Before winning two Grammys and being nominated for four others, working the coat check was about as close as Corinne Bailey Rae was getting to a stage.She showed us the "little box" she once sat in at the Hi-Fi Club, in Leeds, England: "I mean, I really always wanted to see the bands.
So, being here wasn't great, because you couldn't see exactly, [though] you could hear it," she said.And it was here where a record label would later come to hear her in an audition, performing "Like a Star" with a guitarist.
"Like a Star," her first single, became a hit, as did her second, "Put Your Records On": Maybe sometimes we feel afraid, but it's alright The more you stay the same, the more they seem to change Don't you think it's strange? Girl, put your records on, tell me your favourite song You go ahead, let your hair down Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams Just go ahead, let your hair down You're gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow Its lyrics – music facilitating self-acceptance – have autobiographical notes: "As much as Leeds is a really ethnically-diverse place, you can still feel different as a person who has, you know, a Black parent and a white parent," Bailey Rae said.Growing up, she says, she'd sometimes felt "on the margins." "I really wanted to play the cello, but we didn't have a car.
So, my mum was like, 'What about the one you can carry?' So, I ended up playing the violin, and I really enjoyed that.…"I sort of noticed things like that – like, Oh, we don't have a car.
Oh, we don't have a telephone.We didn't have a lot of money, but it wasn't a sad thing."Initially, Bailey Rae said, she felt "sad" about her voice, "because it had all this texture." But that changed when she heard the voices of Billie Holiday and Kurt Cobain.
"It was like, You are welcome in this space.Their songs don't necessarily have to be, you know, shiny and perfect.
And that just made me feel like I could be in music."The release ...