About Corlea
Corlea’s talent was discovered at the age of three, made her first solo appearance at the age of five and recorded her first demo at the age of nine.
Now in her 27th year of a phenomenal career, Corlea has recorded five solo albums, five project albums, one live album and one wildly successful live DVD, with a second online project on the way.
She has been described by the late Hugh Masekela (who produced her 2005 solo Album Shades of the Rainbow), as “nothing short of wondrous.”
Corlea has performed and collaborated with renowned artists on stage and vocally, spanning across every imaginable genre.
She has been an anchor artist for Afrikaans is Groot since its inception in 2012, with audiences of more than 90 000 annually.
She also forms part of the creative team behind the equally successful show, Classics / Classics is groot, that launched in 2016.
In 2017, Corlea was invited to perform at the iconic New York jazz club, Birdland. She performed with their famous trio, headed by award-winning composer, arranger, vocalist, and jazz pianist, Billy Stritch.
In 2018, Corlea travelled to Belgium as South African ambassador and was the only foreigner to perform at the Vlaams Nationaal Zangfeest, launching the new Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniging (FAK) Songbook.
Corlea releases a radio single, Breek my hart, which hit the number 1 spot on both the local and international charts on Jacaranda FM.
In 2019, Corlea featured as a judge on the popular ViaTV show, Die Kontrak, sharing her experience and knowledge of the the music industry that she has built up in her career spanning over two decades.
She instantly became the fan favorite, and was been invited back for season two in 2020.
She forms part of the multi celebrity #FriendsofJohnnyClegg co-lab, The Crossing. All proceeds of this song and video were donated to the Click foundation to fight the education crisis in South Africa.
In March 2019, Corlea launches a new single (Bittersoet) together with a campaign to create awareness around domestic violence, project “Die Genadesak projek”. The campaign and project challenged women across the country to donate handbags filled with toiletries and sanitaryware, which Corlea and her team donates to organizations and safe houses for women who survived domestic violence and rape across the country.
In the same month, Corlea released her long awaited album Onbreekbaar. Teaming up with talented songwriters such as Ewald Coleske and Christoph Kotze (Appel), as well as the talented and sought after producer Denholm Harding (Johnny Clegg, Prime Circle and Jesse Clegg), it was no surprise that this album debuted at the number 1 spot on iTunes. The album boasts with an Aitsa award nomination for “Best female pop album”.
In 2020, Corlea is invited to debut aboard the six star luxury cruiseliner Seabourn as a guest entertainer, with rave reviews. Since then Corlea has been invited back several times on board the whole fleet of ships and is booked for appearances ‘till 2026.
She has travelled to more than 50 countries, and stepped foot on all 7 continents.
In 2022, she releases a single Haat, and receives the Aitsa award for Luisterliedjie van die jaar.
In 2023 she produces and records her first English solo Audio Visual Production, Journey, at the Atterbury theatre. This production consists of 15 covers that are reimagined in true Corlea fashion.
While the album is already available online, the visual performance will be made available later in 2024.
Corlea is currently in the writing process of a new EP, and will feature on new singles with Ruhan du Toit, Elvis Blue and Ross Learmonth later in the year.