This much I know: Sharon Corr

I believe in dreams.

They show you the potential of who you can be. But of course, it isn’t always easy to be that person.

And I believe in trusting your gut instinct. Every time I’ve got something wrong, it’s because I ignored mine.

I enjoy the chaos of life. I don’t like things set out in straight lines.

I was an outgoing and confident teenager, less confident in my 20s and 30s, and now I’m in my 40s I finally really know who I am. When I was growing up, women were still encouraged to pretend we weren’t as good at anything as we really were. You were almost told to hide your light in case it offended people. Once I let go of that notion, my life changed.

My earliest memory of writing is around age six, sitting at the piano in my brother’s room in Dundalk with a fairy-tale book and writing my first love song about princes and castles — a romantic at six!

I ran a record shop for a while, worked in a pub and in Penneys, but I never actually considered having a career in anything other than in music.

My favourite spot is sitting at my grand piano, writing my music. I love the process of simply allowing whatever comes towards me to channel its way through me. I may wander along and find a nice lyrical image, or a chord progression that I like and before I know it I have a new song.

Of course, writing is a very long process. I’ve just finished my second solo album in California with my producer Mitchell Froom — it took me nearly two years, fitted in alongside touring the world and doing The Voice and everything else. So for two years I’ve had this thought at the back of my mind ‘the album’s not finished’ and now that I’ve come to the end of that journey, it’s the most amazing feeling.

I don’t know an artist who hasn’t had stage anxiety at some point. Even Jeff Beck. He joined me on stage at in London last year and as he came on he whispered in my ear that his legs had turned to jelly!

Being nervous can be crippling. I had two years of it, on and off, when I came out of the Corrs. Maybe I hadn’t prepared myself properly for the transition from being part of a team, to performing solo. It began for me after I had one bad performance, because I’d been up with the kids the night before, flew straight in from shooting a video for three days in Spain, and I was dog tired. That scared the crap out of me but I was quick to get help from a voice coach to build my confidence and learn from the experience.

The best things in life are the ones you work hardest for — now I am at my happiest on stage and adore every moment of it, and the silver lining is that because of my experience, I am able to help guide the artists on The Voice through their own confidence issues.

Becoming a parent made me feel very vulnerable. Suddenly you realise that the world is not the nice safe place you thought it was. You need to be so vigilant to keep your precious little people safe.

I’m very glad that I did The Voice. It was a brave step for me as I had been very critical of the humiliation and lack of positive energy that abounds in television talent shows in general. But The Voice is the antidote to shows like X Factor. When I was asked to get involved, they showed me the US version and I could see from the outset that the format had integrity. I loved the fact that the coaches vote ‘blind’ based only on the contestant’s voice.

I think I look OK for 43. Some days I think I look wretched, but I remind myself that I’m only gonna get older so I might as well make the most of it. There’s too much pressure on women these days to look like candy floss. I utterly reject that. We have minds, souls, talents, humour, and lives to live and so much more to offer than a wrinkle-free plastic face. I go to the gym and getting the blood circulating always makes me feel about 10 years younger.

* Sharon Corr is one of the coaches on The Voice, RTÉ One, 6.30pm, Sundays.