Flip A Switch
by Raye

Album: My 21st Century Blues (2023)
Charted: 35
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Songfacts®:

  • "To flip a switch" means to turn something on or off, or to make a sudden change. In this moody, nocturnal song, Raye asserts her swagger as she sings about moving on from a broken romance. She is going to "flip a switch" and change her life, not let anyone hurt her again.
  • Raye details getting lit at night, living it up in the club with Hennessy in hand. If her ex tries to hit her up, she's gonna pretend she's dead to get him off her back. Raye warns him not to mess with her because she'll flip a switch and turn into a boss bitch who won't take any crap. She's rocking black heels and shades, looking fierce and unstoppable.

    "I was in a budding relationship, and I had just decided to let my walls down," Raye told Apple Music. "I felt it was safe, and then it was like, bang. I would have been fine if [he] hadn't given me all this false hope. I was so angry, and it was like, 'You know what! This song is going to be about you now. Let's get all the drama out.' It was very empowering and me saying all the things that I would love to say to his face. But instead, I just put it in the song and proceeded to listen to it all week."
  • Raye recorded "Flip a Switch" for her debut album, My 21st Century Blues, released on February 3, 2023. Raye wrote half of the songs years earlier and she reworked them for the album. She penned this song in the mid-2010s when she was 18.

    "In the studio, it was just me and Mike Sabath – one of my best friends who I produced the whole album with," she told Nylon. "Together, we listened to my old demos again, experimented with my new texts... It was like assembling the fragments of a broken mirror to recompose the story."
  • Raye wrote the song with Stephen "Di Genius" McGregor, the son of the reggae singer Freddie McGregor. They teamed up to create a cross-stitch of guitar and electronics that blends perfectly with a dancehall beat - it's both delicate and tough at the same time. "He produced so many of the songs I grew up listening to, so he really brought his flair and flavors to the sound," said Raye.

    McGregor's resumé includes Sean Paul's "So Fine," Nelly Furtado's "Don't Leave Me" and Fuse ODG's "Dangerous Love."
  • Raye released a remix with a new verse by American rapper Coi Leray on April 21, 2023.

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