Esprit De Corrs
Breathlessly beautiful, and talented to boot, THE CORRS are stealing the limelight, again, with their new album, In Blue.

Success happened relatively quickly for The Corrs. The siblings - Andrea, Caroline, Sharon and Jim - had only been together briefly, as a band, when US ambassador to Ireland heard them play at a small club in Dublin and invited them to America to play at a '94 World Cup celebration in Boston.

While in the States, the band sized the opportunity to meet with US labels. Although scheduled to meet with Atlantic's VP/Producer David Foster, the meeting unfortunately never took place. On their last day in New York, The Corrs arrived unannounced at Atlantic's studio. As Foster came downstairs, The Corrs were perched on the waiting room couch. He invited them into the studio, where they played live for him, and as Foster recalls, "I told them, out of 10, I give you a 10, no, a 10-plus." It wasn't long before The Corrs were official Atlantic Group artists, with Foster signing on as producer.

The rest, of Corrs, is history. With a musical mix that's part pop, rock and traditional Irish music, the sound of The Corrs is both ancestral and modern. Their debut album, Forgiven Not Forgotten released in 1995, sold more than two millions copies worldwide. Their second album, Talk On Corners, was one of the 1998's best-selling albums in Europe and Asia. And with 1999's The Corrs Unplugged hitting double platinum status, it'll only be a matter of time before their new album In Blue leaves us 'Breathless' as well.

How does it feel to be beautiful, rich, talented and famous?
A: (laughs) How does anybody answer that?

Have success and fame tinted your pure love of music?
S: I think it's a frame of mind really. I think that some people are very averse to it. They want to write songs and they want people to buy them but yet they don't want to promote them. I don't really understand how you can contradict yourself like that. Our best times are generally on stage in front of our audience. Being in the limelight has given us a chance to see the world. It's all good fun. Yes, it is difficult sometimes but it's all a matter of how you can carry yourself and how you hold yourself up to who you are as a person.

Are you looked upon as heroes by your fellow Irish countrymen?
A: It's such a small country and to gain such success and worldwide fame has put our town on the map. Plus the fact that they seem to like our music and support us. It's also a different kind of wavelength in Ireland. It's a very relaxed vibe there and they are not starstruck. It's different in Britain and everywhere else, but in Ireland it's much more laid-back. In fact, where I live, I go to the pub all the time with no problem at all. It's no hassle.

Brothers and sisters fight - plain and simple. Has it been difficult getting along with each other while on tours?
S: It has been difficult at stages because I think that when you're in a family, each family member gets stereotyped as a certain kind of person. But we all keep changing about how we feel about things and its becomes very hard to be your own person...We kid around sometimes and call ourselves Clones because people don't know us from one another. You can choose your friends but you can't choose your family, but you can choose to get along...and now we get along great. But I admit that in the beginning it was very suffocating.
A: Actually, you've got to reach a point where you have to respect the other person as an individual and that is very difficult in a family situation.

What do you mean?
A: Well, I always think, 'Why are you like that when you should be like me?' You know? But my family is not like that. And I have to accept that.

The band has such a squeaky clean image. Is that image created by the record company or are you really that innocent?
A: The Corrs are what we think we should be. And that is something that our parents give us. our moral standards in terms of running out and picking up guys are something that is based on our own individual standards.

And where do you stand on that - running around and picking up guys?
A: We have no particular need to go off and become complete alcoholics or drug addicts or go out and pick up loads of guys every night of the week - that just happens to be morally the way we are. And that is how the band is perceived, because that is how we are as people.

Obviously you're extremely beautiful people. Do your stunning looks ever get in the way of the music?
S: I was just thinking yesterday how happy I would be if we weren't always perceived as being beautiful. Don't get me wrong, I thank God he's been so kind to us. But I would love so much not to have all this stuff that goes along with being attractive. Sometimes I just want to yell, 'Hey, I'm just here for the music, leave my hair alone!' I get so sick of all the make-up sometimes.
A: But people expect that from us now. So I wouldn't come out on stage without doing myself up.

Does your beauty ever take precedence over the music?
Both: No!
A: I think being aesthetically pleasing as a band has actually made us work harder. Because we want to be known more for our music than our looks. Our looks are just an incidental fact that we weren't even aware from the beginning. So because of that we had to really work hard in our music from the day we first started. Now when we go on stage and play our instruments, we get the thing about our looks out of the way from the start. We get any idea that we're manufactured right out of the way. We're here for the music and nothing else.

Have you ever been asked to play up your looks to sell records?
S: No record company has ever once said to us, 'Hey girls, you could make it a bit sexier, let's make it a bikini show'. That will never happen with us. I play the violin. If you were me and you wake up in the morning, what you do is write, record music and travel the world. You don't look in the mirror and say, 'Hey, I'm gorgeous! We should sell a lot of albums today'. Because ultimately, something that is manufactured will be seen right through. Yeah, if you see a band that looks great maybe they'll have some short-term success. But generally very short-lived success. Because ultimately, they can't deliver the goods and the goods are not looks. The goods are talent and the ability to play your instrument.

Andrea, weren't you voted the most beautiful woman in Ireland?
A: Yes.

How did that make you feel?
A: Very flattered. I don't see myself as that. But I think they said that about me because I'm the lead singer in the band. I don't take it as anything more than that. It doesn't make me float around or anything like that. But I am very flattered.

Is it true that you such your thumb?
A: Yes

Er, why?
A: It's something that I've done it since I was a baby. I really never had a reason for giving it up and my mother didn't make me stop. Also, sucking my thumb comforts me. It helps me fall asleep. If I get tired, the first thing I do is put my thumb in my mouth. But I don't think it's because I'm insecure. It's just very comforting and I love it. I can't give it up.

Is it true you met the Pope?
A: Yeah, he asked me out on a date!

What was his pick-up line?
A: (laughs) He just said, 'Oh, you're from Ireland, Merry Christmas'. No disrespect but he's going to have to work on his pick-up line. (laughs) We were in awe with him. Being brought up Irish and Catholic, it was very intimidating for us. I was at a loss of words.

What was your reaction when (fellow Irish) Sinead O'Connor ripped up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live?
S: The fact that she tore up a picture of the Pope, I didn't think was really insulting or anything. I think the Pope is well above that. I'm sure people do things like that all over the country. They're just not stars. But my first thought was, 'Why bother? You can't tarnish a whole religion or thought by a few bad people. just because a few bad things happened within the Catholic church doesn't mean you rip up a picture of the Pope. The Pope didn't do all those bad things. Maybe a few wrong ideas here and there. But the basics of the religion are good. I don't know why (Sinead) was obsessed with the Pope. He's just a figurehead. She was just dwelling on a human being. He's not God.
A: I think tearing up a picture of the Pope was too easy a thing to do. If you really have a problem them you have to go out there and work to make some changes. Although I don't want to criticize what she did, I just didn't find it useful. All it did is get her a lot of bad attention.

You're opened at concerts for the Rolling Stones. In fact, Mick Jagger was quoted as saying that, 'The Corrs blew the Stones off the stage'. Not a bad compliment.
S: I know, I couldn't believe he said that. He's incredible.
A: I must say that Mick Jagger has some untouchable thing that very few people have. That's how you know a real star. There's just something that shines from him that's like an aura.
S: The one thing about the Stones is that on stage I've never seen another band perform as well as they do. They entertain and they know it's their job to entertain. While other bands think, 'I'm so cool I'm not going to make an effort,' the Stones give you 100 per cent every night.
A: They're so much bigger than life.

Speaking of showbiz, Andrea, you've been cast alongside Madonna in the movie Evita. What was it like working with Madonna?
A: People always ask me that but I really don't have anything to say about her. Madonna and I worked together and that was it. She was nice to me but I can't judge her, just like she can't judge me. I'm sure she's fine but I don't know her as a person.

What do you think of Ricky Martin?
Both: He's great!
S: (laughs) He's a great dancer!
A: And he's not bad to look at!

What's the strangest thing you've read about yourselves?
S: The oddest thing that I ever read about myself is that I was pregnant.
A: Really?
S: Yeah, it was on the Internet.
A: The worst thing I ever read about myself was a newspaper headline that read, 'Poor Andrea can't get a man'. That was so embarrassing. It's stuff like that. The media, especially in Ireland, is always matching me up with people. I have so many boyfriends I've never met.