Ravyn Lenae – Saturday Night
On the heels of announcing her headline tour launching this September, Ravyn Lenae shares her new single “Saturday Night.”
The singer-songwriter ushers in summer on her electrofunk-leaning pop track, fused with the experimental sounds of Martin Rev, as she recounts running into an on-and-off-again fling on a fateful Saturday night.
The undeniable earworm sees Ravyn deliberate between leaning into the temptation to leave the party with her situationship or listen to her gut. She does everything in her power to avoid falling into his trap: refraining from drinking, staying firm on his inability to address the roots of their problems as he tries to make his case, and trying to ignore his lingering stares that follow her throughout the party. Though Ravyn can’t forego their undeniable connection, she uses the chorus as a means of affirming to herself that she is making the right decision, as she chooses herself rather than the immediate gratification of going home with him.
“Saturday Night” joins her recent offerings “Reputation” featuring Dominic Fike, “Bobby,” and “Handle,” the last of which arrived alongside a stunning new music video that sees Ravyn incorporating choreography into her artistry for the first time. With live shows in mind, she joined forces with New York-based movement director Akira Uchida to remind listeners how a song can remain personal while also reaching the back row, and how intimacy can still feel expansive. Their collaboration was best illustrated earlier this month, with her debut performances at Primavera Sound in Barcelona and Governor’s Ball in New York City just 48 hours later. The latter of those two performances earned praise from Billboard, which described her choreography as “landing somewhere between Fosse and David Winters,” and likened her stage presence to “the high-wattage Motown energy of prime Diana Ross.”
Blue Island represents a threshold that Ravyn has inhabited both mentally and physically over the past year. Following the success of her hit single “Love Me Not,” which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 10 on the Billboard Global 200, No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, and charted in Canada, Australia, and beyond, the world was finally catching up. While this newfound success meant a host of new opportunities that she had always dreamed of, it also meant bouts of joy, anxiety, loneliness, and even heartbreak. Paired with ill-informed questions about her Blackness and reignited conversations about whether she belonged in certain music spaces, she looked to her influences (Santigold, Janet Jackson, Tracy Chapman), whose masterful catalogs pushed back against confines placed on how Black women artists should express themselves.
She uses Blue Island to explore the full scope of her identity: the quirks, flirty energy, “teenage angst” that often bleeds well into years outside its allotted window, as well as the quiet, lonely, “off-beat” moments that happen when you are in the midst of a transformation. Sonically, the record widens her world, expanding on her classic sound while also incorporating the sounds of her listening diet, such as Blondie, The Sundays, The Cranberries, Martin Rev, and even the dramatic chorus structures and high vocal tones of Bollywood soundtracks.
This fall, Ravyn Lenae will embark on her 22-date headline North American tour in support of the album, with support from Lexa Gates, Nourished By Time, and Q on select dates. Tickets are available for purchase today at 10 AM local time via https://www.ravynlenae.com/tour.
Upcoming Live Dates
+ = Lexa Gates
^ = Nourished By Time
* = Q
8/13 – Copenhagen, DK @ Syd for Solen
8/14 – Gothenburg, SE @ Way Out West
8/15 – Oslo, NO @ Oya Festival
8/20 – St. Poelten, AT @ Frequency Festival
8/22 – Biddinghuizen, NL @ Lowlands Festival
8/23 – Hasselt, BE @ Pukkelpop Festival
8/25 – Lausanne, CH @ Headline
8/26 – Paris, FR @ Rock en Seine
8/28 – London, UK @ All Points East
8/29 – Lisbon, PT @ Kalorma
8/30 – County Laois, IE @ Electric Picnic
9/15 – Sacramento, CA @ Channel 24 +
9/16 – Oakland, CA @ Fox Theater +
9/18 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl +
9/19 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Rockwell at The Complex +
9/20 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre +
9/22 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Fillmore +
9/25 – Chicago, IL @ The Salt Shed +
9/26 – Detroit, MI @ Masonic Jack White Theatre +
9/29 – Washington, D.C. @ The Anthem +
9/30 – Boston, MA @ Roadrunner ^
10/2 – New York, NY @ Kings Theatre ^
10/3 – Philadelphia, PA @ Franklin Music Hall ^
10/5 – Toronto, ON @ HISTORY ^
10/8 – Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz *
10/9 – Atlanta, GA @ The Eastern *
10/10 – Nashville, TN @ Marathon Music Works *
10/11 – Memphis, TN @ Satellite Music Hall*
10/13 – Dallas, TX @ House of Blues ^
10/14 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s ^
10/16 – Tucson, AZ @ Rialto Theatre ^
10/17 – Phoenix, AZ @ Van Buren ^
10/21 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theatre ^ +
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