Raye Zaragoza (born April 16, 1993) is an American singer-songwriter.
Biography
Raye Zaragoza was born and raised in Manhattan and moved to Los Angeles at the age of fourteen.[1] Her mother is an immigrant from Japan and her father is of Mexican and Oʼodham heritage.[2][3] Her great-grandmother was adopted out of her tribe as young child, raised by a white woman and forced to assimilate.[4]
Raye became involved in school musicals, started playing guitar at age 12, and started writing songs in her late teens.[5] She released her debut EP Heroine in 2015. She started to gain national attention in 2016 with the song "In The River," protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline.[6] Raye and her brother made a video for "In The River" that included facts about Standing Rock and it received 100,000 views overnight.[2] The song was awarded the Global Music Awards' 2017 Heretic Award for Protest/Activist Music[1] and the Honesty Oscars' award for Best Song.[7]
In 2017, she independently released her debut album Fight For You. Her music covers topics related to social justice and her experience as a woman of color.[2] Multiple songs on Fight For You address the Dakota Access Pipeline.[6] "Driving to Standing Rock" portrays the power of protest, specifically of the NoDAPL movement.[8] The song "American Dream" was written in reaction to Donald Trump's election.[9] The album also includes love songs[2] and songs about New York City.[3]
In 2019, she released live recordings of four songs — new song "Warrior," two songs from Fight For You, and one song from the Heroine EP — on an EP entitled Live at Rockwood Music Hall which premiered first on Popmatters.[10]
She cites Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Joan Baez, and Buffy St. Marie as influences.[3]
Her sophomore album Woman In Color produced by Tucker Martine was released October 23, 2020 on her own label Rebel River Records[11] and made year-end lists from NPR Music[12] and PopMatters.[13] The album shows Raye embracing all aspects of her mixed-race identity in song.[14]
In 2021, Zaragoza was awarded the Rising Tide Award by the International Folk Music Awards presented by Folk Alliance International.[15]