Bailey Rae formed an 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 played many gigs around Leeds and, whilst unable to attract offers from any UK labels, were eventually approached by US-based heavy metal record label Roadrunner Records, home to acts such as Slipknot, in 1998. This deal disappeared before it was even signed, however, after the bassist became pregnant and the group disbanded. “[Was I] Disappointed? I was gutted! I had no idea what to do next.”

Corinne Bailey studied English Language & Literature at the University of Leeds where she graduated in 2000. While at university, she began work as a hat check girl on an evening in her local jazz club where she met Scottish-born Jason Rae. When she married Rae in 2001 at the age of 22, she changed her name to Bailey Rae. Jason Rae (born in 1976), a musician, played saxophone for the eight-piece group called Haggis Horns, and had also recorded on albums with his wife Bailey Rae, Amy Winehouse, the New Mastersounds and Martina Topley-Bird (Quixotic).

In the three years after she married her first husband, Bailey Rae 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 the New Mastersounds on the track “Your Love Is Mine,” featured on their 2003 album Be Yourself, released via One Note Records. The following year she again worked with another Leeds-based group, Home cut Directive, on the song “Come the Revolution”, which was the first single from the group’s debut album.

In 2004, Bailey Rae got a breakthrough when she was signed by Global Talent Publishing and then approached by Craig David’s mentor Mark Hill, from the duo 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 Bailey Rae to the attention of the major record label bosses.

Bailey Rae released her debut single, “Like a Star”, in November 2005 and her first album, Corinne Bailey Rae, in February 2006. It debuted at number one in the UK and entered the top ten of the U.S.Billboard 200, peaking at number four and spending 71 weeks in the chart from 2006 to 2008. According to Nielsen SoundScan, the album sold 1.9 million copies in the United States alone.

The lead single, “Like a Star” became a hit in the UK and US, and sold over 327,000 US downloads. Follow-up single “Put Your Records On”, her biggest hit to date, rose to number two in the UK, and sold over 945,000 US downloads. “Trouble Sleeping” made the top forty, and “I’d Like To”, the top seventy. In the middle of 2006, Bailey Rae embarked on her first international tour through Europe and North America with R&B singer John Legend, playing 55 shows including the festivals Rock in Rio Lisboa 2 and Live Earth. In early April 2006, Corinne Bailey Rae was certified 2x platinum by the BPI and platinum by the RIAA in December. In September 2006, Bailey Rae scooped two awards at the UK’s MOBO Awards: “Best UK Newcomer” and “Best UK Female”. Bailey Rae recorded a live session at Abbey Road Studios in July 2006 for Live from Abbey Road.

Bailey Rae was the musical guest in a 2006 episode of Saturday Night Live with the host being Jaime Pressly. She performed “Put Your Records On” and “Like a Star”. She also appeared on Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on the episode “B-12”, which aired in November 2006, with Howie Mandel. She performed “Like a Star” and “Trouble Sleeping”. Also in 2006, Bailey Rae performed on BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge with the songs “Like a Star”, a cover version of Editors’ “Munich”, and a cover version of Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack”.

Also in 2007, Bailey Rae accepted an invitation to participate in Goin’ Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino (Vanguard Records), where she contributed her version of Domino’s “One Night (of Sin)”. She also recorded John Lennon’s “I’m Losing You” for Make Some Noise, Amnesty International’s music venture. The song was also released on the 2007 John Lennon tribute album, “Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur”. In July of that year, Bailey Rae performed at the UK leg of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium, London.

On 22 March 2008, Jason Rae was found dead in a flat in the Hyde Park area of Leeds. In December 2008, Leeds Coroner’s Court gave a verdict of death by misadventure, and stated that Rae had died of an accidental overdose of methadone and alcohol. The methadone had been prescribed to a friend who was recovering from an addiction to heroin. Commenting on her husband’s death, Bailey Rae stated, “He was impulsive, I guess. He liked to have a drink, have fun. It could easily have turned out to be one of those stupid, drunken things you do that you get to talk about afterwards…It’s unbelievable that this one didn’t turn out like that, that this was the drunken, curious thing that went wrong.”

In 2008, Like a Star was nominated for a Grammy for Song of the Year. Bailey Rae won in two categories for Album of the Year and Best Contemporary Jazz Album for her collaboration on River: The Joni Letters. Also in 2008, she recorded a live session of “River” with Hancock at Abbey Road Studios in for Live from Abbey Road for Channel 4 which was broadcast on Series 2.

In December 2009, Bailey Rae recorded a live performance in New York City that was broadcast in the summer of 2010 on the US television program Live From the Artists Den.

Corinne Bailey Rae released her new album titled The Sea on 26 January 2010, four years after the release of her first album and almost two years following the death of her husband Jason Rae. The lead single “I’d Do It All Again” premiered on 25 November 2009 on Later… with Jools Holland. The follow-up single “Closer” was added to Smooth Jazz Radio on 25 January, Urban AC on 1 February and AC radio in late February. The album’s second single “Paris Nights and New York Mornings” went to Triple-A radio on 15 February. Around the release of the second album, Bailey Rae did a run of promotional shows in the UK, Europe and US, she embarked on her second world tour, The Sea Tour, with 82 concerts, and had a gross profit of $19 million. The tour visited the UK, Europe, the US (Spring and Summer) Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the Middle East. The tour began on 27 February 2010 in London and her last show was on 10 March 2011 in Korea. Her summer concert in London at Somerset House sold out, and she returned to London again in October to perform in Royal Festival Hall with Pete Lawrie as a supporting act.

On 2 June 2010, Bailey Rae appeared with Herbie Hancock, singing “Blackbird” in a concert honouring Paul McCartney in the East Room of the White House.

Bailey Rae made an appearance as a musical guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on 28 October 2010, covering the Bob Marley song “Is This Love”.

On 25 January 2011, Bailey Rae released an EP, The Love EP, with five recordings of love songs, including Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover”, Bob Marley’s “Is This Love” and Paul McCartney & Wings’ “My Love”. The EP debuted at number 86 on the Billboard 200 and still managed the Top 20 in Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The EP has sold 15,000 copies in the U.S. The first single, “Is This Love”, won Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance at 54th Grammy Awards.

On 14 July 2011, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Leeds where she had studied as an undergraduate.

Bailey Rae is the special ambassador for the charity Cord. She is also the central ambassador for the international water and sanitation charity Pump Aid. In September 2012, she was featured in a campaign called “30 Songs/30 Days” to support Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, a multi-platform media project inspired by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s book.

In 2013, Bailey Rae married her longtime friend, producer and jazz musician Steve Brown. As of September 2020 the couple have two daughters

In 2013, Bailey Rae was moved from Capitol Records to Virgin Records due to corporate restructuring as a result of their parent company being purchased by Universal Music Group in 2012.

On 14 February 2016, Bailey Rae presented her comeback into music by sharing a snippet of her new single. On 26 February, Bailey Rae announced the title of her third album, The Heart Speaks in Whispers, which was released on 13 May 2016. The lead single off the album, “Been to the Moon”, was also released.

On 17 November 2016, Bailey Rae joined other artists in tributes to Smokey Robinson at his 2016 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize award ceremony in Washington D.C.; she sang “Ooo Baby Baby”.

In 2017, Corinne Bailey Rae recorded “The Scientist” (originally recorded by Coldplay) for the opening title sequence for Universal Pictures’ Fifty Shades Darker which opened 10 February. The track is featured on the Fifty Shades Darker Soundtrack, which released the same day.

In 2019, Bailey Rae was scheduled to perform on the main Center Park space at Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage festival in Central Park in June, along with Emily King, Big Freedia and other artists. She also announced that she’ll be touring in UK, Europe and US on the same year, beginning from 2 June to 18 November.

Bailey Rae was invited to contribute a selection to a Tom Waits tribute album that was released in late 2019, Come On Up to the House: Women Sing Waits. She chose to record “Jersey Girl”, which is also associated with Bruce Springsteen who covered the song in 1984.