RAYE and the husband comeback

London-born singer RAYE has claimed the primary primary single of 2026 with ‘WHERE IS MY HUSBAND!’ The funk/soul hit has gone viral on TikTok and exploded globally.

Many Christians lament that marriage rates are still falling and casual relationships can feel pervasive. Vogue has also announced that it’s now ‘embarrassing’ to have a boyfriend. So why in an era of individualism is a song literally ‘praying’ for commitment so successful?

Perhaps it reflects the incontrovertible fact that young adults are actually the loneliest generation. RAYE vocalises this pain as she sings, ‘I’m doing lonely acrobatics, unzipping my dress at 2am / ​And I’m bored with living like this / If [my husband] doesn’t find me now I’m gonna die alone.’ Millennials and Gen Z reside the hangover to the individualist party that kicked off within the Sixties. The flipside to the ‘freedom’ of individualism is isolation – while you don’t commit to others, they don’t commit to you, either. Maybe marriage has something to supply in spite of everything.

Not just any marriage, though – marriage done right. RAYE wants the love her parents have. They met at church and the singer has recently found her way back to faith. She told Vogue that she thanks them for ‘allowing me to grow up seeing how beautiful love can look… Through the tough times they fight, but then they pray it out. I actually have an incredible example of what I’d like to at some point find for myself.’

RAYE says she wants ‘quaint’ love, but where is it? Millions of girls are singing along along with her, ‘Where the hell is my husband?!’

Husbands – you’re trending! Your monogamous, day-in-day-out, often unglamourous love is being celebrated and idolised. So if that’s you, keep at it.

Paul calls husbands to ‘love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her’ (Ephesians 5:25).

May you see the worth in your mundane commuting, cleansing, earning, encouraging, and caring.

In society, your loved ones work alleviates poverty, improves education, and strengthens mental health. It’s also a prophetic sign for this lonely generation of the love Christ has for them.

If you’re not a husband, how will you support and have fun the husbands you understand? And how can all of us mentor the younger generation, particularly men, to provide them a contagious vision of godly marriage – as RAYE’s parents did for her?

Kezia Martin is Digital Communications Executive on the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC). This article was first published on the LICC website and re-printed here with permission.