EXCLUSIVE: Raye was the headline act at Reading Festival’s second day, and even though she was battling multiple technical difficulties and messed up her lyrics, watching her was the biggest joy
I declare and I decree Raye the queen of Reading Festival 2026. The South London singer battled technical difficulties that made her late to her set and restarted a song after messing up the lyrics, and yet fans still left her headline slot on Saturday 29 August feeling like they’d just witnessed the show of their lives.
“I can’t believe how good she was,” one fans says in teary, hiccupy breaths as she leaves the festival grounds. “Wow. Just… wow,” says another. Girls everywhere are crying, smiling and hugging as they make their way home.
Anyone whose seen Raye perform live will be familiar with this sight. The singer’s performance is the equivalent of the first hug from an excitable puppy you just adopted. There may be tough times ahead and things are going to go wrong but it’s impossible not to giggle with all the love you feel.
The first moment of sheer joy comes when Raye is finally seen on stage. Choosing to opt out of heels, she runs on, grabs her microphone and belts out one of her classics, Escapism, before telling the audience she’ll chat to us soon and barrelling straight into South London Lover Boy. Everyone’s already forgotten that this is all happening about 10 minutes later than expected.
When she’s finished her second song, she explains that the backlights spelling her name weren’t working and she was trying to get them fixed for us before she came out. But wouldn’t work. “We’re going to have fun anyway, aren’t we?” she screams. And we all scream with her.
That’s the thing about Raye. She’s messy and has no interest in pretending otherwise. If things don’t work, who cares? That’s life. If a song is too quick and you mess up the opening rap, like Raye did in WhatsApp Shakespeare, that’s okay! Rather than carry on, Raye stops the performance saying: “Nah, nah, nah that sucked, let’s do it again.”
“She’s so real for that,” one fan says. This isn’t the only instance where Raye is unafraid to show us who she really is, as she takes a moment to explain that she previously ‘begged’ to perform at Reading.
She tells the us: “Six years ago, I said to my agent, ‘Please book me for Reading’ and they kept saying ‘We’re sorry but they’re not interested’. I never thought that six years later I would be headlining.”
That’s enough to make the waterworks start for pretty much everyone in the crowd. They start flowing even more for the sisters in the crowd, when Raye brings out her own sisters, Amma and Absolutely, for her penultimate song Joy.
Poor Amma has an issue with her ear piece and stumbles through her lyrics, but Raye just gives her the biggest hug, as does Absolutely when she comes on stage. Despite the mistakes, Amma can’t stop smiling thanks to the way the crowd gets behind her, cheering her on.
When the set ends, everyone’s knees are tired from jumping around, throats soar from screaming and cheeks aching from grinning, but there is just one thing on each and every mind: Can Raye come back again tomorrow?
The Mirror were at Reading Festival courtesy of Nordic Spirit.
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