Nearly a year later, it appears the singer was right: In early April, \u201cLove Me Not\u201d \u2014 a swinging, lightly psychedelic soul number about a hot-and-cold lover \u2014 gave Lenae her first entry on Billboard\u2019s Hot 100; a week later, she made her debut at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Several months after that, she performed to an enthusiastic crowd at Lollapalooza just before \u201cLove Me Not\u201d peaked at No. 5 in mid-August.<\/p>\n
Now, with one of 2025\u2019s biggest hits under her belt, Lenae, 26, is winding down her breakout year by opening for Sabrina Carpenter as Carpenter\u2019s Short n\u2019 Sweet tour wraps up this week<\/a> with six sold-out shows through Sunday at Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of this period has been me asking other artists, \u2018Is this how it normally is?\u2019\u201d Lenae tells me on a recent evening. \u201cHow do you balance the social aspect and the online aspect and the touring with also staying highly creative?\u201d<\/p>\n Not to mention tending to a personal life.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d she asks with a laugh. \u201cThat\u2019s literally nonexistent.\u201d<\/p>\n The runaway success of \u201cLove Me Not,\u201d which has been streamed more than 700 million times on Spotify, is no doubt what\u2019s put the breathy-voiced Lenae before many listeners for the first time. (A remix featuring Rex Orange County has another 164 million Spotify streams.)<\/p>\n At one point as the song was blowing up, she responded<\/a> to a fan on TikTok who\u2019d been surprised to learn that Lenae is Black \u2014 \u201cY\u2019all didn\u2019t read the name Ravyn Lenae and think, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s a Black girl?\u2019\u201d the singer asks in the clip \u2014 then went ahead and clarified that also she\u2019s not British, as some evidently had assumed.<\/p>\n Yet \u201cLove Me Not\u201d actually comes a decade into a career that began while Lenae was still in high school. She signed to Atlantic Records at age 16 and soon was touring and working in the studio with the likes of SZA and Steve Lacy<\/a>; \u201cHypnos,\u201d her debut LP, came out in 2022 and made Pitchfork\u2019s closely watched list of the year\u2019s best albums.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m pretty conceited about the fact that I\u2019ve loved Ravyn for as long as I have,\u201d says the singer and actor Rene\u00e9 Rapp<\/a>, who like Carpenter took Lenae out on the road this year as an opening act. Rapp discovered one of Lenae\u2019s early EPs when she herself was in high school and has been a fan ever since. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018You bitches are new, and don\u2019t get me wrong \u2014 I\u2019m so happy you\u2019re here. But let\u2019s get it right: I was boots on the ground first.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n To Rapp\u2019s ears, Lenae\u2019s airy soprano \u201chas this beautiful ping at the top that I\u2019ve only ever heard in Minnie Riperton,\u201d she says. \u201cShe\u2019s just like a little fairy. She floats around, and her voice does the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLove Me Not,\u201d which is still hanging out in the upper reaches of the Hot 100, is from Lenae\u2019s sophomore album, \u201cBird\u2019s Eye,\u201d which came out in August 2024. She recorded the song with the producer Dahi, who\u2019s known for his work with Kendrick Lamar<\/a> and Vince Staples<\/a>; Dahi started the track years ago with Anderson .Paak then put it in a drawer before he\u2019d finished it.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the time, I was really into MGMT,\u201d Dahi says, referring to the alternative rock duo whose dreamy-jangly guitar sound echoes throughout \u201cLove Me Not.\u201d With Lenae, he pushed the song toward classic R&B \u2014 \u201csomething that would be played on \u2018Happy Days\u2019 or some s\u2014,\u201d he says \u2014 but retained a spacey vibe that keeps it from feeling rooted in any specific era or genre.<\/p>\n Lenae says her goal was to create something \u201csoulful and Black but that transcends time and race\u201d; the result can be heard in a lineage of enduring hard-to-classify hits like Outkast\u2019s \u201cHey Ya!\u201d and Gnarls Barkley\u2019s \u201cCrazy\u201d that charm listeners across demographic lines.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t like \u2018Crazy,\u2019 there\u2019s something wrong with you,\u201d Lenae says as a pedicurist exfoliates her feet in a West Hollywood hotel room. It\u2019s the end of a long day that began with an early-morning flight from New York, where Lenae performed with Kali Uchis<\/a> on \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d and at Madison Square Garden. Now, after a photo shoot, she\u2019s changed into gray sweats to sneak in a moment of self-care during our chat.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the heels I\u2019m wearing all the time, you can see the corns,\u201d she says, looking down to check out the pedicurist\u2019s progress. \u201cI wonder what Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s feet look like. \u2019Cause if mine look like this? She\u2019s putting in work.\u201d<\/p>\n Though \u201cLove Me Not\u201d was singled out by critics right away, the song really took off late last year after a DJ posted a viral TikTok that mashed it up<\/a> with Solange\u2019s \u201cLosing You\u201d as part of a series exploring \u201ceuphoric\u201d breakup songs. An admiring post on X by SZA \u2014 \u201cOne of my fav albums this year,\u201d she wrote<\/a> of \u201cBird\u2019s Eye\u201d \u2014 helped bring more attention to Lenae\u2019s music.<\/p>\n Ravyn Lenae in West Hollywood.<\/p>\n (Ian Spanier \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n The singer grew up in Chicago, where her mother\u2019s parents landed in the late \u201970s as immigrants from Panama. That\u2019s their house on the city\u2019s south side in the music video for \u201cLove Me Not,\u201d which Lenae directed and which shows her and her younger sister dancing just outside the bedroom where Lenae slept as a kid.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew this song would be a lot of people\u2019s introduction to me, so I wanted them to immediately jump into my world,\u201d she says. \u201cMy grandparents are very shy people, and when my grandma saw the video, she was like, \u2018Oh, Ravyn, baby \u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Singing at talent shows as a 12-year-old, Lenae wanted to be a \u201ca mix between Alicia Keys and Beyonc\u00e9,\u201d as she puts it; later, she learned to perform Christina Aguilera\u2019s \u201cBeautiful\u201d and Rihanna\u2019s \u201cTake a Bow.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018I\u2019m-a win \u2019em over with this one,\u2019\u201d she says of the dramatic ballads. \u201cI\u2019m sure I sound crazy on video.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/1763578507_339_hqdefault.jpg\")
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