In The New Hot Press Christmas Issue: Andrea Corr talks sexism, religion, Billie Eilish and more

In the final issue of Hot Press of the year, cover star Andrea Corr reflects on the momentous release of her acclaimed memoir, Barefoot Pilgrimage.

"I wanted to record what I believed to be an extraordinary story, now that I was far away from it," Andrea explains. "And that doesn't just mean the music, but the home as well. It wasn't until I came to the very end of writing this book that I even thought about people reading it."

The in-depth interview sees Andrea dive into topics like family and faith – noting that it's becoming increasingly difficult in today's rapidly changing world to discuss the latter. She also discusses coming to terms with the crimes of the Catholic Church, without losing her faith.

"Like everybody else, I've seen and been horrified by the crimes that have been permitted to happen within the Catholic Church that we've been brought up in," she says. "Those people should be fully compensated as much as they can, because their lives have now gone down a different road than they should have."

"But at the same time," she continues, "for my own happiness, my own faith, and even my faith in humankind, I can't blame God for it. I don't want to lose God."

Andrea also discusses the importance of Billie Eilish during the course of the interview.

"She seems like an old soul," she smiles. "I'm going to sound like a granny now, but I really do respect her stance against the over-sexualisation of women in pop culture and pop music. And I really love the songs – I'm happy that there's no swear words, so it's alright for the kids, too (laughs)."

For more, see the full interview in the Hot Press Christmas Special – available in stores and online now: