Background information
Origin
Sligo
& Dublin,
Ireland
Genre(s)
Pop/Rock
music
Years active
1998–present
Label(s)
Sony BMG, RCA
Website
Westlife.com
Members
Shane
Filan
Mark
Feehily
Kian
Egan
Nicky
Byrne
Former members
Brian
McFadden
Westlife is an Irish
pop
music group, formed in 1998. They were signed by Simon
Cowell and are currently managed by Louis Walsh. The group is popular in the
United
Kingdom, Ireland and much of Europe. It is also
relatively popular in Asia,
Latin
America and Africa.
In recent years, Westlife's sound has evolved from boy band "teen pop" into
a more adult contemporary music
(ACM) sound.
Westlife has had fourteen number one singles
in the United Kingdom between the years 1999 and 2007, the
third-highest such total in UK history, behind Elvis
Presley and The Beatles, and tied with Cliff
Richard. They are also the only artist/group to win 'Record
of the Year' in the UK four times. Westlife received twenty-eight
platinum discs each for their eight albums. The group had sold more
than 35 million records by end of 2006 in over 20 countries worldwide.
They are worth an estimated €28
million (about $38
million).
Westlife were awarded the Best Irish Pop Act, a public voting
category, at the annual Ireland Meteor Awards for the seventh
consecutive year on February 2, 2007.
|
Contents
- 1 1998
- 2003
- 2 2004
- Present: And Then There Were Four
- 3 Private
Lives
- 4 Westlife
On Tour
- 5 Discography
- 5.1 Albums
- 5.2 UK
#1 singles
- 6 See
also
- 7 External
links
- 8 References
|
1998 - 2003
Westlife was formed in July 1998, with the members Kian Egan, Mark
Feehily, Shane
Filan, Nicky
Byrne, and Brian McFadden.
The group's roots can be found in Sligo in the north west of Ireland, where
Egan, Feehily, and Filan were in a six-member vocal group named IOYOU
(sometimes IOU),
with fellow Sligonians Derrick Lacey, Graham Keighron and Michael
"Miggles" Garrett. IOYOU were groomed and managed by choreographer Mary
McDonagh and two other informal managers..
IOYOU released a single called "Together Girl Forever". The band was
then 'discovered' by Louis Walsh, the manager of 1990s boy
band Boyzone
- he was actually contacted by Filan's mother. However IOYOU did not
meet Simon
Cowell's approval for a record deal with BMG, so changes were needed.
Two members of IOYOU were given the sack, and auditions were held in Dublin. The band
recruited Byrne and McFadden. A third original member, Michael Garrett,
was dropped. The group was re-named Westside soon afterwards but as the
name was already taken by another band, it was changed to Westlife.
Boyzone singer Ronan Keating was brought in to
co-manage the band with Walsh.
Westlife's Double-A side single I Have a Dream
/ Seasons in the Sun
became the #1 single during the Christmas period of 1999, and the first
#1 single of the new millennium in the UK.
Shane Filan, Mark Feehily and Bryan McFadden shared most of
the lead vocals. Some of the boys can play instruments (Kian and Bryan
play the guitar and the piano) and all five of them are songwriters,
although most of their hits have been composed by outside songwriters.
The group's musical influences include boy bands such as Boyzone, Take
That, Backstreet Boys and Boyz II
Men.
Westlife's first big break came in 1998 when they opened for
the Backstreet Boys in Dublin. Later that year, they won Best New Tour
Act at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party. In March 1999, their first
single, Swear It Again,
was released, and went straight to the top of the charts in Ireland and
the UK. The band's success was to be confirmed when their second
single, If I Let You Go,
entered the charts at number 1 in August 1999, followed by Flying
Without Wings in October, which repeated the
feat,this version did part from the Kids Warner Brothers film Pokemon
2000 soundtrack. They became the first number one of the new millennium
when their Double A-side single, I Have a Dream
/ Seasons in the Sun
knocked Cliff Richard's "The
Millennium Prayer" off the top spot. Westlife had the honour of the
Christmas number one. Their first album, simply titled Westlife,
was released in November 1999 and was also a big hit, peaking at #2.
The album included those four #1 singles, and the follow-up Fool Again
which also reached the top spot in April 2000.
Their next album was quickly recorded, and released in
November 2000. Coast to Coast
was an enormous hit in the UK, becoming the 4th biggest selling album
of the year, in that country. The album was preceded by a duet with Mariah
Carey on the Phil Collins classic Against All
Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) and the ballad My Love.
Both singles reached #1 in the UK charts. With this, Westlife broke an
unexpected record, having their seven debut singles in the top of the
UK charts. In December 2000, however, that run was broken when they
failed to secure their eighth chart-topper in a row when kid's
favourite Bob The Builder's Can We
Fix It was crowned Christmas number one.
In 2001,
the boys launched their first world tour, unofficially nicknamed "The
No Stools Tour", because of the band's reputation of performing perched
on stools. They also released their third album in November, World of Our Own,
which featured several songs that eventually became #1 hits: Queen
of My Heart and World of Our Own.
November 2002 saw Westlife release their Greatest Hits album,
called Unbreakable -
The Greatest Hits Vol. 1 amidst rumours of a split. However, they
released their fourth album in the autumn of 2003, Turnaround, their fourth
consecutive #1 album in only four years. It included the hit singles Hey
Whatever, Obvious and their twelfth #1
single, a cover of Barry Manilow's Mandy.
In 2003, Westlife also won Record of the Year for the third time in
five years.
2004 - Present: And Then There
Were Four
Bryan McFadden left the band on 9 March 2004 to devote more of his time to solo
projects as well as his family life with British TV personality and
former Atomic Kitten member Kerry
Katona and their two children, Molly (born in 2001) and Lilly
Sue (born in 2003). They subsequently broke up and Bryan started a solo
career, changing the spelling of his first name back to its original
'Brian'. Brian entered the chart at number one with his first solo
single, "Real To Me".
Less than a month after McFadden's departure, the boys kicked
off their fourth arena tour. They released "Allow Us To Be Frank"
later in the year, a Rat Pack-inspired album. In 2005, after a
four-month break, they came back with "You Raise Me Up", a cover of a Secret
Garden song, which was the first single off their seventh album "Face
to Face". On 6 November 2005, both the album and the single ("You
Raise Me Up") were at number one in the UK charts; it was the first
time the band had held both top album and single position in the same
week. Coincidently, both Enya and Westlife released their seventh
respective albums in the same month and year (Enya's "Amarantine" was
released on November 22, 2005). Having outlasted just about every other
boy band, the members of Westlife continue to laugh off any speculation
of a split-up, claiming their goal is to score at least 20 UK number
one singles.
Face to Face
debuted in the UK charts at #1 and included, among others, the #1 hit
single You Raise Me Up,
ninth biggest-selling single of 2005 in the UK.
As of late 2005, they have published five original pop albums,
one Greatest Hits album and one Rat Pack-inspired swing album. Westlife's
fan base is international: they have had success all over the world,
especially in Scandinavia and in South
East Asia, but also in Europe, Canada, Latin America, South
Africa, Australia
and even in the newly emerging pop market in Iraq. Westlife have
had sold out indoor and outdoor arena tours and they are one of the
biggest pop acts to come out of Ireland.
Westlife have duetted with some of the biggest names of the
music industry, including Mariah Carey, Donny
Osmond, Lulu, Donna
Summer, Diana
Ross, Lionel Ritchie, Christian
Castro, Ronan Keating and more recently Delta
Goodrem. Claudia Schiffer and Vinnie
Jones have also starred in their music videos. Westlife also
collaborated with Asian-music sensation BoA on a Korean language version of the song
which would appear on her mini-album, Shine
We Are!.
Westlife have not managed to truly break the United
States market. Their debut single and music
video "Swear It Again" was released in the US in 2000 and was a
moderate hit on mainstream radio and MTV, reaching #20 on the Billboard
Hot 100 and being shown briefly on MTV's Total
Request Live. Their debut American album was
also released in 2000,
but they have not yet released another album in the USA. In 2002, an
attempt to promote and release an American version of Westlife's "World
Of Our Own" album was cut short due to the sharp decline in the
popularity of boy-bands and pop music that year in the US. The Westlife
hit song "Flying Without Wings" peaked at
#10 in the US when American Idol
winner Ruben Studdard released it after
winning season 2 of the show. They have stated in interviews that they
were disappointed when they heard he released the song in the US
because that song was such a huge hit in the UK and they were planning
on eventually bringing that song to American audiences. In 2003 they
went to Nashville to film a TV documentary and recorded a song
originally performed by country music legend Kenny Rogers, "Daytime
Friends", which won them much praise.
The Love Album,
Westlife's latest album, debuted at #1 in the UK charts
The band have won ITV's Record of the Year
competition four times, with "Flying Without Wings" in 1999, "My Love"
in 2000, "Mandy" in 2003 and "You Raise Me Up" in 2005. They have also
won 2 Brit Awards.
Kian Egan appeared on ITV1's talent show "The X Factor"
alongside manager Louis to help him select his groups to be in the
final 12 for the live shows. Kian said on the "Sharon Osbourne Show" he
enjoyed being a judge and liked the contestants Ben and Eton Rd.
Westlife also performed with Ray Quinn in the X Factor Final (Take That
performed with Leona Lewis).
Having toured Asia twice before (first in 2000, then in 2001),
Westlife began their THIRD Asian tour on 4
September 2006
throughout the Philippines, South
Korea, Singapore,
Hong
Kong, Taiwan
and Indonesia.
(Their Australian tour had to be postponed due to delays in the
recording of their upcoming album.) Westlife have recently signed a
brand new five album deal with Sony/BMG. Their eighth studio album
released on the 20 November 2006. The first single from The Love Album was a
cover version of Bette Midler's classic The
Rose, which became their 14th UK number one single. This made Westlife
the third act (along with Cliff Richard) in the UK
chart history to have most number one singles, only behind Elvis
Presley (21, 18 of them different songs) and The
Beatles (17). In February, the band announced that they would
no longer be releasing Bonnie Tyler's song Total Eclipse of the
Heart, produced by Jim Steinman, nor any other singles from the album.
Westlife kicked off their latest The Love Tour
on 21
February 2007
in Perth, Australia.
The tour took in other cities in Australia, before moving on to South
Africa, the UK and Ireland, ending in Dublin on 3 May. The band is due
to play its last major concert of 2007 at Carlisleon
Sunday 12 August at Bitts Park in Carlisle, England.
Westlife's next album will reportedly be released the same day
as the Spice Girls' newest release
for another chart battle between the two pop groups.
On the 1st of August 2007, the band's official web site announced
that the lads are currently recording their 9th studio album,
consisting of completely brand new songs, which will be released later
this year.
Private Lives
The members of Westlife appear to have successfully juggled
their careers and their private lives:
Nicky
Byrne married his childhood sweetheart in July 2003: Georgina Ahern,
daughter of the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. Georgina gave
birth to fraternal twin sons Rocco Bertie and
Jay Nicky on April 20, 2007.
Kian
Egan is currently dating ex-member of Girl Thing and former Hollyoaks
actress Jodi
Albert.
Shane
Filan married Gillian Walsh, Kian Egan's cousin, on 28th December 2003,
and he became a father in 2005, when Gillian gave birth to Nicole on 23
July.
Mark
Feehily publicly announced he is gay in the UK tabloid The Sun, on 19
August 2005. He also noted his long-term relationship with Kevin McDaid
(of now defunct boy
band "V").
Feehily later told Gay.com UK, "I am gay, and I'm very proud of who I
am."
Feehily later told the Sydney Morning Herald that despite the
fact that the majority of Westlife's fans are female, that there had
really been no negative reaction to his revelation. "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 also said that while he
did not intend to get married right away, he is happy to know he could
in the UK with the recent passing of the Civil Partnership Act.
Westlife On Tour
- Where Dreams Come True Tour 2001
- World Of Our Own Tour 2002 (In The Round Tour 2002)
- The Greatest Hits Tour 2003
Discography
For a further discography of Westlife, see Westlife
discography.
Albums
| Year |
Album |
U.K. |
UK
sales |
UK
certificate |
| 1999 |
Westlife |
2 |
|
4xPlatinum |
| 2000 |
Coast To
Coast |
1 |
|
5xPlatinum |
| 2001 |
World
Of Our Own |
1 |
|
4xPlatinum |
| 2002 |
Unbreakable
- The Greatest Hits Vol I |
1 |
|
4xPlatinum |
| 2003 |
Turnaround |
1 |
|
2xPlatinum |
| 2004 |
Allow
Us To Be Frank |
3 |
|
2xPlatinum |
| 2005 |
Face
To Face |
1 |
|
4xPlatinum |
| 2006 |
The
Love Album |
1 |
|
3xPlatinum |
| 2007 |
To
Be Announced |
- |
TBA |
TBA |
UK #1 singles
| Number of
#1 |
Release
date |
Title |
From the
album |
Weeks at
#1 |
| 1 |
April 12, 1999 |
"Swear
It Again" |
Westlife |
2 |
| 2 |
August 9, 1999 |
"If
I Let You Go" |
Westlife |
1 |
| 3 |
October 18, 1999 |
"Flying
Without Wings" |
Westlife |
1 |
| 4 |
December 6, 1999 |
"I Have a Dream / Seasons
in the Sun" |
Westlife |
4 |
| 5 |
March 17, 2000 |
"Fool Again" |
Westlife |
1 |
| 6 |
September
18, 2000 |
"Against All
Odds" (with Mariah Carey) |
Coast to Coast |
2 |
| 7 |
October 31, 2000 |
"My Love" |
Coast to Coast |
1 |
| 8 |
February 26, 2001 |
"Uptown Girl" |
Coast to Coast |
1 |
| 9 |
November 5, 2001 |
"Queen
of My Heart" |
World of Our Own |
1 |
| 10 |
February 18, 2002 |
"World of Our Own" |
World of Our Own |
1 |
| 11 |
October 28, 2002 |
"Unbreakable" |
Unbreakable: The Greatest
Hits Vol I |
1 |
| 12 |
November 10, 2003 |
"Mandy" |
Turnaround |
1 |
| 13 |
October 24, 2005 |
"You
Raise Me Up" |
Face to Face |
2 |
| 14 |
November 6, 2006 |
"The
Rose" |
The Love Album |
1 |
See also
- UK Singles Chart records
- List of
best-selling music artists
- List
of artists who reached number one in Ireland
External links
References
Kian Egan · Mark
Feehily · Shane
Filan · Nicky
Byrne
Former member: Bryan McFadden
Discography
Albums: Westlife
· Coast to Coast
· World of our Own
· Unbreakable -
The Greatest Hits Vol. 1 · Turnaround
· Allow Us to Be Frank
· Face to Face
· The Love Album
Singles: "Swear
It Again" · "If I Let You Go" · "Flying
Without Wings" · I Have a Dream" · "Seasons
in the Sun" · "Fool Again" · "Against All
Odds" · "My Love" · "What Makes a
Man" · "I Lay My Love on You" · "Uptown
Girl" · "When You're Looking
Like That" · "Queen of My Heart" · "World of Our Own" · "Bop
Bop Baby" · "Unbreakable" · "Tonight"
· "Miss You Nights"
· "Hey
Whatever" · "Mandy" · "Obvious" · "Ain't
That a Kick in the Head" · "Smile" · "Beyond
the Sea" · "You Raise Me Up" · "When You Tell Me
That You Love Me" · "Amazing" · "The
Rose" · "All Out of Love"