Beauty and The Beat
Courtesy of Paddy Kehoe and Ray Walsh of Ireland's RTE Guide.

A RECENT NEWSPAPER POLL SAW ANDREA CORR VOTED THE 42ND MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE WORLD. "ALL THESE THINGS ARE FLATTERING, BUT THEY'RE NOT REAL," RESPONDS THE SINGER. "NOBODY KNOWS ALL THE WOMEN IN THE WORLD..." PADDY KEHOE TALKED TO ANDREA ON THE LINE TO NEW YORK.

"I have to get ready I'm in my nightdress," says Andrea Corr, who is phoning me from New York. Gulp. It's 1.30pm and she is speaking to me from her hotel but doesn't want to say which one, it might end up on the internet.

The Corrs are in New York to do a number of TV appearances for their Live in Dublin album, which is specifically targeted at the US market. They have done Rosie O'Donnell on numerous occasions and Andrea likes Rosie, who is "down to earth". They are about to do two songs on the Last Call with Carson Daly show. The VH1 channel is showing the Live in Dublin concert film twice over the coming days (a previous screening had broken the record for viewing figures). Breathless has been a big radio single. So things are looking very favourable in the Corrs' latest onslaught on the US, where their last studio album In Blue sold a million copies.

The Live in Dublin film and album was recorded before an audience at Ardrnore Studios, with Bono and Ronnie Wood guesting. Bono shares the vocals on Ryan Adams' Where the Stars Go Blue and the Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra number
Summer Wine. Ronnie plays guitar on Little Wing.

Andrea talks about the important business of promoting the new record. "You really have to do it when you're beginning, you're the only one who can sell your music. At this stage we have a very big following and it's not as difficult as it was, hotels are lovely everything is much more comfortable."

Performance-wise, she feels on top of things nowadays. "It's a very hard thing to becomfortable with being on TV hearing your own voice back, all that scrutiny on yourself that you do is very difficult to come to terms with. To me it's not so hard for us now, it doesn't take out of me what it did, because I was young and adolescent and growing up."

One bright morning in 1999, as reported in Q magazine, they rose at 3.45am for a day of appearances on The Today Show, Rosie O'Donnell, followed by CNN and MTV before a gig at Roseland Ballroom. Three years later it hasn't changed much.

"They always demand you to be up so early" says Andrea. "You go to these TV shows and you eat bagels and coffee. I love bagels, but I've had so many bagels at this stage that I think I am one."