Westlife 'rejected Jackson cover'

Mark Feehily has claimed that Westlife turned down a request to perform Michael Jackson's 'You Are Not Alone'.

The singer told Popjustice that the idea of covering the song, recently released by the X Factor finalists, was one of the worst they had received over the years.

Feehily said: "There was loads of stuff through the years, like 'You Are Not Alone' by Michael Jackson. Yeah, so Simon [Cowell]'s basically convinced somebody to do it, and it wasn't us!

"Put it this way, there's been times over the years where they've suggested stuff and we literally have gone 'Right, okay, don't even go there'. But then there's other times when we have to find a reason."

He added: "With Simon we don't want to just go 'No' or whatever, we try and give him a reason, and sometimes it is a bit harder to give a reason why not to do it.

"And sometimes there's a song where there is no reason not to cover them, you know."

Feehily also said that the band's forthcoming album is a "fresh sort of start" and that all of the band, Cowell and Louis Walsh are happy with the finished record.