LAST NIGHT A RECORD CHANGED MY LIFE
Corinne Bailey Rae
The Leeds soul adventurer adores Björk’s Debut (One Little Indian, 1993).
I was 14, watching TV late at night, and the video for Björk’s Big Time Sensuality came on. It was black and white, and this woman was dancing on the back of a lorry. She had her hair up in a way I’d never seen a white woman wear her hair, and I was really fascinated by this kind of girlish womanhood she had, you know? The model I’d seen for womanhood was, sexy-sexy-time the whole time, divorced from anything to do with childhood. And her voice was exceptional. I’d always loved singing, but around me the singing that had been celebrated was Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, full of all these massively soulful runs, or something straight, like Madonna. And here’s Björk, turning words inside out. I remember being in the bathroom and just thinking, What did I just see? Almost like, Is this a way that I could be? It was mind blowing.