Sunday, June 3, 2012

Out Spotlight


Today’s Out Spotlight is a singer, songwriter and former member of a boy band. Today’s Out Spotlight is  Mark Feehily.

Markus Michael Patrick Verdon Feehily was born in Sligo, Ireland, to Marie Verdon and Oliver Feehily on March 28, 1980. The oldest of three, he has two younger brothers, Barry and Colin.

Feehily rose to fame as one of the two lead singers of the Irish boyband Westlife sharing lead vocals with Shane Filan. Before Westlife, Feehily, Filan and Kian Egan came from the band IOYOU, which released the single "Together Girl Forever".  Louis Walsh, the manager of the 1990s boy-band Boyzone, was contacted by Filan’s mom about the group. The new group was established in July 1998 with the addition of two more members, Nicky Byrne and Brian McFadden. Boyzone singer Ronan Keating was brought in to co-manage the group with Walsh.  The band was originally signed by Simon Cowell.

Westlife has sold over 45 million records worldwide which includes studio albums, singles, video release, and compilation albums.  The group accumulated 14 number-one singles in the United Kingdom, the third-highest in UK history, tying with Cliff Richard, breaking a several records, including "Music artist with most consecutive number 1's in the UK", which consists of their first seven singles and with them only behind The Beatles and Elvis Presley.  The band have 14 UK number ones and 25 top ten singles, consisting of 20.2 million records and videos in the UK across their 14-year career - 6.8 million singles, 11.9 million albums and 1.5 million videos. Despite the group's worldwide success, they only have one hit single in the United States, "Swear It Again", which peaked in 2000 on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 20.

Feehily wrote and sang "Imaginary Diva" of World of Our Own album and externally written "Talk Me Down" of Where We Are album and also "Before It's Too Late" of Gravity. At live performances, he also sang solos for "Oh Holy Night" and "Il Adore".  He has also co-written songs, some on his own with others and also with the other band members.

In August 2005, Feehily publicly revealed he was gay during an interview with the British tabloid The Sun.  He had recognized his sexual orientation when he was 14- or 15-years old.  His family, band mates and close friends knew his sexual orientation. Westlife's manager Louis Walsh, however, was unaware of his sexual orientation when he began managing the group. As the only gay member in Westlife, he kept his sexual orientation private and never had a boyfriend.  Unlike his band mates, he did not discuss his private life in interviews, although he had dated women prior to his coming out. He was shown with girlfriends in the press, but "in order to avoid speculation".

Speaking of his coming out he said:
"My life has got umpteen times better. My sexuality doesn't define me as a person, but it's a huge part of anyone to be open about it. It's changed my life totally as I feel so much happier and at ease. It's the best thing I've ever done."

Feehily told The Sydney Morning Herald that despite the fact that the majority of Westlife's fans are female, there had really been no negative reaction to his coming out.  

"I am so much happier now and I think our fans can see that," he said. "Through the years of getting to the point where I wanted to come out, I had to go through every kind of emotion, but I can honestly say that the day before I came out, I didn't care what the reaction was going to be. “

During the interview with The Sun, he also announced his romantic relationship with British fashion photographer Kevin McDaid, a member of the now-defunct British boy band V.  The pair, who live had been dating since January 2005 after having met at a Cheerios Childline Concert in Ireland.


 In December 2007, Feehily and McDaid appeared on the cover of Attitude giving their only interview together.

The couple was engaged on their 5th anniversary in February 2010, which he confirmed by Twitter. In 2011, he discussed the couple's plans concerning having children together and discussed their wedding plans.  But on New Year’s Eve he announced via his Twitter account that he and Kevin had split up.

Feehily supports the charity group Aware. He was shortlisted in 2011 as one of the top 50 most influential gays in United Kingdom.

25 comments:

  1. Nice to have a spotlight on a member of a boy band. Interesting that his bandmates knew, but not the manager.

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  2. Marvellous Out Spotlight on Mark Feehily. Living his life out and proud.

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  3. Wow, really interesting OutSpotlight. I've never heard of this group and I YouTube'd their one US Top 20 hit but I don't recognize that song and I'm usually pretty up on pop music. Oh well, no matter.

    I'm glad he was so happy when he came out and it was nice to read about he and his boyfriend but sad about them breaking up.

    Looks like the group has been incredibly successful. I mean, Cliff Richard was huge in the UK, just huge. So that's pretty impressive.

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  5. I didnt want to repost the comments from the last post but if anyone is fimiliar with the blog they would know that us regulars do believe Jake is Gay and that he and Austin are in a relationship. I really believe that Jake has no interest in dating women. But if someone wants to believe he does go knock urself out. I actually feel embarrassed for Jake now that I look back at reeke. Why he put himself through that I will never know. So I promise not to get defensive if someone wants to think Jake is dating a woman but don't expect me to believe it. Have a nice night now.

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  6. Please, Jake is as interested in Minka as I am. Women as friends yes, but no interest in them sexually.

    The out story was great until the part about them splitting up. Though it happens. Good to see one more story about how much happier you are when you are free to be yourself.

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  7. Women as friends yes, but no interest in them sexually.


    And you know this how?

    From lame 2005/06 pics of Jake and Austin at Lakers game? Lmao
    Please get over it.
    You middle aged women can fawn all over those pics and fantasy till kingdom come but, it's 2012 now.

    Nobody here has seen a child. Media/HW does not talk about it, only OMG regulars.
    Jake and Austin spends time togther at least 3 or 4 times over a 3 to 4 year time span. Any other time they're with others everywhere. While the tribe here speculate endlessly if Austin is with Jake hiding from the public. lol
    Seems more like friends with benefits. But, that's just not enough for the hardcore J/A family ideology that lives here.

    Any woman in Jake's presents gets trashed by you people.
    It's absurd and hateful.

    You have no evidence of a baby/children/marriage/ a marriage license(?), since research is supposed to be second nature here.

    But by the same token, you believe every women J/A is seen with or within 10 ft of them is a beard, just a friend and they just can't be interested in sex with them because you have this distored veiw of them that fits your agenda and makes you happy even though you don't actually know any facts about ANY of these issues/situations at all.
    You run with whatever helps your viewpoint.

    It's in your best interest to believe that your boys Jake and Austin have no interest in females.

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  8. ^^^
    AND, apparently Ted is through with TT ala Jake. He does not write any more about him. And if he does which is far and few, he's answering an OMG regular pestering him for info they NEED, but info he don't have. So he rehashes some lame distorted gibberish which regulars fawn over as a code.
    As Ted shakes his head with laughter.

    I would go on, but do I need to??

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  10. I would go on, but do I need to??


    Oh, but please do!! I have a few things to get off my chest as well. I've got my Smart Balance Movie Theatre microwave popcorn and half-cold Diet Coke at the ready.

    Oh. And because I just cannot wait for anyone to figure it out and notice, I've got to get my LOL in now.

    Since we're constantly being accused now of "fawning", I thought I would at least get the appropriate accompaniment for such a label.

    Aren't they the CUTEST?!!

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  11. Jake and Austin spends time togther at least 3 or 4 times over a 3 to 4 year time span. Any other time they're with others everywhere.

    And you know this how? Ohhhhh don't even go there. I might have to run out to Walgreens and purchase a Depends because I just might laugh that hard.

    It's not even worth spending minutes from my precious lunch hour addressing a lot of your nonsense which stems from sheer nervousness and unease. Your nervousness and unease is not my problem.

    Hey I know! Let's address that censorship issue you brought up yesterday, UV. How about that, huh?


    Shall I share with the class what brought that on? How you decided to come over to OMG and troll all because I had the "gall" to question the heavy-handed censorship and knuckle-rapping issued over on the Forum Slash Discussion Thread? That's what this is about, isn't it? Tit for tat?

    You gave yourself away yesterday when you gloated over your "censorship" accusation. See, that's how you trolls always mess up. You just can't help yourselves. Just wait a few comments and it always eventually pokes out, just like a bad sewing job. It starts with a little burst stitch and before you know it, you've got a big ol' honkin' rip.

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  12. I don't need Ted to write about Toothy any longer. We know what we know. Ted's just filler now.

    There's not only one Toothy/Grey Goose Word Doc now, there's a whole PDF file of various timelines regarding this entire story and related topics. It would take a one-day workshop with M&M and Special at the helm for all of us to study the information, there is that much.

    Hmmmm. Now there's an idea....lol. Nah, just kidding.

    I'm going to get yelled at tonight. **worries**

    Hey, as Tom said, some of you just knock yourselves out. Go for it! But I think I've got some fanfic writing I could be doing, or some Cheez-Its to snack on, or some laundry to do. I cannot be bothered. I know what I know and don't need to waste my time looking at your recycled blather.

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  13. Diet Coke is now pretty much totally warm. Pffft! Yucko, time to stick it back into the fridge.

    Excuse the verbal outburst up above. Hopefully, it's not offensive to regular lurkers.

    Trolls have no logical business here. You've got Jake filming right now. There's plenty of new pictures on IHJ and other Jake blogs to go fawn - I mean, professionally and objectively study because it's all about his career, right, ladies and male troll?

    It's alllllll about his career, I know. All about his movies.

    There's oodles of new pics, lots of tweets on a daily basis, could be some Facebook. All kinds of fodder out there for fun discussion for the movie/career interest and obsession.

    But oh no. They're here. They'd rather talk about fawning.

    **scratches head**

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  14. It's not even worth spending minutes from my precious lunch hour addressing a lot of your nonsense which stems from sheer nervousness and unease. Your nervousness and unease is not my problem.

    ^^^ No No CupCake

    Nervous = Jake being seen or tweeted about with a female.
    Now that's nervousness. Your head spins and you rush to dismantle and discredit. Even though there may be no mention of a date or girlfriend.

    Let's say it again.

    Jake was recently seen with Minka.

    Now watch the hate spew.
    LMAO
    Yes - Nervousness from you and the choir

    Nervousness, talk about Spin..

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  15. Jake was recently seen with Minka.



    I think someone forgot to bring their homework to class today, didn't they?

    Sorry, you're not going to get a rise out of this.

    You bring over your information and then maybe we'll talk.

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  16. No one cares about Minka because we all know that even if it happened, which I doubt, she's either a friend or a beard.

    Jeter is gay.


    Once a beard almost always a repeat bearder.

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  17. It's not even worth spending minutes from my precious lunch hour addressing a lot of your nonsense

    LOL! But you did. Obviously you are irked by those comments. LMAO

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  19. Think I'd rather watch this!


    AUSTIN NICHOLS ‏@AUS10NICHOLS

    Just a country boy from Texas rockin the subways of NYC.
    Ride 'em subway!

    6:26 PM - 4 Jun 12 via Echofon · Details

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  20. Morgan McMurrin ‏@morganmcmurrin

    @AUS10NICHOLS Do you live in NYC now?

    6:55 PM - 4 Jun 12 via web · Details

    Morgan McMurrin
    @morganmcmurrin

    Entertainment Editor For @justjared & Freelance Stylist http://www.justjared.com/, http://www.wix.com/morganmcmurrin/style

    NYC ·

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  21. NYC Home sweet home. Jake needs to come home for the weeekends.

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  22. Sorry that those offensive comments were up so long. Long complicated day.

    ... the best part of the day - the free ice cream truck that comes once a week.

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  23. Nice that Austin is riding the rails in NYC.

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  24. How was that ice cream today, Special? I am so jealous!!!!

    I had Lotta Pops (popcicles). lol

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