Westlife’s Mark Feehily skilfully avoids performing high note on the spot as he admits visiting vocal coach

Westlife’s Mark Feehily revealed he visited a vocal coach in the past after getting in his head about hitting high notes on the band’s songs – and deftly avoided showing off his singing on the spot.

The Irish group, who are releasing new album Wild Dreams on Friday, ahead of their 2022 tour, appeared on The One Show on Wednesday to chat about the record.

After hearing lead single Starlight, which Shane Filan said has the ‘highest note’ for Mark to sing, presenter Lauren Laverne quizzed Markus on how he approached them, asking: ‘Do you have to take a run up to the pommel horse for that one?’

With bandmates Shane, Kian Egan and Nicky Byrne teasing him for a demonstration, Mark recalled how he’d used ‘psychologically wreck myself’ ahead of the high notes and ‘completely mess [them] up’.

He explained: ‘From day one in the band, I was always given the high note or the ad lib at the end of the song, and at the beginning I used to get very scared about it. I was like: “Oh my God, here comes the note, here comes the note, here comes the note”. And I would literally completely mess it up on multiple occasions.’

He then shared how he’d gone for help six or seven years ago.

Mark revealed he had visited a vocal coach to help with a mental block in the past (Picture: BBC)

The band congratulated Mark’s avoidance of singing on the spot (Picture: BBC)

‘I was like, “Right, I’m going to a vocal coach ad I’m going to try and harness this fear”. I always knew I could hit the note, but I was psychologically wrecking myself. So I finally went to a vocal coach [and] worked out that it’s all in my head and that I can hit the note 10 times a day.’

Remembering the pressure from his bandmates though, he added: ‘I mean, I can’t hit it now, obviously.’

With Kian interjecting: ‘You’re not warmed up’, Mark hit back: ‘No, because I don’t like being put on the spot.’

Westlife are back with new music, courtesy of Ed Sheeran (Picture: Rex/Matt Holyoak)

He then continued, with a smile: ‘It’s also preparing for a performance and warming up – you know, for me to do it now would be really unprofessional!’

As his Westlife bandmates gave him the win presenter Jermaine Jenas conceded: ‘Well played, well played.’

More: The One Show

Westlife recently debuted their single My Hero after a stirring performance at the Pride of Britain Awards.

Co-written by Ed Sheeran and DJ Steve Mac, the band has been open in its praise of the Bad Habits chart-topper ‘opening doors’ for them after they returned to music in 2019 following a seven-year break.

The One Show airs on weekdays at 7pm on BBC One.

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