Buzzing with the Queen Bee
Mark Feehily tells his story of meeting Mariah for the first time, taken from Westlife's autobiography, Our Story, released on June 16, 2008. A few weeks later we were in a hotel in South East Asia on a promotional trip, when the door to my room burst open and the rest of the band tumbled in, laughing, shouting, waving and saying, "Mark! Mark! We're going to do a song with Mariah Carey!" I think they were almost as excited for me as I was myself, which was really nice. They knew how much it meant to me. I don't know how to describe the excitement at hearing that news. It was unreal.
We all knew how much Mark had wanted to meet Mariah properly, says Nicky. We knew he had met her previously, albeit briefly. So when we heard about the song with her, we were bursting to tell him. Kian took the call from Louis and I have to admit my exact words when he told me were "F*** off, no way!" It was to be "Against All Odds", the Phil Collins track, and it would eventually give us our sixth numer 1 in 17 months. What's more, we were pencilled in to record the single and video with Mariah in Capri, an island just off Italy. We had a tiny window of 48 hours to record the single, shoot the video and get it all done.
Kian lost his passport. I felt really sorry for him, because he ended up shooting his parts of the video on his own. Mariah had shot hers on her own, mind you, then we had gone and done our clips, but because Kian wasn't there, they'd filmed shots of us separately and then spliced it all in later. There were shots of a car with "Kian" in it, but they were from a distance and cleverly done to hide the fact he wasn't actually there yet and was still desperately trying to get his passport sorted.
We were to have dinner with Mariah in a beautiful Italian restaurant in the most amazing location and we all got there nice and early. The sense of anticipation among the lads was huge. Then suddenly, there she was, like the Queen Bee, gliding in wearing a flowing chiffon outfit. I don't even think her feet were touching the floor, she was gliding that much. It was a real spectacle and obviously everyone in the restaurant was staring at her. She just had that presence. She was probably giving it some for effect, but she definitely had a colossal X factor.
We all sat down and I was trying to eat my pasta but it was just too weird, sitting round a table eating dinner with Mariah Carey. Every now and then I'd relax and chat to one of the lads, then I'd turn my head and think, holy s***! That's Mariah Carey! She was surrounded by "her people", but actually they kept a distance and let us chat happily with her. I have to say, once we'd got over our nerves, she was an absolute pleasure to talk to. She wasn't at all like the demanding diva you read about in the tabloids.
We shared a beer and had a bit of craic and I even remember, for some reason, that the food was sensational. It was very hard to really be yourself, though. I kept trying to open up and even tell a few jokes, but in the end, I thought, the less said, the better. You don't want to ruin the night. You don't want Mariah Carey to think you're a knob. We hadn't recorded the song at this point, so I think we were all on tenterhooks in case she came away from that meal and said she didn't want to work with us. But that didn't happen, she said she loved our company and I thought she made a huge effort.
Obviously, the best part for me, recounts Mark, was singing with Mariah in the studio. I kept thinking back to when I was a kid listening to "Hero" and all those other great vocals, then pinching myself because I couldn't believe that I was in a studio in Capri with her in person. What's more, she was basically producing us. She had her engineers and all that, but she was sitting behind the desk using the faders and the talk back, telling us to do another take and giving me guidance on a few points. It was incredible.
And, of course, hearing that voice in person so close was a dream come true. (Mariah Daily Journal)
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