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Corinne Bailey Rae (born Corinne Jacqueline Bailey on 26 February 1979) is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist from Leeds, West Yorkshire. Bailey Rae was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2006 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2006. She released her debut album, Corinne Bailey Rae, in February 2006, and became the fourth female British act in history to have her first album debut at number one. In 2007, Bailey Rae was nominated for three Grammy Awards and three Brit Awards, and won two MOBO Awards. In 2008, she won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year (for her work as a featured artist in Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters).
Bailey Rae released her second album, The Sea, on 26 January 2010, after a hiatus of almost three years. It was produced by Steve Brown and Steve Chrisanthou (who produced her debut album in 2006). She was nominated for the 2010 Mercury Prize for Album of the Year. In 2012, she won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance (for "Is This Love)". Bailey Rae was married to fellow musician Jason Rae from 2001 until his death in 2008, and as part of the grieving process, she channelled her emotions into her music. Her two albums have together sold over five million copies worldwide.
Bailey Rae was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, to a Kittitian father and an English mother, as the oldest of three daughters, including her siblings, Candice Bailey and actress Rhea Bailey.
Bailey Rae began her musical career at school, where she studied classical violin before she turned her attention to singing: "I started off singing in church, I suppose, but people think it must have been a gospel church because of the whole, you know, black assumption," she said in reference to her multi-racial background... "But it wasn't gospel at all, it was just your regular Brethren church, very middle-class, where we would sing these harmonies every Sunday. It was always my favourite part of the service, the singing." Bailey Rae later transferred to a Baptist church, where the youth leader coached rock bands in the local high school. The church's young people wrote their own worship songs and sang covers of songs by Primal Scream. "We changed the words though," Bailey Rae states on her website. "We didn't want to offend the regular churchgoers." She recorded two albums with the youth group under the name of Revive. Performing in church broadened Bailey Rae's musical horizons, and her love for making music was solidified after the church youth leader offered to lend her the money for her first guitar. In her mid-teens, she was highly influenced by Lenny Kravitz, also discovering rock legends Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. "I loved that band during my teens; I wanted, somehow, to follow in their footsteps, and to create music of my own."
Bailey Rae formed an indie group called Helen, which was inspired by similar acts such as Veruca Salt and L7. "It was the first time I'd seen women with guitars. They were kinda sexy—but feminist. I wanted to be like that, at the front of something." The group raised eyebrows on several fronts; in the white male-dominated world of indie music, they were a mainly female group, fronted by a mixed-race singer from Leeds. The group played many gigs around Leeds and, whilst unable to attract offers from any UK labels, were eventually approached by US-based heavy metal record label Roadrunner Records, home to acts such as Slipknot, in 1998. This deal disappeared before it was even signed, however, after the bassist became pregnant and the group disbanded. " Disappointed? I was gutted! I had no idea what to do next."
Bailey Rae studied English Literature at the University of Leeds where she graduated in 2000. While at University, she began work as a hat check girl on an evening in her local jazz club. Permitted to sing on stage with the jazz band, when business was slow, it was there that she discovered a different type of music that sent her on a different musical path: "I kept hearing this jazz and soul stuff and I realised I loved that music too".
Corinne Bailey met Scottish-born Jason Rae in a jazz club in Leeds where she had a part-time job as a cloakroom attendant. She married him in 2001, at the age of twenty-two and changed her name to Bailey Rae. Jason Rae (born in 1976), a musician, played saxophone for the eight-piece group called Haggis Horns, and had recorded with Amy Winehouse, Bailey Rae, The New Mastersounds and Martina Topley-Bird (Quixotic) albums. On 22 March 2008, Jason Rae was found dead in a flat in the Hyde Park area of Leeds. In December 2008, Leeds Coroner's Court gave a verdict of death by misadventure, and stated that Rae had died of an accidental overdose of methadone and alcohol.
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