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The Irish folk/pop band The Corrs, made up of siblings Andrea, Caroline, Sharon and Jim Corr. Grew up in the small Irish town of Dundalk. Their parents, also musicians, instilled in their children from a very early age their love for music. Hence, it wasn't surprising that the four siblings would one day form a band.

Success happened relatively quickly for The Corrs. They had only been together briefly when they met their soon-to-be manager John Hughes, who was assembling musicians for Alan Parker’s film 'The Commitments'. As luck would have it, U.S. ambassador to Ireland Jean Kennedy Smith heard The Corrs play at a small club in Dublin and invited them to America to play

in the 1994 World Cup celebration in Boston. Still unsigned, the band seized the opportunity to meet with U.S. labels. Captivated by the group’s remarkable beauty and musical abilities, Atlantic senior vice president Jason Flom suggested in turn that they meet with Atlantic vice president and producer David Foster, who was in New York at the time working with Michael Jackson.

Although Foster agreed to see them, high-level Jackson security made it virtually impossible for the band to reach him at the sequestered sessions. On their last day in New York, The Corrs made a fateful decision. They arrived unannounced at the studio. Once again, Irish luck was on their side. Foster had just finished with Jackson, and he came downstairs. The Corrs were perched on the waiting room couch. He invited them into the studio where they played for him live, 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 artists, with Foster signing on as producer.

The Corrs' music is a special mix of pop, rock and traditional Irish music. It's both ancestral and modern and there is something in that has reached the heart of millions of people all over the world. Their debut album 'forgiven not forgotten' released in 1995, sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. Their second album 'Talk On Corners' was released in 1997 and was one of the best selling albums in Europe and Asia. The Corrs' popularity is growing (the band recently toured with

Celine Dion and the Rolling Stones) and if you have never heard their music you don't know what you have missed.

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It has got to be overwhelming. Coming from a small town in Ireland, did you ever dream you would get this kind of attention you've been getting in this past year?

Andrea: Like you say, we're from a small town as we could very well still be there. You never know. But it's been our love for music that has given us so many wonderful things. But of course we didn't know where it would all lead or that 10 years later we'd be here in New York, looking at you doing this interview.

Sharon: I think it's a frame of mind really. I think that some people are very adverse to it. They want to write songs and they want people to buy them but yet they don't want them to promote them. I don't really understand how you can contradict yourself like that. If anything our love for music has increased over the years because so very often you move away from your main priority, which is music. Our best times are generally on stage in front of our own 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 carry yourself and how you hold yourself up and who you are as a person.

Andrea: It's actually doing quite well. In fact it's doing extremely well now.

Andrea: In such a small country and to gain such success and such worldwide fame has out 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 very a very relaxed vibe there and they are not starstruck. It's different in Britain and it's different 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.

It must be nice to know you have a place like that to retreat to when the stress of the music world becomes too great.

Brothers and sisters fight...plain and simple. Has it been difficult getting along with each other while on tour?

Sharon: It has been difficult at stages because I think that when you're 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 it becomes very hard to become you own individual. Plus then you add the music career on top of it and it can get very hard to be perceived as in individual. We kid around sometimes 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 with people and now we get along great. But I'll admit at the beginning it was very suffocating.

Andrea: 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.

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

The band has such a squeaky clean image created by the record company or are you really that innocent?

Andrea: The Corrs are what they think they should be. And that is something that your parents give you. Our moral standards in terms of running out and picking up guys is something that is based on our own individual standards.

Andrea: 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 how the band is perceived. because that is how we are as people.

Sharon: But you can't tell anybody what to do. If Andrea wants to run off and do these things she can. It just so happens that she doesn't want to do those things.

Obviously you are extremely beautiful people however, do your stunning looks get in the way of the music?

Sharon: I was just thinking yesterday how happy I would be if we weren't always perceived as being beautiful. I mean 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. Sometime I just want to yell, 'Hey, I'm here for the music leave my hair alone!' I get so sick of all the make-up sometimes.

Andrea: But people expect that from us now. So I wouldn't come out on stage without doing myself up.

Andrea: I think being aesthetically pleasing as a band actually made us work harder as a band. Because we want to be know for our music than our looks. Our looks are just incidental fact that we weren't even aware of them from the beginning. So because of that we had to work really had on our music from first day we started. Now when we go on stage and we play on 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.

Andrea: Yes we find it very flattering that we're seen in this light, but it doesn't mean anything to us.

In America beauty plays such an important part of marketing and, unfortunately, success. Since coming to our shores have you ever been asked to play up the looks to sell records?

Sharon: That question doesn't apply to us because we're a five piece unit, including our manager. Yes, we have looks thanks to our Mom and Dad and that's great. But we've been able to play instruments since we were very young. No record company has ever once said to us 'Hey girls could you make it a bit sexier, lets make it into 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 and record music and travel the world. You don't look in the mirror and say 'Hey. I'm gorgeous! we should sell a lot more albums today.' Because ultimately something 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 it's generally very short lived success. Because ultimately they can't deliver that goods and the goods are not looks. The good are talent and the ability to play your instrument.

But you can't very well be surprised that the media suggest that your looks are a part of who you are as a band?

Andrea: It would be silly, if we expected people to stop looking at our looks. I mean, it's show business. We're not stupid. We are always aware that aesthetics are a bonus. And we're grateful for that. It's not like we're going to wear a paper bag on our heads.

You featured in the June issue of glamour magazine. Why do a feature if you are trying to play down your looks?

Andrea: That was fun for us to do, even though we're not models. But sometimes it's nice to dress up and pretend.

Andrea: We're very small people so we won't be strutting down the runway any time soon.

Andrea: Very flattered. I don't see myself as that. But I think they said that about me because I am the lead singer of the band. I don't take it as anymore than that. It doesn't make me float around or anything like that. But I am very flattered.

Andrea: It's something that I did since I was a baby. So I've done it my whole life. 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 am insecure. It's just very comforting and I love it. I can't give it up.

Has anyone tried to break you out of the habit since you're obviously not a baby anymore?

Andrea: The music makes me emotional and then I think of life experiences such as love and fantasies.

The Corrs have been a huge success around the world. Now you've come to America to stake your final musical claim. However, it hasn't been easy For you here has it?

Andrea: We worked very hard on our first album and promoted it a lot but it didn't work, I'll be honest with you. We sold a half million records in America. But when you think about the size of America compared to the rest of the world it really didn't work. Although we've had a little more success with our second album.

Why do you think it's been harder for you here in America than other parts of the world?

Sharon: I think everywhere is different. What attracts Americans to our music doesn't necessarily attract Europeans. I think it's a very different sound here in America. There are many reasons really. Part of it is timing as well. But basically we haven't been played on American radio. And that's the only way to get a hit in America is to get airplay. I mean once they like the song they'll play it to death but before that you'll probably never get played. But that's okay, we've done so well we can hardly complain. I mean, we've done amazingly well around the rest of the world. It's only here in America that we haven't really done very well.

Andrea: It's really all work. We never really get to socialize. The only guys we really see are the record company guys. So it's not really a good idea to ask us because we wouldn't give you a good picture. Because all we meet are guys like you and men who work for the record company.

Besides sucking your thumb, I understand that Andrea hasn't had a relationship in years. Doesn't that get lonely?

Sharon: Sorry, I'm only joking! I'm really joking. But wouldn't that be fun if it got out?

Andrea: No, it's clear cut for me I'm afraid...I'm totally into women! Seriously I have a very strong belief in relationships. But it has to be with the right person. I'm not the kind of person who can have many boyfriends. It has to be a relationship that will last or nothing. Sure, when I go home there might be someone that I think of and it might be nice to have them with me. But I'm always touring and I don't want to feel the pain of loving and missing somebody. It's just not natural when you're in love with somebody not to be with them. But I would sacrifice it all if I met the right guy.

Andrea: Well, I might have already met him. But if I did then I didn't know it. But I'm a girl and I'm pretty traditional. The man would have to pursue me and I think that in a lot of cases with the business I'm in that man would be intimidated by me. He might think 'Oh, she would never go out with me'.

Sharon: They are. That's funny because sometimes I'll be talking to somebody that I just met and I realise that he's acting very odd with me. And a lot of the times I think that he doesn't like me. But then I realise that they are actually intimidated. It's a weird thing because you don't look at yourself in that way, so you start to think What did I do wrong? Did I say something rude or was it just the way I said something? what was it? But it's just the perception that's out there.

Andrea: I suppose the man who finally wins me over will have to be very strong and confident. It's a strange situation.

Andrea: [Laughs] We were in awe of him. Being brought up Irish and Catholic, it was very intimidating for us. I'm at a loss for words.

A growing number of younger Catholics in America have issues with the Pope and the catholic church. Have you had issues of your own?

Andrea: No, I think that I'm very optimistic person and that I only see the good side of things. There's a lot of good in something which holds a family together. Yes there are countless things within the Catholic religion that have been appalling, but the way I look at it is you follow the basic laws you'll do fine. If you follow the basic commandments you'll do fine. Love thy neighbour. The rest of the stuff just has to do with how fallible humans are. Because it's a human error. Humans make mistakes and there's wrong and there's bad and that turns into a regime of money and power and eventually corruption. But that's the way of the world and it's the way of any institution. So I try not to dwell on the horrible things. There's no point to it.

What was your reaction when Sinead O' Connor ripped up a picture of the Pope on 'Saturday Night Live'?

Sharon: The fact that she tore up a picture of the Pope I didn't think was 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 tarnish the whole religion or thought by a few bad people. Just because a few bad things happen 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 religion are good. I don't know why [Sinead] was obsessed with the Pope. He's just a figurehead. She was just dwelling on him as a human being. He's not God.

Andrea: I think tearing up a picture of the Pope was too easy of a thing to do. If you really have a problem then you have to go out there and work some changes. Although I don't want to criticize what she did. I just didn't find it useful. All it did is get he a lot of bad attention. But that's it.

You spent much of this year opening 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.

Andrea: I must say that Mick 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 like an aura.

Sharon: 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 there job to entertain. While other bands think 'I'm so cool I'm not going to make an effort,' the Stones give you 100 percent every night.

During your visit you've gotten a lot of attention in America with appearances on 'The Tonight Show with Jay Leno', 'The View', 'Roseanne', ‘Rosie O'Donnell' and 'The Today Show' just to name a few. Do you feel you've made some progress toward being accepted in America?

Andrea: The first time we were in America it was a real cultural shock and we didn't know what people meant when they said certain things. But all those TV shows have been great and the hosts are brilliant. Like Leno and [David] Letterman. They're all very good at what they do and it can be nerve-wracking when they ask you questions. We were especially nervous when we did [the] Letterman [show]. We've done TV shows all over the world but something about Letterman made us very nervous.

Beside performing as a band, Andrea has made a name for herself as an actress as well. In fact, you were cast alongside Madonna in the movie 'Evita' what was it like working with Madonna?

Andrea: People always ask me that but I 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. I'll say that it was a fine interaction between the two of us.

What's the strangest thing you've read about yourselves?
Sharon: The oddest thing I've ever read about myself was that I was pregnant.

Andrea; The worst thing I've ever ready 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. So I've got boyfriends who I've never met!

Finally, is there anything about The Corrs you've never been asked and wish to tell?

Sharon: No, I don't think so. People want to know so much about us but the only thing I'm really interested in is people knowing more about our album.

But don't you agree that the price of fame and the riches that comes from selling millions of albums is that fans want to know everything about you, beyond your music?

Sharon: I know the fans was to know everything about me. But I don't want them to know everything about me outside of my music.

Andrea: I feel when you're talking publicly to a mass of people who are your fans, I'm happy when they ask personal questions. And I'm happy to give the answers.