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Corinne Bailey was born in 1979, the eldest of three daughters. She 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 says in reference to her mixed-race 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." Corinne later transferred to a Baptist church, where the choir alternated between traditional hymns and the slightly less orthodox Primal Scream wig-outs. "We changed the words though," explains Corinne. "We didn't want to offend the regular churchgoers, now did we?"
Performing in church broadened Corinne's musical horizons, and her love affair with making music was solidified after a local youth leader offered to buy her an electric guitar. In her mid-teens, Corinne became obsessed with rock legends Led Zeppelin, "I loved that band during my teens," she says. "I wanted, somehow, to follow in their footsteps, and to create music of my own." When she was just 15 she went someway to realising her dreams when she formed an all female 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 an all female group fronted by a mixed race singer from Leeds. Their name - Helen - also drew attention, albeit for not all the right reasons: "I know, I know," she says in defence. "What can I say? We were 15 years old, and thought that Helen was a cheeky, indie kind of thing to do. It seemed clever at the time." She smiles. "Admittedly, it seems less so now." Despite this, the group became the first indie act to be signed to heavy metal record label Roadrunner Records, home to acts such as Slipknot, in 1995. The venture proved to be short-lived however after the bassist became pregnant and the group disbanded. "(Was I) Disappointed? I was gutted! I had no idea what to do next
After the disappointment of Helen, Corinne went on to attend The University of Leeds where she studied an English Literature degree. Whilst at University, she began work as a hatcheck 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 Corinne 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." It was there also that Corinne met a saxophone player called Jason Rae, whom she eventually married in 2001 at the age of 22, "I was Corinne Bailey. I added on Rae, my husband's name, when I got married," she says with laughter, "there's no hyphen - stops it being posh!"
Over the space of the next three years, Corinne began working on solo material - this time steering away from her indie past and embarking on a more soulful path. She collaborated with Leeds-based funk group, New Mastersounds, on the track "Your Love Is Mine", which she wrote with the group and was released via One Note Records. The following year she again worked with another Leeds based group, Homecut Directive, on the song "Come The Revolution" which was the first single from the group's debut album. However, it wasn't until late 2004 that Corinne got a breakthrough when she was approached by Craig David mentor Mark Hill, formally known as The Artful Dodger, to appear on his new album "Better Luck Next Time" under his new alias, "The stiX". The resulting collaboration, "Young and Foolish" was released in April 2005 and brought Corinne to the attention of the major record label bosses.
