genre pop

Trending on Billboard

Last year, RAYE swept the BRIT Awards and established her presence in the U.S. with the 070 Shake-assisted top 40 hit “Escapism.” In 2025, the British singer-songwriter has proven that her star power is not dimming anytime soon, earning her first solo entry on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Where Is My Husband!,” which currently sits at a No. 58 high on the chart dated Nov. 22.

Co-written and co-produced with longtime collaborator Mike Sabath, “Where Is My Husband!” finds RAYE blending Motown-era soul, big band instrumentation and a funky, rapid-fire cadence into an irresistibly animated plea for her imagined spouse to arrive already. “I would like a big and shiny diamond that I can wave around/ And talk, and talk about it/ And when the day is here, forgive me God, that I could ever doubt it,” she proclaims in the bridge, which went viral as a snippet on TikTok ahead of the song’s Sept. 19 release. “Husband” also serves as the lead single for RAYE’s forthcoming sophomore studio album, which follows debut My 21st Century Blues. In addition to helping RAYE become the first artist to win six BRIT Awards in a single year, the project also earned her 2025 Grammy nominations for best new artist and songwriter of the year, non-classical. 

“Instead of being like, ‘How are we going to follow [My 21st Century Blues] up?’,” we were like, “You just toured the whole world, and it looked and sounded like this,” Sabath says about the inception for “Husband.” “You want to look and sound like that more. How do we design for that?”

RAYE first performed the then-unreleased “Husband” as the opening number during her Glastonbury Festival set in late June, preparing the stage for months of hype across social media. After RAYE’s first TikTok of her performance garnered nearly two million views, she continued teasing the song in subsequent posts, often leaning into her humor or giving fans glimpses inside the recording studio. Now, just over two months since its release, “Husband” has hit No. 13 on the Billboard Global 200, her highest ranking since “Escapism” peaked at No. 7 in 2023. 

Below, New York-bred producer-songwriter Mike Sabath, 27, goes deep with Billboard about the composition of “Husband,” working with RAYE in the studio, and how they finished the song just 11 days before its release.

How did “Where Is My Husband!” come together? 

We had an idea of the space we wanted to play in. [RAYE] was super inspired by The Supremes, visually and textually, and I’ve had this sonic vision since [My 21st Century Blues] — we reached it a bit with “The Thrill Is Gone” and “Worth It.” She had been touring for eons, and I had been doing other things and my own artist stuff. We got a ski cabin at Big Bear [Lake] in California for 10 days, but it took us five days to figure out how to eat and drink water there. (Laughs.) We’re musicians, we cook up in a whole different way! 

With the last album, it all came together through the live show, which expanded and unified the sonic realm by making it super orchestral and brassy. She brings that queen energy. It’s like Your Highness who wears no shoes.

[With “Husband,”] we reverse-engineered it from her live show. It started with a drum roll and these brass hits, then I tapped a keyboard groove on the MIDI [controller]. It’s easy to [complain about not having] live drums, but it’s so important to get the idea out in its most simple form. There’s always time to sonically improve something, but there’s not necessarily another time when that stroke of inspiration is there. Lyrically, I just let her do her thing; I Americanize things when I need to. I come in like, (Sings lyric.) “He should holler.” 

When did you know “Husband” was complete? 

We literally didn’t finish it until 11 days before it came out. We got the foundation in Big Bear, and then we ended up finishing it at a studio in Joshua Tree, including the bridge. I did the horns at that studio, and then I added strings when I got back home. RAYE added a bass player and some piano when she went to London. 

I feel like deciding if a record is done before it’s mixed is just silly. The mix is such a part of the color and the setting of the record; it reveals and cleans things. After one of the early mixes, for example, I realized RAYE needed to record more backing harmonies on the pre-[chorus]. 

This record was super untraditional in the way that we did the lead vocal. In the verses, there’s no lead vocal; it’s just doubles on the sides. And that’s how we did [most of] the record. She kept trying to cut a lead and didn’t like it, so I had to figure out what the “lead” meant in this context and create what it would feel like using four to eight voices. We did it with Tony Maserati, who’s a legend, and the sweetest dude ever. 

In the 11 days before the song came out, I flew to Australia thinking the record was done. I landed at 4 a.m. and ended up in the Uber on Mixstream with Tony, making significant changes to the record over the phone as I’m completely delirious. When I finally got to where I was staying, we were still mixing, but I could look at the water, which calmed me. Physical location is a really powerful perspective tool in mixing. The song also had a different ending.

What was the original ending? 

RAYE loves as much drama as possible, so she made this whole extra ending. I was like, “This is such a potent song, we should just end it.” And she’s like, “I want to do this thing!” I’m always supportive, so I let that happen, and that ultimately revealed other things that helped finish the record anyway. The day before we turned the song in, she calls me as she’s going to sleep in London, like, “Mike, we have to remove the ending.” It was hilarious because we made this whole thing for her ending, which we ended up keeping for the new ending. It was like a side quest. 

I produced a new ending on the phone with Tony, and it was f–king insane. But it worked. After we turned the song in, RAYE and I were like, “I don’t know about the master.” Something about it just wasn’t hitting. We pulled that version, but we had to send them the mixed version, so I texted Tony out of his sleep. He got out of bed, made some coffee, went into the studio in the middle of the night, and bounced the final files. And then we delivered the record 11 days before it came out.

Was there a sense of “This is a hit!” when you turned the song in? 

My biggest songs have been songs that I’ve been most excited to play for people — and that was the case with “Husband.” When it was done, I knew it was different. I really liked it, but I didn’t know it was going to be a hit. They were going to put out a different song, and I really pushed for this. It wasn’t that hard because it was pretty clear at that point, but I was like, “You have to come back with the drum roll!” Also, [“Husband”] was just more done at that point. 

Why do you think fans have latched on to the song so much?  

The world really fell in love with her on the last record, so I think people wanted her to win. Also, I think a lot of people are looking for a husband. People want love; we’re humans, and people want a partner. That’s resonant in itself and probably why the bridge exploded first. And the song itself is just crazy. People want to hear real music s–t going on, and there’s all that happening in this record. It’s also the things that are intangible, too. 

The whole journey with RAYE so far has been amazing. We started eight years ago, and to witness all of this and be a part of it has been beautiful. I’ve always been like, “You guys are sleeping on this girl!” She’s always been amazing. Generational artists don’t just pop up; they are trained and prepared for sustainability. [RAYE] is a generational artist, and I’m honored to be her friend.

A version of this story appears in the Nov. 15, 2025, issue of Billboard.