This article is about the band. For their self-titled debut album, see Westlife (album).
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 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.
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.
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.
TTheir 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.
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.
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.
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 signed a brand new five album deal with Sony/BMG. Their eighth studio album was 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 played its last major concert of 2007 at Carlisle[10]on Sunday 12 August at Bitts Park in Carlisle, England.
Westlife's 9th studio album, as officially confirmed, will contain new original songs as the band has spent recent weeks in the studio working with a whole host of top producers including Steve Mac, Quiz Larossi, Jorgen Elofsson and Maratone.
The new album will reportedly be released the same day as the Spice Girls' newest release for another chart battle between the two pop groups.[11]
Westlife have performed duets with some of the biggest names of the music industry, including Mariah Carey, Donny Osmond, Lulu, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, 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 with the song Flying Without Wings ,which would appear on her mini-album, Shine We Are!.Westlife has also collaborated with Taiwanese artist leehom in their song 'You raise me up'.
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 members of Westlife appear to have successfully juggled their careers and their private lives:
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.
For a further discography of Westlife, see Westlife discography.
Year
Album
U.K.
UK sales
UK certificate
Westlife
2
4xPlatinum
Coast to Coast
1
5xPlatinum
World Of Our Own
1
4xPlatinum
Unbreakable - The Greatest Hits Vol. 1
1
4xPlatinum
Turnaround
1
2xPlatinum
Allow Us To Be Frank
3
2xPlatinum
Face To Face
1
4xPlatinum
The Love Album
1
3xPlatinum
TBA
TBA
TBA
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
