Westlife is an Irish
pop band
formed on 3 July 1998.The group's original lineup comprised
Nicky Byrne,
Kian
Egan,
Mark Feehily,
Shane Filan and
Brian
McFadden who left in 2004. Currently, Filan and Feehily serve
as the band's lead vocalists.The band is the only act in UK history
to have their first seven
singles go
straight to Number 1, and they have gone on to sell over 43 million
records worldwide which includes their studio, single, video, and
compilation albums.
They were signed by
Simon Cowell and
are currently managed by
Louis Walsh. In
2008, they were declared as Ireland's ninth-richest celebrities
under 30 years old and 13th in general. They are the third biggest
selling pop band worldwide and biggest selling band of the decade
(2000-2009). They garnered 14 number one singles in the United
Kingdom, the third-highest in UK history, tying with
Cliff Richard and trailing behind only
Elvis Presley and
The Beatles.
The band has also broken a few top records,
including "Music artist with most consecutive number 1's in the UK"
and the "Biggest selling arena act in the Wembley Arena
". (See
Westlife records)
Over years of their career, Westlife's music has evolved from
teen pop to a
pop
sound, with an emphasis on
ballads. All of
the band members are songwriters, although most of their hits have
been composed by external writers, most notably Steve Mac and Wayne
Hector. (See
Songs
written)
On 1 June 2008, Westlife marked their 10th anniversary with a
concert in Croke Park, Dublin which saw more than 83,000 fans
attending the special occasion.
Music
Week revealed on their website that Westlife is the
official third top touring act within the years 2005–2008, while
they were 7th top touring act of 2008.
History
Formation
Prior to Westlife, Kian, Mark and Shane along with fellow
Sligonians Derrick Lacey, Graham Keighron and Michael Garrett, were
part of a six-member pop vocal group called IOYOU. Managed by
choreographer Mary McDonagh along with two other informal managers,
they released a single titled "Together Girl Forever". Louis Walsh,
the manager of the 1990s boy band
Boyzone,
was contacted by Shane's mother and came to know about the band.
However, IOYOU did not meet Simon Cowell's approval for a record
deal with BMG, and thus changes were needed. Three members of IOYOU
were told they would not be part of the new band, and auditions
were held in Dublin where Nicky Byrne and Brian McFadden were
recruited. The new group, formed on 3 July 1998, was re-named
Westside but as the name was already taken by another band, it was
changed to Westlife. Also changing the spelling of Brian's name to
Bryan. Boyzone singer
Ronan Keating
was brought in to co-manage the band with Walsh. Westlife then
released an EP titled
Swear It
Again, though only in Asia.
Dreams Come True - World Of Our Own (1998-2002)
Westlife's first big break came in 1998 when they opened for the
Boyzone and Backstreet Boys' concerts in Dublin. Later that year,
they won the 'Best New Tour Act' award at the
Smash Hits Poll Winners Party.
In March 1999, the band released their first single, "
Swear It Again" which immediately topped the
charts in Ireland and in UK for two weeks. Their second single,
"
If I Let You Go", released in
August 1999 along with the highly acclaimed "
Flying Without Wings" (their first
'Record of the Year'), released in October the same year, also
followed suit. "Flying Without Wings" was also included on the
soundtrack of the
Warner Brothers
film, "
Pokémon 2000". The first
album, simply titled
Westlife, was released in November
1999 and peaked at #2 in the UK. Ironically, the album was the
biggest chart dropper in the music history of UK, falling from #3
to #37, and is also the band's only original studio album that
never reached #1. In December 1999, the double a side fourth single
was released,"
I Have A
Dream"/"
Seasons
In The Sun", knocked Cliff Richard's "
The Millennium Prayer" off the top
spot and earning them the 1999 UK
Christmas number-one single. The
fifth and last single from the album, "
Fool
Again", also peaked at #1. Then, the band went on a short UK
and Asian tour in support of their debut album before releasing a
second album.
Coast to Coast was
released a year after and was another #1 UK album beating the
Spice Girls'
Forever album. It became
the country's 4th biggest selling album of 2000 and is Westlife's
biggest selling album to date. The album was preceded by a duet
with
Mariah Carey on the
Phil Collins' classic "
Against
All Odds " and the original song, "
My Love" (the song that bagged their
second 'Record of the Year' award). Both singles reached #1 on the
UK charts. With this, Westlife broke an unexpected record of having
their first seven singles debut at the top of the UK charts, tying
with
The Beatles. However, in December
2000, they failed to secure their eighth chart-topper in a row with
their UK and Ireland only single "
What
Makes A Man" when kid's favourite,
Bob The Builder's "
Can We Fix It", was crowned as the Christmas
number-one single of that year. Outside the UK/Ireland territories,
they have released "
I Lay My Love
on You" and "
When
You're Looking Like That" and gained chart success. In 2001,
the boys launched their first world tour, "
Where Dreams Come True
Tour", unofficially nicknamed "The No Stools Tour" due to the
band's reputation of performing while perched on stools.
Westlife released
World Of Our
Own, their third album, in November 2001. "
Uptown Girl", "
Queen of My Heart" and "
World of Our Own" were released as
singles, as of which all peaked at #1 in the UK. "
Bop Bop Baby" was also released as a single but
it peaked at #5 in the
UK Singles
Chart. In 2002, Westlife went on their second world tour, the
World Of Our Own Tour (In The
Round)
Unbreakable - Departure of Bryan (2002-2004)
The band released their eleventh UK #1 single, "
Unbreakable", in 2002. Amidst
rumours of a split, Westlife released their first greatest hits
album in November that same year entitled,
Unbreakable - The
Greatest Hits Vol. 1 zoomed all the
way to #1 in the UK. The release was followed by the double a side
single, "
Tonight/Miss You
Nights", which debuted at #3 in the UK. At this era, Because
Films Inspire... made a TV Documentary titled as "Wild Westlife"
directed by Iain MacDonald and starred by the band itself. It
reveals how was their musical life on a daily basis and when on
tour. In 2003, Westlife went on to their third world tour,
The Greatest Hits Tour, shrugging off
rumours of a split.
In September 2003, Westlife released "
Hey
Whatever", which peaked at #4 on the UK Charts. Their fourth
studio album,
Turnaround, was then
released in November, earning the band another UK #1 album.
"
Mandy", a cover of the
Barry Manilow hit, was released in
November 2003. Their version won them their third Record of the
Year award in under five years. Their version of Mandy is also
considered as the highest single leaper to the top (from #200 to
#1) in the UK music history. "
Obvious" was released as the final
single from the album, charting at #3.On 9 March 2004, just three
weeks prior to embarking on their fourth world tour,
Bryan McFadden left the band to spend more
time with his family and work on solo projects. On that day, a
press conference was held where all the band's members were present
and gave emotional individual speeches. Bryan's final public
performance as part of Westlife was at Newcastle Upon Tyne's
Powerhouse nightclub on 27 February 2004. He subsequently began a
solo career, deciding to revert the spelling of his first name back
to its original 'Brian', he released his first solo single,
"
Real To Me" which
entered the UK chart at #1 and soon after, he released his first
solo album, "
Irish Son" under
Sony Music. He went on to release more singles
with moderate success.
Allow Us To Be Frank - 10 years (2004–2009)
Less than a month after McFadden's departure, the band kicked off
their "
Turnaround Tour". A live
version from the said tour of "
Flying Without Wings" was released as
an official UK download, earning them the title of the very first
UK Downloads #1. They then put out a
Rat
Pack-inspired album,
Allow
Us to Be Frank, peaking at #3. No singles were released in
the UK from this album. "Ain't That A Kick In The Head",
accompanied with a music video, was released as a physical single
in other European countries. "
Smile" and "
Fly Me To The Moon", with music videos as
well, were released as digital downloads only. Prior to the album
release, Westlife scouted for "the perfect fan" to help promote
their album from their one-season special show "She's The One",
presented by
Kate Thornton. After
X Factor-style
auditions, they found Joanne Hindley, who recorded "
The Way You Look Tonight" with the
band. To mark this special collaboration, a special programme was
televised, showing auditions and live performances. Performers
included Joanne, Westlife members' fathers and glamour model
Katie Price,
Il
Divo and
Kevin Spacey. Westlife
continued to tour Europe as part of their "
The Number Ones Tour", before taking a
four-month break from work.On 4 May 2005, Westlife lost their
battle for European trademark from the German trademark "West". In
2005, Westlife returned with their comeback single, "
You Raise Me Up", which was taken from their
Face To Face
album. On 6 November 2005, both the album and the single were at #1
in the UK at the same time at the second week of the single. It was
the first time that Westlife have held both top album and single
position in the same week. "You Raise Me Up" was awarded as their
fourth Record Of The Year in UK for 2005. In December that year,
the band released "
When You Tell
Me That You Love Me", a duet with
Diana
Ross, as the second single and it debuted at its peak position
of #2. Westlife then released a third single, "
Amazing", which debuted at #4 and
marked as the band's lowest-selling single yet. After that,
Westlife embarked on the "
Face To Face
Tour", travelling extensively to the UK, Ireland, Australia and
Asia. This tour marked the first time that Westlife have travelled
to mainland China for a concert.
In late 2006, Westlife signed a brand new five-album deal with Sony
BMG. Their eighth album,
The Love Album, was a
"
love" concept album which consisted of popular
love song covers. The album outsold other
compilation albums by
Oasis, The Beatles, and
U2 in its first week of release and went straight
to #1. The first single from
The Love Album was a cover
version of
Bette Midler's classic,
"
The Rose", which became
their 14th UK #1 single. This made Westlife the third act (along
with Cliff Richard) in the UK to have the most #1 singles, tailing
behind Elvis Presley
(21) and The Beatles
(17).
Westlife then kicked off their eighth world
tour, "The Love Tour", in Perth
, Australia. The band then went on to other
Australian cities before moving on to South Africa, the UK and
Ireland.
The band played their last major concert of
2007 at Bitts Park in Carlisle
,
England.
On 5 November 2007, Westlife released their ninth album,
Back Home, which
contained nine new original songs along with three cover songs. The
album debuted at #1 on the UK Music Charts and it was also 2007's
fifth biggest selling album in the UK. The first single released
from the album was a cover of
Michael
Bublé's "
Home", which
peaked at #3 in the UK. "
I'm Already
There", not released as a single, managed to chart in the UK
based on downloads alone following a performance on an
The X Factor episode. On 15 December
2007, they had a two-hour show called
The Westlife Show
where they performed 10 of their songs, some voted by the fans
through online and some from
Back Home. It was hosted by
Holly Willoughby.
This time, Westlife
together with Tesco
brought out
"The Definitive Westlife Quiz" that asked about the whole history
about the band. It was participated by thousands of fans
worldwide. Months later, "
Us Against The World"
was announced and released as their second single in UK and
Ireland. It peaked at #8 and is the band's lowest charting single
to date. Before the release of the second single, they embarked on
the
Back Home Tour on 2008 February
25.
This
tour marked the first time that the group have traveled and
performed to New Zealand, performing four sold-out shows in
Auckland
, Wellington
, New
Plymouth
and Christchurch
.Meanwhile, "
Something Right" was
released as the second single and "Us Against The World" became the
third single in Europe and the Asia Pacific region. Both songs
performed well on several music charts.
To mark
their tenth year in music, Westlife staged a special 10 Years
Of Westlife sold-out concert at the world's thirty-third and
Europe's fourth biggest stadium, Croke Park
, on 1 June 2008. With a capacity of
82 300, it was the band's biggest show to date.
Shayne Ward filled in as a support act for the
concert, which Kian described to be of a "pop extravaganza". Shane
confirmed that a corresponding live concert DVD will be released.
The band announced that they will be on hiatus for a year after
their Back Home Tour and that there would not be an album release
in 2008 as they would be spending more time on the production of
their tenth album. On 16 June 2008,
HarperCollins UK will release Westlife's
autobiography, '
Westlife - Our
Story', as part of their 10th year celebration. The book was
said to be written by each member of the band for three months. It
contains the life they have for the past ten years in the business.
It features also some of the private pictures from the lads. As
promised, the band's official website confirmed on 27 September
2008 the release of a DVD on 24 November 2008 entitled
10 Years Of Westlife - Live at Croke Park
Stadium which went straight to #1 on UK, Ireland, South
African, Hong Kong and New Zealand Music DVD charts.
As the group ended their successful Back Home tour, Louis Walsh
announced in the show
Xpose that 1
July 2008 is the official start of the longest hiatus of the band
so far. He said that it will be a one-year break, from that day up
to 1 July 2009. On 13 December 2008, while on a break, Westlife
made an unexpected appearance on
X
Factor Final Performance Night where they performed
"Flying Without Wings" with
JLS. After
the presentation, Shane and Nicky were interviewed on
Xtra Factor with Ronan Keating and
Stephen Gately of Boyzone. As JLS performed
also "I'm Already There", Westlife's version of the song re-entered
the UK Singles Chart at #63 while a new entry on Ireland Singles
Chart at #47 due to extensive downloads only.
Before Christmas 2008, they wrote a letter to their website saying
that 2009 was going to be the most exciting year yet for Westlife.
With that, the fans of Westlife strongly speculated that one of the
reasons is because of their possible collaborations with
Leona Lewis and
Britney Spears. While on a hiatus, Westlife
was reported to have a closed deal for their upcoming 70-concert
tour with 10 million Euros worth by the end of 2009.
On the last week of January 2009, a DVD entitled
The Karaoke Collection was
released. It contains some of their music video hits. In 27
February 2009 issue of
Herald Ireland, Louis revealed that
Simon already picked three new songs which he reckons to be instant
hits. Nicky spread the world last 8 March 2009 that the band will
come back to music charts when they start recording in June 2009
when he received his
VIP Style
Awards as the Most Stylish Man on X-pose, TV3. On 18 March
2009, they won the Best Irish Pop Act on
2009 Meteor Awards for the ninth
consecutive time. On 28 May 2009, they re-released
Westlife -
Our story autobiography, adding their Croke Park experience
and first time in a paperback edition.
Where We Are (2009-present)
Walsh has revealed that after a year's break with their friends and
family Westlife will return to hit the charts once more in June
when they work on their tenth studio album. Walsh also said that
while he met up with Simon Cowell they jointly managed to
mastermind Westlife's comeback. At the time three songs had already
been chosen which he believes will be big hits when they are
released by the boy band. Westlife will be revealing their 2010
tour dates with two new dates in Croke Park on their minds. They
have currently set one date at Croke park to be June 5. In total
the band plans to play 70 concerts coming towards the end of the
year including 8 dates at Dublin's 02 arena and other huge venues
across Ireland, the United Kingdom and other countries. Shane told
the Irish Mirror that they want to make the next album one of their
best. The band have also said that the new album will have a
rockier sound and won't be as ballad driven.
Irish Evening Herald revealed that Louis Walsh's new
girlband, which includes Kian's wife
Jodi
Albert, will be supporting Westlife when they return to the
international stage in late 2009. Westlife plans to play more dates
at Croke Park, and the new girlband will be the support act for at
least one of the shows, to experience playing in a major venue.
Walsh has confirmed that his band touring with Westlife is
definite.
The recording process of their tenth album started on 1 July 2009
on Telefunken studios in London. Nicky said that there will be many
first-time producers and writers for the upcoming album. He also
wanted to have collaboration works with
Chris Martin of
Coldplay who happens to be a big fan of the band's
music.
Ryan Tedder of the group
OneRepublic and a well-known writer/producer
have also done songs for them called "Shadows" (co-written with
AJ McLean of the
Backstreet Boys) and "Beautiful", which may
appear on their forthcoming album. Another song has been found for
them entitled "Leaving".
Darren Hayes,
Desmond Child,
Guy Chambers,
Leonard
Cohen,
Chris Braide,
Andreas Carlsson,
Wayne Hector,
Walter Afanasieff,
Ben Adams,
JC Chasez and
Shaznay Lewis were also about to work
with the pop band. A song entitled "As Love Is My Witness" recorded
by the band and "Now Can't Let Go", a Westlife rumored demo song by
Wayne Hector surfaced the internet. Another song, "No More Heroes",
co-written by Lindy Robbins is slated to appear on the upcoming
album. A song entitled "Reach Out" was co-written by band member
Mark Feehily with Chris Braide and
Shaznay Lewis.
The new album,
Where We Are,
will be released on 30 November 2009 in the UK. The new single
"
What
About Now", was released a few weeks earlier on 23 October
2009, with digital downloads being available the day before.
Daughtry's original version of the song
gained exposure on the audition rounds of The X Factor prior to
Westlife's release. The official tracklisting of the album has been
released by Amazon, Play and HMV on their own websites on
26 October 2009. The band is
set to collaborate for the second time with
Mariah Carey and is going to be Mariah's next
single, the song is called "Call Me Now" and will be exclusive to
the UK.
US market
Westlife have so far not been able to break into the US market.
Their debut single and music video "Swear It Again", released in
the US in 2000, was a hit on mainstream radio and the band even
made an appearance on MTV's
Total
Request Live. The song peaked at #20 on the
Billboard Hot 100 and was #75 on the
Billboard Hot 100 year end chart in 2000. A US edition of their
debut album,
Westlife was
also released. In 2002, an attempt was made to promote and release
a US version of Westlife's
World Of
Our Own album but was scaled back as the band decided to
concentrate promotions in other foreign markets where they had a
larger fan base. This was a questionable decision as the band may
have been able to capitalize on opportunities left behind when the
two most prominent boy bands in the US, the
Backstreet Boys and
N'
Sync, went on hiatus that year. The Westlife hit song "
Flying Without Wings" peaked at #2 in
the US when
American Idol Season 2
winner
Ruben Studdard recorded and
released it as his debut single. The band was disappointed when
they heard of the news as they were planning on bringing that song
to the American audiences in the near future. In 2003, Westlife
went to Nashville to film a TV documentary for the BBC called
"Swapping Notes: Westlife go Country". While they were there, they
gave a live performance of the song "
Daytime Friends", originally by country
music legend
Kenny Rogers, which won
them much critical praise.
Recently, an interview with Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell was held
saying that the group will try to break into the music market of
the United States in their comeback in 2009-2010.
America's Got Talent, produced by
Simon Cowell, is avidly using Westlife
songs like "Us Against the World", "Flying Without Wings" and "What
Makes a Man" as the background music of the said show.
Collaborations
The band is signed under the management of the major record label
Sony Music. Louis Walsh, Simon Cowell,
Sonny Takhar, Tim Byrne are some of Westlife's management and
production team. Aside from Steve Mac and Wayne Hector, the band
has the opportunies to work for their original songs with some of
the well-known songwriters/producers. Here are some of them that we
can widely see on their studio albums:
Savan Kotecha,
Rami
Yacoub,
Per Magnusson, David
Kreuger,
Max Martin,
Anders Johansson, Josef Larossi,
Jorgen Elofsson,
Andreas Carlsson, Arnthor Birgisson,
Kristian Lundin, Jake Schulze,
Diane
Warren and most recently Ryan Tedder, Darren Hayes, and Ben
Adams.
For
their remixed songs, Rokstone
, Orphanz, Ashanti Boyz, Wideboys, Soul Seekerz,
and Jim Steinman have already worked
for the band to complete their single releases.
The group had studio recorded and live collaborations in some of
the most renowned music acts such as Mariah Carey ("Against All
Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)"),
Lulu
("
Back at One"), Joanne Hindley ("The
Way You Look Tonight"), Diana Ross ("When You Tell Me That You Love
Me"),
Donna Summer ("
No More Tears "),
Delta Goodrem (
"All
Out of Love"), and "
If I Had
Words" with The Vards.
"I Have A Dream",
with Indonesian childstar
Sherina and
"My Love" with
Amr Diab. These songs were
also recorded and included on the various albums. In 2002, Westlife
re-recorded their hit song "Flying Without Wings" with
Cristian Castro and Korean singer
BoA as two separate duets.
Westlife have performed live duets with some of the biggest names
in the music industry including
Sinéad O'Connor ("
Silent Night"),
Donny
Osmond ("
Crazy Horses"), Mariah
Carey ("
Never Too Far/Hero
Medley"),
Secret Garden
("You Raise Me Up"),
Lionel Richie
(
"Easy"),
Ronan Keating (
"The Dance"),
Dolores O'Riordan of
The Cranberries ("
Little Drummer Boy"), Roy Orbison
("
Pretty Woman"), Delta Goodrem ("All
Out Of Love"),
Raymond Quinn ("That's
Life"),
Leehom Wang ("You Raise Me Up"),
Mary Black ("Walking In The Air"),
Kevin Spacey (
"Fly Me to the Moon"),
Do (
"Heaven"),
JLS
("
Flying Without Wings"),
various artists "All-Stars" ("
That's What Friends Are For";
"Merry Christmas Everybody"; "I Wish It Could Be Christmas
Everyday") and even their fathers ("That's Life").
Some of the famous music video directors have got the chance to
work with Westlife:
Cameron Casey,
Wayne Isham,
Nigel
Dick, Stuart Gosling, Phil Griffin, Antti Jokinen, David Mould,
Alex Hemming, Phil Andelman, Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini.
Shayne Ward, No Way Out, K-otic,
Natural,
Six, Totally Spies,
D-Side and Lauren Waterworth,
Bellefire,
The
Conway Sisters,
V, Twen2y4se7en, Zoo,
Kwest, Pop, No Way Out, Sub Bass 5, Traphic, Mark Dakriet, 4th
Ba5e, Reel,
Peter Andre,
Girls Aloud,
Eton Road,
Gareth Gates, Roxanne, Alsou,
The MacDonald Brothers,
Billiam, Cushh, The Unconventionals, Dyyce, Lady
Nada, Code 5, Annabel Fay and Hope have supported the band on
different tours.
Philanthropy
While each member of the band has had their own individual
humanitarian advocacies and activities, Westlife has been
supporting various projects for a charity cause from the start. One
of which was when the group re-recorded "I Have A Dream" with
Indonesian star
Sherina for a
UNICEF fund raising. Aside from that, the band
released their cover version of "
Uptown Girl" as a
Comic Relief single, which was one of their
biggest selling singles to date. Apart from it, they have also
helped the S.I.R.F. organization in aid of the South Asian tsunami
victims.
On 4
November 2005, they performed together with Christina Aguilera and Diana Ross at Coca-Cola Dome
in Johannesburg
, South Africa for The “Unite of the Stars” Gala
Banquet charity concert that supports four charities: the Nelson
Mandela Children’s Fund, Unite Against Hunger, St. Mary’s Hospital
and the Topsy Foundation. They've also been actively helping
both the
Royal
National Institute for the Deaf (RNID),
ChildLine and
Children
in Need,
Cancer Research UK
organizations.
Most recently, they performed "Us Against
the World" live on Sports Relief, of Bluebell Wood and participating in Galway
's Irish
Water Safety Campaign by doing an advertisement. They are
also an official supporter of One World Beat.
Discography
Studio albums
Cover albums
Greatest Hits album
Compilation albums
- No. 1 Hits and Rare Tracks (2000)
- Released
(2005)
UK #1 Singles
Awards, nominations, records and achievements
Tours
See also
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search