Ravyn Lenae Is Billboard’s R&B Rookie Of The Year

Several years ago, Ravyn Lenae found herself backstage at a House of Blues, in tears. With a minute left in her opening set, the crowd had started booing and chanting for the headliner to come out — and the venue had cut off her mic.

“It’s funny now,” the 26-year-old singer-songwriter says with a laugh while recalling that fateful evening. “I remember tearing up backstage afterward, asking myself if I was built for this … Can I really get past the embarrassment and into the winning-people-over aspect of music?” Eventually, Lenae wiped away her tears. “Deciding I could was a pivotal point for me.”

Now, 10 years removed from her self-released debut EP, Moon Shoes, Lenae is winning over a much bigger audience and breaking through on the Billboard charts. In April, “Love Me Not,” from her second Atlantic Records album, Bird’s Eye, became her first-ever single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The ethereal yet vibrant song became the rare R&B single to explode on the pop charts, rising from a No. 81 entry to a No. 6 Hot 100 peak while also reaching the top 10 on the Billboard Global 200 (No. 7), Pop Airplay (No. 3) and Radio Songs (No. 7) charts.

Those are major milestones for the Chicago native, who wrote her first song, “Greetings,” (which she says she still loves) in middle school. At that time, the confessed SoundCloud junkie also loved digging for artists and producers — her favorites included Kaytranada and Flying Lotus — who were experimenting with different beats and sounds. “That was the first moment where I realized what type of production I liked,” Lenae says. She also calls church her “first stage” for solo performances, thanks to her paternal grandfather, who was a local pastor.

By the time she was a sophomore at the Chicago High School for the Arts in 2015, Lenae independently released Moon Shoes, collaborating with producer Monte Booker. (He and Lenae are also members of rapper-singer Smino’s musical collective, Zero Fatigue.) The underground buzz sparked by Lenae’s pure, soaring soprano and insightful, relatable lyrics prompted Atlantic Records to sign her and reissue the EP in 2016.

Two more EPs, Midnight Moonlight (2017) and Crush (2018), followed, as did opening gigs for Noname and SZA tours, festival performances and collaborations with artists including Steve Lacy. Lenae further connected the alt-R&B dots with her 2022 debut studio album, Hypnos. The set’s strong critical acclaim (and No. 1 Adult R&B Airplay single, the Lacy collaboration “Skin Tight”) underscored what day-one Lenae fans had long known: Her appeal wasn’t only about her vocal and lyrical skills, but also her fearless experimentation beyond R&B’s traditional color palette.

In crafting her musical world — one she describes as “eclectic, with bubbles, rough terrain and a rusty sky” — Lenae delineates her style through potent fusions of R&B, pop, dance, rock, Afrobeats and reggae, among other genres.

“She’s constantly experimenting with sounds and ideas, wanting to challenge herself in a way that I found exciting,” says John Bogaard, who began managing Lenae almost six years ago.

She has continued to push those boundaries, including on 2024’s Bird’s Eye, which boasts collaborations with Ty Dolla $ign and Childish Gambino (the latter on “One Wish,” her first Hot R&B Songs entry last year, at No. 21) and sleeper hit “Love Me Not.” After its initial release and remix last year, the riff on the age-old “he loves me, he loves me not” theme received a boost in April after going viral on TikTok.

“ ‘Love Me Not’ is resonating with fans because they recognize when a record is made authentically,” Bogaard says. “And it was an important moment for Ravyn because it’s a sound she wanted to explore but hesitated to release due to its difference from her previous work. Her future sound and aesthetic will continue to reflect what her music has always expressed: her complex, varied and sincere self.”

“She’s authentic,” adds Atlantic COO Zach Friedman. “She writes what people feel but can’t always say, and she delivers it with a voice you can’t ignore. That’s why it’s connecting.”

Grammy Award winner Dahi (whose credits include Kendrick Lamar, SZA and 21 Savage) produced “Love Me Not” and executive-produced Bird’s Eye. “There’s something so special about his ear,” Lenae says. “The idea of genre and staying within borders doesn’t exist in the studio with us. ‘Love,’ with its whimsical talk about love and lyrics being a little dark, is for me a timeless record. I like to merge things that kind of contradict each other; something that feels old and familiar but also new and fresh.”

“We clicked from our first sessions,” adds Dahi. “Musically, I’m a bit left of center, always looking to make it have a twist. Ravyn is very similar: We’re fans of all types of music. And that’s built a trust. We’re definitely not afraid to try things, wanting to just follow the feeling.”

“When I recorded Bird’s Eye, I let go of all the rules and expectations,” Lenae says. “I wanted to fly free without this preconceived notion of myself and what my music had to feel like. Seeing how that music is moving people has given me the green light to keep going.”

And she has come a long way from those boos at the House of Blues. She made her Coachella and Lollapalooza debuts this year, and she’s selling out dates on her own current headlining tour, including a recent four-show residency at New York’s storied Blue Note jazz club. She’ll further showcase her dynamic live show and atmospheric alt-R&B as the opener on select dates for this fall’s Reneé Rapp and Sabrina Carpenter tours.

“I see the road map and the finish line,” Lenae says. “This is the start for me.”

This story appears in the Aug. 30, 2025, issue of Billboard.