot of times they blew up there first. Then America is like ‘Oh, that’s cool’ three years later. There’s a respect and an eagerness for people to break the mould [in the UK]. I think that’s maybe what’s being recognised.” 

The music industry has a habit of trying to keep Black women in a box labelled ‘R&B’. But in recent years, we’ve seen a new wave of artists challenging that stereotype. Lenae is among them, and she’s right, many of them are British: take PinkPantheress, Natanya, Rachel Chinouriri, Nova Twins or Flowerovlove, for example. 

In 2025, Lenae’s career reached its highest peak yet. Her 2024 single “Love Me Not” went viral on TikTok, causing it to enter the top five in charts across the UK, US, Australia and Ireland. It currently sits at over a billion streams on Spotify alone. However, with success also comes criticism and online trolls. “With ‘Love Me Not’ reaching a bigger audience, I felt like there were times when my identity was picked apart. My Blackness was questioned in regards to the type of music I liked to make,” she says.

The enormous success of “Love Me Not” propelled the artist to dizzying new heights. “There’s a fun tension between the unstable feeling and trying to grab the reins of my career and my identity,” she says. Aware that she was entering a significant and transitional period of her life, she began to write her third album immediately after the release of her sophomore record, Bird’s Eye. The new album, which lands today (August 7), is named after her hometown, Blue Island – a small city on the outskirts of Chicago. 

Mirroring this moment in her career, Blue Island is a place that people travel through, rather than stick around in. “We’d never stop there for lunch or hang out with friends there,” she says. “As the album started to take shape, I began to realise the parallels between Blue Island and how much of a transitional period this is for me. It made me reflect on what last year meant – experiencing one of the biggest highs of my career so far and trying to find my footing in that.”

My identity was picked apart. My Blackness was questioned in regards to the type of music I liked to make

Lenae and her two younger sisters were raised by their single Panamanian mother, while their father was absent for most of their childhood. Her maternal grandfather served as a pastor for almost 40 years, leading Lenae to find her voice while singing in church. She studied classical music at Chicago’s High School for the Arts, before uploading her first track to SoundCloud at the age of 15. She signed to Atlantic Records the following year and released her debut album, Hypnos, in 2022 with the help of Steve Lacy, Kaytranada, and Fousheé, to name just a few contributors. 

If Blue Island marks a metamorphosis in the artist’s life, I ask, who does she see herself becoming on the other side of it? “I’m transitioning into an artist that is more convicted in my taste, my ability and my body,” she says, after taking a long pause to consider the question. 

In the two years since releasing her last album, her self-confidence has grown significantly. “Even the way I feel entering certain rooms – there’s a complete 180 there,” she says. “With each album I learn more about how I want to be received. I’ve learnt a lot about standing firm in who I am, and not being scared of being seen.” 

There are odds stacked against you before you’ve even entered the race

In the past, she’s admitted to feeling undermined in the music industry, and while she now feels more sure of herself than ever before, she doesn’t know that if that feeling will ever truly dissipate. “I think that will always be a thing for me,” she says. “Being a Black woman, in spaces I feel we fundamentally just aren’t wanted, creates this feeling that there are odds stacked against you before you’ve even entered the race.

She explains that her recent confidence boost comes from understanding that her road may be longer and slower than most, but not allowing that to deter her. “It’s more difficult for someone like me to move between pop and R&B and go back and forth freely. I know that it’s less easy for people to understand if they can’t neatly put it into one box, or be able to describe it in one snapshot. But the confidence comes with owning that. I’m not watering myself down or simplifying myself for success.”

It’s this ethos that made Doechii the perfect choice to feature on the new album. The Tampa rapper, another artist who refuses to water herself down, appears on the track, “Babygirl”. It’s a song that acts as a thesis for the entire album, Lenae explains. “I basically talk about what it feels like to be me, navigating the industry as a Black girl, who might dance to the beat of her own drum a little bit. I immediately thought of Doechii, because she’s living proof of that. I sent it to her and she responded immediately saying ‘You’re a fucking superstar!’”. 

Above all, Lenae wants the freedom to experiment with her sound as and when she likes – without pressure from fans or the industry. She’d love to explore her Panamanian-West Indian heritage, for example. “Leaning into those rhythms and melodies, I’m excited to go down that road,” she says. Maybe that’s a teaser for album four, though she’s not ruling out any genres. The world is her oyster, but for now, it’s all about Blue Island.