The eldest of three daughters, Corinne Bailey Rae was born in Leeds, West Yorkshire, to an English mother, Linda, and a father from Saint Kitts and Nevis. Following her parents' separation, both sisters pursued the arts, with her younger sister, Rhea Bailey, becoming a successful actress.
Bailey Rae first encountered music through church. She initially sang at a Plymouth Brethren congregation before moving to a Baptist church where the youth leader encouraged teenagers to form bands and write their own worship songs. The same youth leader offered to lend Rae money for her first guitar, a gesture she has credited with cementing her desire to make music. At school she also studied classical violin.
By her mid-teens Rae had fallen under the spell of classic rock artists like Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. At 15 she formed an all-female indie band called Helen, which built a modest following around Leeds before disbanding when the bassist became pregnant.
Rae went on to study English Literature at the University of Leeds. During this period, she balanced academic work with a string of jobs, including shifts as a cloakroom attendant at a local jazz club. The job proved pivotal: it exposed her to jazz musicians and was where she met saxophonist Jason Rae, who became her first husband. She also worked at the Clock Café in the Hyde Park area of Leeds and at the Underground bar. Despite sometimes finishing work at 4 a.m. before sitting a 9 a.m. exam, she graduated with a 2:1 degree. The jazz club environment helped shape her songwriting, blending jazz influences with her earlier indie and rock inspirations.
Rae's self-titled debut album was released in February 2006 and debuted at #1 in the UK, making her only the fourth female British act to achieve that feat with a debut. The album went on to sell more than 4 million copies worldwide and produced the international hit "
Put Your Records On."
"I had spent years with my band without much recognition,"
she told Billboard. "This was my first record, and it felt like an incredible leap from obscurity to success."
In 2008 Rae won a Grammy as a featured artist on
River: The Joni Mitchell Letters by Herbie Hancock, which took home Album of the Year. She picked up another Grammy when
her cover of Bob Marley's "Is This Love" won Best R&B Performance in 2012.
Speaking about her distinctive, conversational vocal style, she told Billboard: "Artists like Björk and Martina Topley Bird opened doors for me, making me realize there are various ways to express oneself vocally. It didn't have to conform to the Mariah Carey-style of singing."
Corinne married Jason Rae in 2001, and he served as her manager during the early years of her career. On March 22, 2008, when he was 31, Jason was found dead at a flat in the Hyde Park area of Leeds. A coroner ruled his death accidental, caused by a combination of methadone and alcohol.
Jason had been a member of the funk band The Haggis Horns, who had worked as a backing act for Amy Winehouse.
Bailey Rae's second album, The Sea (2010), was written in response to her husband's death. It remains her most emotionally raw work, with Corinne writing all the songs herself and co-producing the entire record.
In the years following Jason Rae's death, her longtime friend, pianist and producer Steve Brown, supported her through her grief. Their relationship gradually developed into a romance; they married in 2013 and had two daughters together.
Her 2016 album
The Heart Speaks in Whispers charts her emotional recovery and the unexpected joy of falling in love again with Steve Brown. The single "
Hey, I Won't Break Your Heart" from that album speaks directly to themes of vulnerability, trust, and new love.
Outside of music, Bailey Rae enjoys cooking and often prepares meals from scratch, favoring vegetables, fish, and roasted dishes while searching markets for unusual ingredients.
Bailey Rae has a strong interest in visual art, which influenced her 2023 album Black Rainbows. The album was inspired by a visit to an art archive in Chicago, and reflects her long-standing fascination with art and cultural history.
In 2026 she published a children's picture book titled Put Your Records On, named after her hit song. Inspired by Bailey Rae's desire to communicate music's emotional power to young readers, the book follows a girl named Bea who discovers her great aunt Portia's record collection and learns there is a song for every feeling.
