Briana Corrigan's bold reason for new music 30 years after Beautiful South fame (2025)

Former Beautiful South singer, Briana Corrigan, has revealed why now was the right time to create new music over 30 years on from her success with the band and tunes like A Little Time

Beautiful South icon Briana Corrigan is ready to make waves with a fantastic new tune 30 years on from her success in the band.

Fans will remember the Belfast-born singer's unique tones on huge hits such as A Little Time. Now, aged 59, Briana has revealed exactly why she feels the time is right for her latest banger.

Briana, who featured alongside Paul Heaton in Beautiful South between 1988 and 1992, admitted in an exclusive chat with the Mirror that she had a "f*** it" moment ahead of her latest release.

She revealed the unlikely link-up with up and coming Yorkshire-based band Apollo Junction for their tune titled Settle Down came about thanks to a hopeful social media message the group sent her. Briana said: "I honestly don't know [why she responded]. It was kind of a 'feely' thing. I just went 'I think I might follow this up.'"

Briana then responded to the band's frontman, Jamie Williamson, before running the track by her son and daughter. "I thought it was good," she confessed.

"And they were both like, 'it's really good', so I thought 'f*** it, you know? Why not? Let's do it."

Briana said the experience was so much fun and an absolute pleasure to be a part of - words that Jamie later echoed as he added: "We never imagined that Briana would be up for it... But then the stars aligned late one night, as we received a reply to our message to her.

"So, we sent her the song, she loved it, we had a long chat on the phone about the song, music, life in general. After that, a flight was booked and we spent a lovely day together in the recording studio.

"Briana is a hero of ours and it is a total honour to have her amazing voice on our song alongside mine. "

Briana went on to say it was a unique way for her collaboration to come about, admitting it's the first time it has happened with her in this way.

She is currently on tour and revealed preparing to write and release another album in the near future following the success of her Irish folk album release in 2019. And she admitted she is loving her return to the industry, adding: "I love coming back to music at this age and being, you know, I just feel like I care really deeply, and I also don't give a f***, you know?

"I think that balance works really, really, really well for me... I walk into this from a real place of joy and that's a great place to be making music from and operating from, really."

She previously took a decade out of the limelight to focus on her family life. Despite initially thinking she would continue with her music career after the birth of her first child, the mum-of-two said: "As I had him it was like my brain completely switched to something entirely different.

"Immediately I thought, I'm not gonna tour anymore. Things had changed. I wanted to be at home. I wanted to just be with the baby. I didn't want to be galavanting off... it wasn't really a choice at that point, I just knew that was the right thing for me."

Briana's current tour starts today, with Settle Down released on Friday.

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