When two Croydon artists collaborate on a track, it is only natural to assume they met in the town or maybe through mutual friends. But that’s not the case with up-and-comer Raye and grime hero Stormzy.

The 18-year-old singer first met the Mobo-winning rapper in, of all places, Sweden.

Raye explained: “I was at his show in Stockholm. I went back-stage and he said to me, 'somebody I really trust told me that you are an alien and you’re the future.” “I was like, wow, I’ve got this track, will you guest on it? He went away and a few hours later he’d nailed it.”

The track is the soulful Ambition, the second release from her upcoming EP Back 2 The Winter, and is far from her first high profile collaboration. She has worked alongside the likes of Labrinth, Emeli

Sande, Charli XCX and Wretch 32.

And ambition is certainly an appropriate title for her single. She said she wants to “take over the world if I can. I’m young and I’ve been given a crazy opportunity and so I don’t see why not, if I work hard enough. I just want to give everything to my music, so it can stand next to the people I love, the music that inspires me every day.”

Your Local Guardian: