Andrea’s answer to stage fright: a few Hail Marys
ANDREA Corr says she will combat pre-concert nerves ahead of her first tour with The Corrs in over a decade with prayer.
The 41-year-old singer is reuniting with her siblings Caroline, Sharon and Jim this week for a tour of arenas in Britain, before returning to home soil and playing two concerts in Dublin and Belfast.
The Dundalk group, who have sold over 40million albums since their 1995 debut Forgiven Not Forgotten, played their first gig in years at the BBC’s Live in Hyde Park event last September. Several more intimate gigs have followed and the band has since released a new album, White Light.
But despite her many years in the music business, which has included the release of two albums as a solo artist, Andrea admitted she still suffers from anxiety before performing.
‘Every part of me was nervous before this comeback, before Hyde Park, and I’ll be nervous before the tour, too,’ she said.
‘I have to ask if it’s worth it. Is it worth making myself more tired, more anxious, busier and all the rest of it? And I have to say “yes”, it is worth it. That’s really what it’s about. It’s worth the anxiety I have. The others aren’t as fearful as I am, it’s just my nature.
‘There’ll be a few Hail Marys, but there always has been. They help put the mind at rest.’
However, the mother-of-two said the reunion is something the whole band jumped at after drummer Caroline suggested they write some new material a year ago.
In an interview with The Catholic Universe, she said: ‘We all missed being in the band, but she [Caroline] was the one who got us together.’
Andrea said the idea of getting back on the road was cemented once they realised they had enough new material: ‘And that’s the only reason we’re here. If the music was no good, I wouldn’t be back. It’d be too hard to talk about it and promote it if it wasn’t any good.’
The Corrs play Dublin’s 3 Arena on January 28, and Belfast’s SSE Arena the following day