Former Beautiful South singer, Briana Corrigan, on growing up in Portstewart, imposter syndrome, recording with Apollo Junction, her teaching years as head of rock and pop at a school in the Middle East, and upcoming shows in the Seamus Heaney HomePlace and Belfast

"I’d make up my own little songs and sing myself to sleep from a really, really, early age,” says ​the former Beautiful South singer.

With a voice so spellbindingly beautiful that it “could melt icebergs at 50 paces” (VOX), it’s little wonder the young Briana could lull herself to the land of Nod.

Best known for delivering The Beautiful South’s most successful single, A Little Time, which topped the charts and won a Brit Award, Briana’s unique vocal style and Paul Heaton’s brilliantly acerbic lyrics and catchy melody combined to create an unforgettable anthem to broken love.

As a songwriter in her own right, she has released two critically-acclaimed solo albums, When My Arms Wrap You Round (1996) and Red Bird (2012). And now, after a 10-year hiatus, Briana has made a return to the stage with a handful of intimate shows throughout the UK and Ireland.

Speaking from her home in Dublin, where she lives with husband Miles and has two grown-up children, Briana says she loves being back performing.

"The fans have been amazing. I love singing to people. I could not have imagined in any way that people would like what I was doing so much or still have affection for me from the Beautiful South days.

"The fans just give you such energy to keep going. I’ve just felt so much love.”

Audiences can expect The Beautiful South classics nestled among her own perfectly crafted songs, and some unique takes on traditional favourites, all combining to pack an intimate, heart-warming, emotional, and joyous punch of connection.

“I do think as artists that part of our role in the world is to map emotional territory and express it. I feel like there’s a lot of emotion in the shows and it’s fun as well. People seem to like hearing those Beautiful South songs again. We have a couple of guitars and a cello, so the songs are really differently put together, but they are still The Beautiful South songs.”

Born in 1965, Briana Corrigan grew up Whiteabbey until she was 10, when the family move to Portstewart.

"The North Antrim coast was nearly removed from the rest of Northern Ireland at that time. I very much felt like I’d been rescued, to be honest. It was a literally different world.”

She attended Dominican College, where her mother Rosaleen was a drama teacher, and grew up surrounded by music – playing the piano, trumpet (for a while) and the clarinet.

“I always sang because we were quite a musical family and if there were any kind of gatherings, everybody had to have their song."

She also loved acting and was in a kids theatre company at the Riverside Theatre in Coleraine, alongside James Nesbitt, Mark Carruthers and Jimeoin McKeown.

Later she was involved with the Ulster Youth Theatre under the tutelage of legendary director, Michael Poynor

Annoyingly, despite her love of singing and immaculate voice, Briana never got a lead part in the school choir.

“That used to really, really annoy me,” she laughs.

However, despite this early disappointment she achieved what many young girls can only dream of, joining a famous pop group and singing on Top of the Pops!

While aged 18 and studying for BA in Creative and Performing Arts at university in Newcastle upon Tyne, Briana began singing with The Anthill Runaways. Go! Discs Records, which was considering signing the band, made her an offer to travel to Hull and sing with Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway of The Beautiful South, and formerly of the Hull band, The Housemartins.

“They basically heard a tape of me singing with my own band, and then invited me to come and meet them and potentially to be a singer. I had an audition kind of interview thing, which was basically just sitting in the pub watching Neighbours. There was a small bit of singing and then I got the job.

“Three weeks later I was on a plane to Milan to record, Welcome to the Beautiful South. That was a bit of a learning curve, but a very, very exciting time.”

However, Briana admits she “met impostor syndrome in a big way in Milan".

"I hadn’t a clue what I was doing. I’d been in one poxy little studio in Newcastle recording our first cassette, and then I was in one of the best recording studios in the world in central Milan with The Housemartins, who I used to go and see when I was at college. It was all very surreal and I definitely had major imposter syndrome, with some good reason.”

That self-doubt is, she believes, a “constant companion”.

“You're continually fighting with it. The majority of people that I really respect and love do talk about encountering imposter syndrome every now and again. It's a measure of caring about stuff.”

After four years with the band, and having appearing on three albums, Briana left The Beautiful South in 1992 to pursue a solo career.

“I knew that at some stage I would definitely want to try to do my own stuff, so it just became the right time to go off and try something new.”

Her time with the band culminated in one of the fastest-selling British albums in history, Carry on up the Charts: The Best of the Beautiful South.

Looking back, Briana has fond memories of her days with the chart-toppers.

“It was really such a great turn of events being in the middle of this madness. I learnt so much as a vocalist, as a songwriter, in terms of musicality. Working with someone like Paul, he is just such a melodic writer and such a great writer from every aspect. It was an amazing place to learn my trade. The vocal expectations were high in the band, all that stuff was really important, and a major part of my development."

After she left the band, Briana recorded the solo critically-acclaimed album, When My Arms Wrap You Round, in 1996. Later, a spell abroad saw her discover her passion for teaching, winning the post of head of Rock and Pop at the renowned British School Al Khubairat in Abu Dhabi, where she taught until 2022.

"My friends would just laugh and go, ‘that isn't a real job, is it, Brianna?”

However, going to live thousands of miles away in the capital of the United Arab Emirates wasn’t by choice, but by necessity.

“I didn't want to leave Ireland, I was really happy, but my husband was made redundant, the crash had happened, and there was just no work for him. He got offered a job in Abu Dhabi, but I was very reticent. Then, eventually, you realise nothing's changing here and after about a year or so, myself and the two kids went out and joined him. Ultimately it’s about family and I didn’t want the kids growing up without their dad."

She said the Middle East was not at all what she had expected.

"It was just such a different experience. If you think about Persia, it is the home of poetry. There's deep art, artistry in the culture there. I met some amazing people and amazing musicians.”

Briana recently recorded a super-catchy song called Settle Down with Leeds band, Apollo Junction, after they reached out to her on social media.

"I don’t ever respond to those requests, but for some reason this time, I thought why not.

"It was just a gut thing, an instinct. I jumped on a plane and we recorded it.”

After the tour winds up, she's planning to record a new record in the summer.

"That's really exciting. I've been doing quite a lot of collaborations over the last while. It feels like a real treat.”

Fans are also in for a treat as Briana plays two hotly anticipated shows in Northern Ireland next week: April 25, Seamus Heaney HomePlace, Belllaghy; and April 26, Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, Belfast.

Visit brianacorrigan.com for more information