London — RAYE has spoken out against AI bots after her upcoming This Symphony May Contain Hope performance attracted 1.8 million sign-ups for just 5,000 available seats.
The 28-year-old singer is taking additional measures following what she described as “hundreds of thousands of fake registrations” for the exclusive concert, scheduled to take place at London’s Royal Albert Hall on October 23. The performance will feature a reimagining of her sophomore album, This Music May Contain Hope, released in March, alongside the Heritage Orchestra and Flames Collective.
In a statement posted on X, RAYE revealed the scale of the demand and explained how automated registrations had disrupted the process.
“We received 1.8 million sign-ups for 5000 seats for This Symphony May Contain Hope.
“Sadly our sign-up process was overwhelmed by scalpers, using AI bots to create hundreds of thousands of fake registrations.
“It is a new world we are living in now, I have never witnessed bots on this scale. It is so important to me that fans can buy tickets at the face value price.”
To protect genuine fans from being disadvantaged, RAYE and her team have opted to introduce a manual screening process rather than proceed with a presale that could be exploited by ticket scalpers.
She explained that the decision was made to ensure the process remained as fair as possible for the limited-capacity event.
“Therefore rather than risk opening a presale that scalpers could exploit, we felt the best and safest solution for this specific show was to manually review the sign-up list to identify a shortlist of people we believe are real fans.”
According to the singer, selected fans will receive their presale links and codes by email on Tuesday (13.10.26) at 11:45am BST, with ticket sales beginning at midday.
Those who do not receive a presale code will have another opportunity to purchase tickets when the remaining allocation becomes available during the general sale.
RAYE also acknowledged that the experience had raised questions about the future of ticket sales and how artists could better protect their audiences.
“I’m not sure what the future holds for ticketing, I do know this experience has really opened my eyes.
“Me and my team are going to think really hard about what we can do in the future.
“Lots of love, Raye.”
The controversy comes as RAYE continues to build on the success of her 2023 album My 21st Century Blues. The singer had ambitious plans for her follow-up, This Music May Contain Hope, but revealed in May that the demands of the project had pushed her close to her limits.
Speaking to Billboard, she reflected on how work had dominated much of her life over the past several years.
“There just comes a time in your life where, like, you have to, or you choose to, prioritise something over another, so I think in my case, like, work has really been my life for the last year, two years, three years.
“But I think this last year with this album, and the amount of touring, and just the vibe in general, I’ve really definitely pushed myself to, like, my limit.”
Looking back on the demanding schedule, RAYE said she was “really happy” with the amount of work she had put in. However, after the album’s release, she wanted “a little bit more balance”, with a greater emphasis on performances and time to rest.
The singer also stressed that the pressure had largely come from her own ambitions rather than external expectations. She acknowledged that she had willingly committed herself to the project’s considerable scope.
“By the way, like, I was the one who chose to make an album like this, and I was the one who had all these ambitious goals and ideas for it, and things I wanted to do and achieve.”
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