Corinne Bailey Rae keeps busy

Touring miles from home can be a stressful business, but one Brit babe who seems to have coped with it all is Corinne Bailey Rae.

The 28-year-old singer from Leeds has been one busy lady making sure audiences in America definitely put her records on. For the last few months she has been touring the US with John Legend.

For other British artists, such as Lily Allen, it's not always easy being so far from home, but Bailey Rae said she's managed just fine.

Speaking at the Ivor Novello Awards, she said: "I've been touring with this band for so long that you become like friends, like family. You're close to people. My backing singers have been sleeping over in my double bed watching DVDs for the whole tour."

Meanwhile, there were also rumours doing the rounds that Ms Bailey had landed the lead role in Aretha Franklin's upcoming biographical musical. But it doesn't look like that will be happening after all.

She said: "I heard that she'd seen a picture of me and thought 'this person would be good to play me in a musical', but I think when she saw me on TV she realised that we didn't really look that similar in real life."

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