b. Corinne Bailey, 26 February 1979, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Blues/soul singer Bailey Rae emerged in 2006 as one of the most heralded new UK vocalists of the new millennium. The commercial success of her debut album quickly justified the accolades, despite the harping of some critics that the songs failed to live up to the hype.
The young Corinne Bailey studied violin at school but also sang in her local church. Her early musical inspirations were drawn from the world of indie and rock, and when she was still at school she helped found the all-female rock group Helen. The unit signed a deal with metal imprint Roadrunner Records in the mid-90s, but fell apart after one of the members left to have a baby. Bailey temporarily put music to one side to study English Literature at the University of Leeds. Here she began listening to jazz and soul and met her future husband, saxophonist Jason Rae.
At the start of the new millennium, Bailey got married (changing her surname to Bailey Rae) and began a second attempt at a music career. She collaborated with a number of Leeds-based funk and soul groups, before being approached by Mark Hill (aka the Artful Dodger) to perform on his new project, the Stix. Rae’s contribution to the Stix’s 2005 release Better Luck Next Time was enough to secure a major label recording contract with the EMI Records imprint Good Groove. She made an immediate impact with a series of live shows and television appearances, with the buzz centring on her smooth, pitch-perfect singing voice. Her debut single, ‘Like A Star’, was released as a limited edition in November 2005, and managed to break into the lower regions of the UK charts despite its scarcity. Her first full release, the delightful ‘Put Your Records On’, confirmed Rae’s ascendancy, debuting at number 2 in the charts in February 2006. Her self-titled debut album followed later in the month. Rae’s vocals were never less than sublime throughout the course of the album, despite the music at times lapsing into soul inspired blandness. The album was also a major success in the USA, reaching the mainstream Top 5 at the start of 2007.
