Westlife

Westlife

Westlife is an Irish pop band formed on July 3, 1998. The group's original lineup comprised, Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and Bryan McFadden. The band is the only act in UK history to have their first seven singles go straight in at Number 1, and they have gone on to sell over 40 million records worldwide which includes their studio, single, video, and compilation albums.

They were signed on by Simon Cowell and are currently managed by Louis Walsh. In 2008, they were declared as Ireland's 9th richest celebrities under 30 years old and 13th in general. 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 won numerous awards such as "Best Irish Pop Act" at the annual Ireland Meteor Awards and is the only band to win the ITV "Record of the Year" award in the UK four times in a row. 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 UK". In 2009, a poll from a highly rated newspaper in the UK saw Westlife rated the second biggest musical band ever in the UK with 39% of the vote. They were beaten, just, by the 60s band The Beatles who scored 46% of the vote.

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. On July 3 2008, Westlife marked their 10th anniversary with a spectacular concert in Croke Park, Dublin which saw more than 82,000 fans attending the special occasion. Music Week revealed on their website that Westlife is the official 3rd top touring act within the years 2005-2008. While, as 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 July 3, 1998, was re-named Westside but as the name was already taken by another band, it was changed to Westlife. Also changing 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, "Pokemon 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 (Take a Look at Me Now)" 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 but those releases made moderate success only.

Allow Us... - 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 Westlife have had the same amount of number 1 hits as The Beatles . 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 4 months break from work. In 4 May 2005, Westlife loses their battle for European trademark from the German trademark "West". In 2005, Westlife returned with their come back 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 4th 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 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 marks 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 8th album, The Love Album, was a "love" concept album which consisted of popular love song covers. The album outnumbered 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 onto 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 2-hour show called "The Westlife Show" where they performed 10 of theirsongs some voted by the fans through online and some were 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 the Back Home Tour on 2008 February 25. This tour marks 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 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 will not be an album release in 2008 as they will be spending more time on the production of their tenth album. On June 16, 2008, HarperCollins UK will release Westlife's autobiography, 'Westlife - Our Story', as part of their 10th year celebration. The book has said to be written by each members 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. On other note, X perfume boxed set leaked on selected perfume stores in UK and Ireland on the last week of November which was originally planned to be released on the last week of December.

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 the Christmas of 2008, they wrote a letter to their website saying that 2009 will going to be the most exciting year yet for Westlife. With that, the fans more 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. On 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 comeback to music charts when they start on recording on 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.

We Are Back (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. 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 Filan told the Irish Mirror that they want to make the next album one of their best. Westlife have vowed to work for 100% new material, no more cover songs and to continue performing as a band until they have more #1 hit singles than The Beatles who are the only band with more hit singles than Westlife. Shane Filan said they would like to have 20 #1's before they would ever consider splitting up. The Band have also said that the new album will have a more rockier sound and wont 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 July 1 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, a big fan of the band's music. Ryan Tedder of the group OneRepublic and a well-known writer/producer also have done a song for them called "Beautiful", which may appear on their forthcoming album. Another song has been found for them was entitled "Leaving". On the latest, there are already prepared 5 songs given by Simon Cowell for them to record. Darren Hayes, Desmond Child, Guy Chambers, Leonard Cohen, Calvin Harris, JC Chasez and Ben Adams of the reunited boyband A1 were also about to work with the pop band. A song entitled "As Love Is My Witness" surfaced the internet and rumored to be included on the upcoming album.

US market

Westlife have so far been unable 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. Produced by Simon Cowell's America's Got Talent were 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 lads have 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 (Enough Is Enough)"), 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.

They had 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"), Wang Lee Hom ("You Raise Me Up"), Mary Black ("Walking In The Air"), Kevin Spacey ("Fly Me to the Moon"), Do ("Heaven"), 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. WIth the likes of Cameron Casey, Wayne Isham, Nigel Dick, Stuart Gosling, Phil Griffin, Antti Jokinen, David Mould, Alex Hemming, Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini. Prominent stars Claudia Schiffer, Robert Bathurst, James Wilby, Ioan Gruffudd, Crispin Bonham-Carter, Tim McInnerny, Vinnie Jones and Alexa Chung have also starred in their music videos.

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. It is reported that Louis Walsh newly signed girl group will be the support act of Westlife on their upcoming international concert tours.

Philanthropy

While each member of the band has had their own individual humanitarian advocacies and activities, Westlife has had 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 single to date. Apart from it, they have also help the S.I.R.F. organization in aid of the South Asian tsunami victims.

On November 4, 2005, they have 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 of 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

Main article: Westlife discography

Albums

• Westlife (1999)
• Coast to Coast (2000)
• World of Our Own (2001)
• Unbreakable (2002)
• Turnaround (2003)
• Allow Us To Be Frank (2004)
• Face to Face (2005)
• The Love Album (2006)
• Back Home (2007)
• We Are Back/ TBA (2009/2010)

UK No. 1 Singles

Swear It Again (April 1999)
If I Let You Go (August 1999)
Flying Without Wings (October 1999)
I Have a Dream/Seasons in the Sun (December 1999)
Fool Again (March 2000)
Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now) (September 2000)
My Love (October 2000)
Uptown Girl (March 2001)
Queen of My Heart (November 2001)
World of Our Own (February 2002)
Unbreakable (November 2002)
Mandy (November 2003)
You Raise Me Up (October 2005)
The Rose (November 2006)

See also

• Westlife videography
• Westlife songlist
• Westlife tours
• Westlife awards

• Boy band
• List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
• List of artists who reached number one in Ireland

External links

• Official Westlife Website
• Westlife on Myspace
• Official Westlife YouTube