Blue Island (Translucent Sky Vinyl)

TBA

Ravyn Lenae announces her third studio album, Blue Island, due August 7th via Atlantic Records and shares her new single “Handle.” Executive-produced by Bird’s Eye collaborator and GRAMMY Award-winning producer Dahi, Blue Island is an immersive world shaped by poise, playfulness, and the confidence of an artist who knows momentum is only the beginning. 

“Handle,” alongside the previously released songs “Reputation” featuring Dominic Fike and “Bobby,” paint the portrait of an artist evolving in real time. On “Handle,” Ravyn expands beyond expected genres and themes with a seductive new verve that forces you to hold on tight as the Chicago artist hopscotches through her mind’s inner workings on love. The single arrives alongside a stunning new music video that sees Ravyn incorporating choreography into her artistry for the first time. With live shows in mind, she joined forces with New York-based movement director Akira Uchida to remind listeners how a song can remain personal while also reaching the back row, and how intimacy can still feel expansive. 

Blue Island represents a threshold that Ravyn has inhabited both mentally and physically over the past year. Following the success of her hit single “Love Me Not,” which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 10 on the Billboard Global 200, No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, and charted in Canada, Australia, and beyond, the world was finally catching up. While this newfound success meant a host of new opportunities that she had always dreamed of, it also meant bouts of joy, anxiety, loneliness, and even heartbreak. Paired with ill-informed questions about her Blackness and reignited conversations about whether she belonged in certain music spaces, she looked to her influences (Santigold, Janet Jackson, Tracy Chapman), whose masterful catalogs pushed back against confines placed on how Black women artists should express themselves. She uses Blue Island to explore the full scope of her identity: the quirks, flirty energy, “teenage angst” that often bleeds well into years outside its allotted window, as well as the quiet, lonely, "off-beat" moments that happen when you are in the midst of a transformation. 

Sonically, the record widens her world, expanding on her classic sound while also incorporating the sounds of her listening diet, such as Blondie, The Sundays, The Cranberries, Martin Rev, and even the dramatic chorus structures and high vocal tones of Bollywood soundtracks. Speaking on the album she shares, “‘Blue Island’ is a point of arrival, and feeling set in my ways and in who I am, and feeling free of any of those preconceived notions about Blackness or what I had to be in the past. So I think now it’s fun to challenge the idea of what R&B is supposed to sound like, what pop is supposed to sound like… and really say ‘fuck all of that’ and do my own thing.” 

2025 was a breakthrough year for Ravyn Lenae, which saw her perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Good Morning America, make her debut performances at Coachella and her hometown of Chicago’s Lollapalooza, a sold-out, two night, four-show residency at the famed Blue Note Jazz Club which Billboard heralded as “a dexterous display of musicality and wisdom,” a brand partnership with Coach, as well as headline North American and UK/EU tour, in addition to the runaway success of “Love Me Not.” Alongside these feats, she joined Sabrina Carpenter and Reneé Rapp on select dates of their arena tours in North America and performed at multiple international festivals. Next week, she’ll perform at Barcelona’s famed Primavera Sound music festival on June 4th before taking the stage for New York’s Governors Ball on June 6th.