"Secrets" is a song by Kosovo-Albanian disc jockey Regard and English singer and songwriter Raye from the latter's debut mini-album, Euphoric Sad Songs (2020). The song was written by Regard, Raye, Johan Lenox, John Hill, Jordan Asher Cruz, Kennedi Lykken and Stephen Feigenbaum, and produced by Regard, Hill and Lenox. It was released as a single for digital download and streaming by Ministry of Sound on 24 April 2020. An English-language deep and retro-sounding club, house and R&B song, it touches on the theme of secrets and someone who has something to hide. Upon release, "Secrets" received critical acclaim from music critics, many of whom applauded the music, production and Raye's vocal delivery. At the 2021 Brit Awards, the song received a nomination in the category for the Song of the Year. The song entered the top 10, among others, in Bulgaria, Croatia, Ireland, Poland, Scotland and the United Kingdom, and received multiple gold certifications in various countries as well as platinum in Australia, Poland and the UK. An accompanying music video premiered on 19 June 2020, depicting the journey of masked motorcyclist, who is drawn to a mysterious location before being chased down by an unknown pursuer.
Background and composition
"Secrets" was written by Regard, Raye, Johan Lenox, John Hill, Jordan Asher Cruz, Kennedi Lykken and Stephen Feigenbaum, and produced by Regard, Hill and Lenox. The song was released as a single for digital download and streaming by Ministry of Sound in various territories on 24 April 2020. Musically, it is an English-language deep and retro-sounding club, house and R&B song. Accompanied by a "catchy" and "calm" melody, it contains a refined production, consisting of a playful, catchy and quiet-described beat with a funky bass line. Lyrically, the song touches on the theme of secrets, as Raye sings about someone who has something to hide. Regarding their collaboration, Raye stated: "I'd written the top line [of 'Secrets'], to a completely different song, with the same lyrics and melody, and it was a lot slower [...] I sent it to [Regard], and he sped it up, gave it a whole new chord thing, put these instruments in, gave it this crazy drop. He like, reignited what was a slow R&B song and made it into some rejuvenated sexy, pop-dance banger." In a 2021 "#SongwriterSaturday" interview with Kim Taylor Bennett of Spotify, Raye mentioned that she had "so much respect" for Regard for allowing her to have a co-lead artist credit on "Secrets" after feeling overlooked as a featured artist on dance songs in the past.
Reception
Upon release, "Secrets" was met with critical acclaim from music critics. For Songtexte.com, Ramona highlighted Raye's vocal delivery and the song's production, and continued writing that "[the song] will heat up the dance floor at home during Corona and the dance floor in the club after Corona, properly". While Anna Sky Hulton from Planet Radio labelled the song an "amazing dancefloor filler", Ale Mancinelli from EDM Lab wrote that "['Secrets'] keeps some similarities with the sounds of ['Ride It'], however, [it] maintains originality and appeal". Writing for Radio FG, Jean-Baptiste Blandin viewed the song as a "powerful track [...] which has everything to become the new hit of the summer". Commercially, "Secrets" reached the top 10 in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Croatia, Czech Republic, Ireland, Poland, Scotland and the United Kingdom, and also entered the top 50 in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands and Slovakia. It further reached number eight on the Billboard US Dance/Electronic Songs chart. The song attained gold certifications in Austria, Belgium, France and Mexico as well as platinum in Australia, Poland and the UK. The song also appeared on several best songs of 2020 year-end lists, including ones published by Amazon Music and Tidal. In 2021, "Secrets" received a nomination in the category for the Song of the Year at the Brit Awards.