Grammy Award-winning singer Corinne Bailey Rae is preparing a new stage in her career and is coming to Portugal to present her next album, Black Rainbows, in which she explores surprising and original musical ideas.
In 2005, Corinne Bailey Rae introduced herself to the world with the classic – and appropriate – “Like a Star” and, the following year, she took the whole planet by storm with the best invitation of all: “Put Your Records On”. In fact, millions all over the planet put her record on, turning the eponymous Corinne Bailey Rae into a mega hit that sold more than 4 million copies worldwide. Her name has become synonymous with sophistication, soul and good taste. Good news: in 2023, Corinne Bailey Rae is back with an incredible new album entitled Black Rainbows. With a release date set for September, this new work has already been scheduled for Portugal, as one of the headline concerts in Misty Fest’s 2023 programme.
Corinne released new albums in 2010 and 2016, but the new album, which has been carefully prepared for the last decade, is an ambitious conceptual work that promises to make its way onto the lists of this year’s best records. Inspired by the works of Chicago artist Theaster Gates, who has made a name for himself in the world of contemporary art for the way he rethinks abandoned spaces. Corinne found his work at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago and was blown away: “When I walked through those doors, I knew my life had changed forever,” says Bailey Rae. “Getting involved with these archives and finding Theaster Gates and his practice changed the way I think about myself as an artist and what the possibilities are for my work. This music came about through seeing. For me, seeing has been like listening. While I was watching, the songs/sounds appeared”.
From this impact came a dense album of marvellous songs – starting with the first single, “New York Transit Queen”, a lesson in energy that seems to draw on the spirit of punk (that’s right) to make an affirmation of power in the present. There’s also a book, Reflections/Refractions, in collaboration with photographer Koto Bolofo, and, above all, a new show, which opens in Chicago at the beginning of September and then goes on a US tour before reaching the UK and Spain. Portugal will be the next stage in this tour in which Corinne Bailey Rae once again claims a prominent place in the present.