Brian McFadden

Brian Nicholas McFadden (born 12 April, 1980 in Artane, Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish singer and songwriter.

Biography

Brian has a sister, Susan, and his parents' names are Brendan and Mairead.

McFadden married Kerry Katona on 5 January 2002 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Rathfeigh, County Meath. They had their honeymoon in Mauritius and have two daughters: Molly Marie McFadden (born August 31 2001, Dublin, Ireland), and Lilly-Sue McFadden (born February 3 2003, Dublin, Ireland) who were both born at Dublin's Mount Cameral Hospital. The couple announced their separation in September 2004 and their divorce was finalized in December 2006.

Brian is now dating Australian singer and actress Delta Goodrem. McFadden and Goodrem are currently both recording new albums and are busy flying between Dublin and Sydney and the recording studio.

The early years

Brian's main interests have always been singing and football. Together with his sister he attended Billie Barry Stage School in Dublin and performed as an actor onstage all major theatres in Ireland. He also had a role in the Irish TV show Finbar's class, a comedy about a group of teenagers set in a school.

In 1998 he set up a pop and R&B-influenced group called Cartel with two other boys named Tim and Darragh. Together they successfully performed live in most of Dublin's pubs.

Westlife

McFadden came to fame as a member of the boy band Westlife.

The turning point in his singing career was his meeting with Louis Walsh, who at that time was managing Boyzone. Brian wanted to talk to thim about Cartel, but Walsh was not interested in signing a new band. Instead, he invited Brian to join another group made up of boys from Sligo who were formerly known as I.O.U. and later as Westside. Brian auditioned together with his friend Nicky, and they made such an impression that they both ended up being part of the boy band.

A few months later the group, who had changed the name to Westlife, debuted at #1 in the UK chart with their first 7 singles, setting a new record in the Guinness book. Their 8th single was also successful, topping at #2.

McFadden performed with Westlife as Bryan because he claimed it made signing autographs easier for him.

Some of Westlife's songs were co-written by Brian, such as Fragile Heart (from the album "Coast to Coast (album)"), Bop bop baby, I wanna grow old with you, Love crime (from the album "World of Our Own").

With Westlife, Brian has sold more than 30 millions albums and 7 millions singles, had 12 #1 singles in the UK chart and sold out stadiums all over the world.

Solo career

Brian left Westlife on 9 March 2004 [1] to spend more time with his family and work on solo projects.

McFadden was signed to the major record company Sony BMG and his first album Irish Son charted in the Top 30 of the UK charts. Most of the songs were co-written with Guy Chambers, who is mostly known for his successful collaboration with Robbie Williams. To start his solo career Brian resumed the original spelling of his name.

He released his debut single "Real to Me" in September 2004, which went to #1 on the UK charts.

His second single, "Irish Son", was released in November 2004 and went to #6 on the UK charts. The video for Irish Son caused some serious controversy, as it showed a Christian Brothers school in Sutton whilst the lyrics implied that McFadden had been physically abused at that school. After the school's protests, the label decided to withdraw the video [2]. In fact, Brian attended a different CBS school, in Artane. The song for the most part criticises the alleged negative hold that the Roman Catholic Church held on Irish society in the past, while McFadden claims in the song that "it was leaving that saved me".

The third single, "Almost Here", a duet with Australian singer Delta Goodrem, peaked at No. 3 on the UK charts and reached No. 1 in Australia. McFadden and Goodrem have collaborated on several songs, which appeared in her album Mistaken Identity. They have continued to write songs together and hope to become a well-established song-writing team.

The fourth single from the album, "Demons", only reached #28 in May 2005. The video was directed by Howard Greenhalgh, and was later remade into a different version featuring scenes from the popular TV show Lost by the American network ABC in order to promote the show itself.

Brian co-wrote the song "If My World Stopped Turning" which was sung by Chris Doran in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.

In 2006 Brian has also duetted with American singer LeAnn Rimes in a song called "Everybody's Someone", which featured on her album "Whatever We Wanna". The single reached number 48 in the British charts.

It was announced on the 22/03/2007 that Brian had been dropped by his record label due to poor album sales the failure of recent singles "Demons" and "Everybody's Someone" and possibly his inability to reach any major music markets outside of the UK and Ireland. [3]

It is currently unknown what stage Brian is at with his second solo album and with his releasing from his contract with SonyBMG and it is also unknown when his next single will be released.

2007 Onwards

April 20th 2007 marks the release of the new single from Ireland’s most controversial pop star, Brian McFadden.
Having spent much of the past year in the dark of the studio, but never far from the limelight, Brian’s self-penned song is the first track from his second solo album.

“Like Only A Woman Can” is an open and frank love-song to someone who has helped the writer find redemption. ‘It is a song about Delta’, explains Brian, ‘but equally it’s me admitting the mistakes of my past, while looking forward to the future’.

In recent months Brian has collaborated with numerous luminaries including Paul Barry (Enrique Inglesias/Cher) and Phil Thornalley (Natalie Imruglia/The Cure). The net result is a more mature artist than we have previously known. Brian claims that he has never been happier and more focussed. “Right now is the best place I’ve been in my life. I’m really enjoying writing and recording the album and personally things have never been better!”

Apart from his success as a recording artist McFadden can feel justifiably proud of his achievements as a songwriter. With solo records reaching Number 1 in UK, Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Holland Belgium and Australia, he has also been critically recognised with his song ‘Demons’ being featured in the U.S. TV series ‘Lost’. In addition, Brian has also written songs for artists as diverse as Il Divo and Girls Aloud, as well as the theme for the Theme for the Commonwealth Games.

Future projects include further writing with Delta Goodrem, a collaboration with Westlife’s Mark Feehily as well as the completion of the new solo album and the development of the BMF label internationally. “I admire artists like George Michael who had the guts to establish their own identity in the business and that’s what I aspire to do”.

Although McFadden’s name appears on over 50 million CDs throughout the world, he stresses that this release means most to him. “I am proud of my past, but I’m really excited about my future”.

Solo discography

Albums

Year	Title	Chart positions
		UK	IRE	AUS
2004	Irish Son	28	6	-

Singles

Year	Title	Chart positions			Album
		UK	IRE	AUS
2004	"Real To Me"	1	1	54	Irish Son
2004	"Irish Son"	6	2	83	Irish Son
2005	"Almost Here" [feat. Delta Goodrem]	3	1	1	Irish Son
2005	"Demons"	28	24	N/R	Irish Son
2006	"Everybody's Someone" [feat. LeAnn Rimes]	48	27	N/R	Whatever We Wanna
2007	"Like Only A Woman Can"				TBC

See also

• Westlife

Trivia

• Brian is a keen footballer and is a fan of Coventry City [4].

• He owns a recording studio in Dublin called the Vocal Lab.

• The tattoo in his inner left arm reads "Sometimes life breaks in mysterious ways", a line from his song Sorry Love Daddy which he dedicated to his daughters.

• He is currently managing South African rock band Franklin, as well as Irish group Melt Hair And The Love Rats who have covered his hit single Real To Me [5].

Quotes

-"I'll know I'm famous when I have five Ferrari's, seven houses, Cameron Diaz on my arm and a little man following me with a huge bag of money".

-"I've worked in a cash and carry store, a wine cellar and McDonalds, which was by far the worst. I was a security guard for McDonalds in Dublin City Centre and it was awful. I just stood there all day - it was so boring." (Bryan on his previous jobs).

-"When I was at school I got lines for dropping a big squelchy, loud fart. My teacher, who was a priest, made me write 'I must not fart in class' 100 times. I left that school shortly afterwards."

-"We were round Ronan's having dinner. One of his friends was having a drink and we swapped his short with a swig of vinegar. Then we started going 'Drink, drink, drink!' He did it, his face turned green and then he puked everywhere!"

-"I bite my finger nails and spit them out. I once spat off a roof and hit someone. I didn't mean to but it was a direct hit."

-"I collected Discovery Magazine. Looking back it was such a boring thing to do cos it's all about stuff like the Kings and Queens of England. I used to keep each copy stashed away in a file!"

External links

• Brian McFadden's Official Site
• Brian McFadden's Official MySpace
• Fan Site about Brian McFadden
• Cartel's Official Site
• Billie Barry Stage School
• Site about Brian McFadden and Delta Goodrem