The crown jewel of Estonian soul – Rita Ray – has been active since 2019. From humble beginnings to becoming a force on the scene, there’s a lot of depth and drive in the small-town girl from Põlva. Her powerful vocals and songwriting have paved the way to reach music lovers across genre borders. While her début album “Old Love Will Rust” (‘19) was presented to 200 people, the sophomore “A Life Of Its Own” (‘22) was introduced in front of 2000 people with a string orchestra in Tallinn’s biggest concert hall. 

There’s a reason why Rita Ray sounds so genuine. Thanks to her musical foundation, she can carry a lot of the weight when it comes to arranging for orchestras, writing music, lyrics, and co-producing. Rita Ray really does seem to have the winning formula. The musical styles explored to date range from blue-eyed soul, classic R&B to old-school disco. The young artist’s growing confidence as a composer has guided her 2nd LP towards cinematic and symphonic soundscapes. For Rita Ray’s soul-stirring live performances she is standardly joined by her 4-piece band, but can do shows with an extended line-up, or an orchestra just as well. 

With her début LP ‘Old Love Will Rust’, Rita Ray got 4 nominations at Estonian Music Awards (EMA). “Disco Stu” flew highest, in part thanks to the single reaching wide audiences via BBC 2 airplay. Miss Ray was awarded the Young Jazz Talent Award in 2021 by Jazzkaar Festival. From Rita Ray’s 2nd album “A Life Of Its Own” both “Love Ain’t The Same” as well as “No Greater Love” enjoyed BBC and Jazz.fm rotation. The record released via Funk Embassy Records has received over 1 million streams on Spotify, and earned “Song of the Year”, “Album of the Year” and “Female Artist of the Year” accolades at EMA