Corinne Bailey Rae says Lily Allen started a campaign to portray her as "boring" person

Corinne Bailey Rae claimed that Lily Allen started a "campaign" against her, which kicked off her "boring" reputation. The Put Your Records On singer got candid about how she was widely dismissed in the early years of her career in an interview with The Independent, published on September 5, 2024.

She said that the UK reporters and at least one of her fellow singers, Lily Allen, had considered her uninteresting. She mentioned:

"I was just seen as boring. I remember Lily Allen started this campaign against me, 'Oh Corinne is so middle of the road.' She had started talking about me like that, but I wasn't going to engage in [any back and forth]."

For the unversed, Rae referred to Lily Allen's old interview with The Mirror UK dated February 12, 2007, where the latter criticized her music. Allen was quoted calling Corinne Bailey Rae a "bit boring" in the article and also saying that she didn't think her music stood out.

"Corinne Bailey Rae? I think she's a bit boring, sorry," Allen said.

Both singers were nominated for Best Female Solo Artist at the Brit Awards at the time. Talking about the same, Allen didn't hold back to say that she would be annoyed if Rae won.

In her recent interview, Rae added that she didn't want to bother with Allen's comments. It was fine, she said, because Stevie Wonder liked her.

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Corinne Bailey Rae said her uninteresting reputation changed after her husband died

In the same The Independent interview, Corinne Bailey Rae explained the turning point of her "boring" and "uninteresting" reputation. It was when her husband Jason passed away, which caught the fascination of the British press and the public. She said:

"It was a drug-related death and so suddenly everyone was so interested in me. There were rows of photographers outside the house."

The interest in her life was so much that she recalled receiving a note under her door with a message from a journalist, saying that if she wanted to talk, just to call the number attached. The singer-songwriter added that she kept to herself and refused to give the press any statement, which "totally infuriated them."

Elsewhere in the interview, Corinne Bailey Rae explained how her mellow lifestyle had kept her away from the front pages. She said that what the press wanted then was to see women "falling out of bars and clubs" and that she was "very much in the shadows" when it came to that kind of lifestyle.

Rae claimed that the way she presented herself to the public had allowed the press to "infantilize" her and make her seem like a "young, innocent girl." She recalled receiving plenty of reviews that highlighted her mellow persona, including a 2006 New York Times critic who called the singer-songwriter "incapable of doing anything crass or deviant or bombastic."

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In related news, Rae recently released her brand new single SilverCane, which she said is part of her Black Rainbows project.