Corinne Bailey Rae on her nomadic lifestyle, racial identity and pregnancy |
Corinne Bailey Rae on her nomadic lifestyle, racial identity and pregnancy
gal-dem
2017-10-16
If youâre a voracious reader, youâll know something about being drawn into worlds that arenât your own. Itâs a tantalising prospect, especially for introverts. What I discovered earlier this year, is that singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae has the same magical quality as an enchanting novel. Itâs a strange idea but bear with me, because if youâre lucky enough to meet her and spend time with her, to listen to her music, youâll understand what I mean. Her world, soundtracked by sweet, soulful vocals, a picked guitar and stretching across oceans thanks to her nomadic lifestyle, has just a pinch of magic â black girl magic. Sheâs created it in her image.
Bailey Rae was part of the soundtrack of my youth (her debut came out when I was 12), but thanks to her ageless looks itâs difficult to believe sheâs not just a couple of years older. Growing up in Scotland as a mixed-race girl amongst a blisteringly white population, she offered something that I didnât realise I needed. Her image was attainable and aspirational. Here was a black, mixed-race British woman making beautiful music with her hair in natural curls, and the type of expressiveness that made her immediately relatable. I sang three of Bailey Raeâs songs (âLike a Starâ, âTill it happens To Youâ and âChoux Pastry Heartâ) from her eponymous debut album Corinne Bailey Rae for my music exams â A*âs you know â and, like everyone else during the summer of 2006, had her huge hit âPut Your Records Onâ playing on repeat for months…
…From earlier conversations I know that Bailey Rae is interested and articulate on the topic of race. She was enamoured by the Kerry James Marshall exhibition in LA and recommends to me a book by Nell Irvin Painter, on the history of white people. âMy dad had come from the Caribbean, but he didnât talk to me a lot about racism which I think was a deliberate thing because he wanted to protect us,â she says about her childhood. âHe didnât want to suggest this sort of inherent thing [âŚ] And then my mum was very engaged. I learnt about South Africa and apartheid.â
Although she admits that she and her sisters would âpick the peas out of our rice and peasâ, and didnât necessarily know their black Caribbean nanaâs culture âas well as we should have doneâ, itâs clear that she is very in touch with her blackness. When she performs at AFROPUNK London a few weeks after our interview, a festival which loudly celebrates black culture, Matthew Morgan, the founder of AFROPUNK, tells me that Bailey Rae had been very keen to play. âShe approached me multiple times,â he says. On stage she tells the crowd: âI wish this community had been here for me when I was 15.â Iâm at the front of the audience, screaming every lyric back at her like an embarrassing âstanâ (mega fan).
There are mixed race people on both sides of Bailey Raeâs family â she has âbrown cousinsâ on her mumâs English side as well as her dadâs. When she comments on her cousinâs shades, it reminds me that Iâve read that the term she prefers to use to describe herself is âbrownâ too. âAt first we were brown and then we were half-caste and then mixed-race and then dual-heritage and then it was ok to just be black,â says Bailey Rae, obviously aware of the debate around how mixed-race people should define themselves, but disparaging. âI feel like I donât really have a term if Iâm really honest. Thatâs why I say it [brown] in like an almost silly way. As itâs almost like Iâve been labelled so many different things in the past 38 years that none of them feel familiar or satisfying.â…
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Tags: Charlie B. Cuff, Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff, Charlie Cuff, Corinne Bailey Rae, gal-dem, music