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Mark Feehily
Mark Feehily at The Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2009
Background information
Birth name	Markus Michael Patrick Feehily
Born	28 May 1980 (1980-05-28) (age 29) Sligo, Ireland
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, piano.
Years active	1998–present
Associated acts	Westlife
Website	www.westlife.com

Markus Michael Patrick Feehily (born 28 May 1980 in Sligo, Ireland), better known as Mark Feehily, is a member of the popular Irish vocal pop group, Westlife.

He has two younger brothers named Barry Feehily (born 1985) and Colin Feehily (born 1989) His parents are Marie and Oliver Feehily. ^[1]

In Westlife's music, Mark is distinctive for his rich, soulful voice, which is prominently featured in all of Westlife's songs. He shares most lead vocals with Shane Filan.

Before Westlife Mark Shane Filan and Kian Egan came from the band IOU where he had partly written the band's songs, Everlasting Love and Together Girl Forever.

Feehily has also co-written a few songs, along with the other band members, including:^[2]

• Imaginary Diva
• Reason For Living
• Crying Girl
• You Don't Know
• Never Knew I Was Losing You
• Where We Belong
• Singing Forever
• I Won't Let You Down
• You See Friends (I See Lovers)
• I'm Missing Loving You
• Miss You When I'm Dreaming
• Reach Out

Private life

Feehily publicly came out as gay in the UK tabloid The Sun, and announced his long-term relationship with Kevin McDaid, a member of the now-defunct British boy band V.^[3][4] In an interview 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." Unlike his band mates, for years Feehily did not discuss his private life. His manager Louis Walsh was unaware of Feehily's sexuality when he picked him for the band.^[5]

The pair have been dating since January 2005 after having met at a Cheerios Childline Concert in Ireland. In yet another interview, Mark 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. "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. That was the hardest point to get to."

Feehily said that while he did not intend on getting married right away, he is happy to know he could form a civil partnership in Britain with the recent passing of the Civil Partnership Act.^[6] They both say that when the time is right, they will look into having a civil partnership ceremony.

In December 2007, Mark and Kevin appeared on the cover of Attitude magazine. They also did a joint interview. In this interview, Mark stated that he wants to grow old with Kevin, and that the pair believe that they will be together forever.

They had been a couple since January 2005. Mark and Kevin got engaged on 28th January 2010 and Mark confirmed the news via Twitter.

They own a pet pug named Saffy and french bulldog named Nullah.

References

External links

• Mark Feehily Official Twitter Page
• Official Website
• Mark & Kevin Fanpage
• Mark Feehily at the Internet Movie Database