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Westlife

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Westlife

Westlife is an Irish pop music group that formed in July 1998. They were signed by Simon Cowell and are currently managed by Louis Walsh. The group is popular in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and much of Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.[1][2][3][4] 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 2006, 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. The group had sold more than 20 million records by end of 2006, yet to this day it is still unclear to how many records exactly the band have sold because some of their main markets are countries in Asia that do not publish sales figures.[5][6] They are worth an estimated €28 million (about $38 million)[7]

Westlife were awarded the Best Irish Pop Act, a public voting category, at the annual Ireland Meteor Awards for the seventh consecutive year on 2 February 2007.

Pre-formation

Westlife was formed in July 1998, with the members Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne and Brian McFadden

The group's roots are 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 managed by choreographer Mary McDonagh and two other informal managers.[8]. 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: Big Break

Westlife's first big break came in 1998 when they opened for the Boyzone 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 was included in the soundtrack for the Warner Brothers film, Pokemon 2000. They became the first number one artist 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. They then went on a UK tour performing at Newcastle Metro Arena where they invited a number of fans on stage.

Coast to Coast

Westlife's next album was quickly recorded, and released in November 2000. Coast to Coast was an enormous hit in the UK, becoming the country's 4th biggest selling album of the year and Westlife's biggest selling album to date. Westlife took on a signing tour around the UK called "Coast To Coast". 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 first seven singles debut at 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.

World of Our Own

Westlife released their third album in November 2001 called World of Our Own, which featured several songs that eventually became Number 1 hits including "Uptown Girl", "Queen of My Heart" and "World of Our Own".

This album also featured the original version of "Evergreen", which was then covered by Gareth Gates and Will Young for Pop Idol.

Westlife took this album and went on their second tour but this time in the round. The tour was taken all over Europe and the UK.

Greatest Hits

November 2002 saw Westlife release their Greatest Hits album, Unbreakable - The Greatest Hits Vol. 1, amidst rumours of a split. They released their first single from this album in October 2002, Unbreakable. This was followed by the double a-side single of Tonight and Miss You Nights.

In 2003 Westlife toured the UK and Europe with the greatest hits, and still shrugged off rumours of a split.

Turnaround

In September 2003, Westlife released Hey Whatever (founded by member Mark Feehily), which made it to Number 4 in the UK Charts. In November 2003 came Westlife's 'Make or Break' and fourth studio album Turnaround, and made Number 1. Along with the Number 1 album was their twelfth Number 1 single. Mandy (a cover of Barry Manilow's ballad) was released in November 2003 Which was Bryan's final number one. Obvious the final song with Bryan McFadden in the group was also released from the album and charted at Number 3 in February 2004.

In 2003, Westlife also won Record of the Year for the third time in five years.

The departure of Brian Mcfadden

On 9 March 2004, just three weeks before Westlife were due to embark on their fourth UK and Europe tour, Bryan McFadden left the band 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 McFadden entered the chart at number one with his first solo single, "Real To Me". He went on to release more singles, but to only moderate success. The five members were now down to four.

The New Westlife

Allow Us to Be Frank

Less than a month after McFadden's departure, the boys kicked off their fourth arena Turnaround tour. They released a live version of Flying Without Wings as an official UK download. They released their come-back album Allow Us to Be Frank later in the year, a Rat Pack-inspired album. Westlife did not release a single from this album even though they shot many music videos. They did, however, release more official UK downloads, including Ain't That A Kick In The Head and Smile.

Before the album release, Westlife traveled up and down the UK to find "the perfect fan" to help promote their album. After X Factor style auditions, they found Joanne Hindley (who later appeared on X Factor). They recorded "The Way You Look Tonight". To celebrate their first ever fan to appear on a Westlife song they televised it, showing auditions and live performances. Their performances included Joanne, their fathers and glamour model Katie Price. They also performed alone.

The album became their first since their debut not to top the chart and peaking at its entry position Number Three.

Face to Face

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 1 in the UK charts at the same time. It was the first time the band had held both top album and single position in the same week.[9]

In December 2005, Westlife released the second single off their album, When You Tell Me That You Love Me, which was a duet with Diana Ross who had previously sung the song alone. Westlife then released their third single Amazing which is their last non-cover single to date.

The Love Album

In late 2006, Westlife signed a brand new five album deal with Sony/BMG. Their eighth studio album, The Love Album, consists all of covers of love songs.

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). Plans for the release of Total Eclipse of the Heart and that a video were being made were scrapped. 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 eight tour called 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.

Back Home

Westlife's 9th studio album Back Home was released Monday, 5 November and contains nine brand new and original songs and three cover songs as the band has spent recent weeks in the studio working with producers including Steve Mac, Quiz Larossi, Jorgen Elofsson and Maratone. The album debuted at number 1 on the UK Music Charts.[11][12]

On 29 October 2007, Westlife released the first single from the album, a cover of "Home" by Michael Bublé. Fans expected it to be their 15th UK No 1 yet it only debuted at number 3.[13] They were beaten by Leona Lewis on her second week at number 1 and Take That's two week old single "Rule the World", selling just 48,000 units.[14]

Westlife: Approaching 10 Years

Despite celebrating 10 years in the business next year Westlife are determined that they will not split up. They are planning to take a year out of the spotlight following their January 2008 Back Home Tour but will be back with a 10th album, who ate all the pies, next year. “We know we're not splitting up until we have established who actually ate all the pies, 'cos it definately wasnt me," Mark said, with his cheeks bulging and crumbs spraying out of his mouth while talking to Female First.co.uk [15] after fans began to panic over news the guys are taking a year long break after their upcoming tour. "The fans are all not sure because that's what Boyzone said and whatever but we're just going to take a lot longer to make this 10th album," he confirmed. "This is a big tour coming up and then we're actually taking a year off after that. It's a big one for us and a big one for the fans. So it's not like we're taking a year off- we're taking a year away from releasing an album in November because we've done the nine albums in nine years.”

On 2 November 2007, Westlife announced they will play Croke Park in Dublin[16] on 1 June 2008 during an interview on Irish TV show The Late Late Show. Croke Park is the fourth biggest stadium in Europe which holds over 100,000 people making the concert Westlife's biggest performance to date. Kian described the tour to be a pop extravaganza. Shane confirmed that the band will not release a new album in 2008 but they will release a tour DVD.

Duets and problems with the US market

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 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, as the two most prominent boy bands in the US, Backstreet Boys and N' Sync, took breaks. 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.

Personal lives

The members of Westlife appear to have successfully juggled their careers and their private lives:

  • Kian Egan is currently dating ex-member of Girl Thing and former Hollyoaks actress Jodi Albert. They have opened their own juice bar, in Sligo, known as the Monkey Tree.
  • Shane Filan married Gillian Walsh, Kian Egan's cousin, on 28 December 2003, and he became a father in 2005, when Gillian gave birth to Nicole Rose 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."

Tours

  • Where Dreams Come True Tour 2001
  • World Of Our Own Tour 2002
  • The Greatest Hits Tour 2003
  • Turnaround Tour 2004
  • No1's Tour 2005
  • Face to Face Tour 2006
  • The Love Tour 2007
  • Back Home Tour 2008

See also

Discography

For a further discography of Westlife, see Westlife discography.

Albums

Year Album U.K. 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. 1 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 Back Home 1 TBA

UK Number 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" World Of Our Own 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

References

  1. ^ BBC Westlife win at first MTV Asia Awards
  2. ^ Westlife in Mexico
  3. ^ Musicians - Westlife
  4. ^ Westlife Concert in South Africa
  5. ^ BBC News: Westlife have 14th #1 hit in UK
  6. ^ Westlife's releases new single "Home" (in Spanish)
  7. ^ Sligo Weekender Westlife worth 28 million Euro
  8. ^ Karaoke No More: The Real Story of the Beginnings of Westlife/Padraig Meehan/Brandon Books
  9. ^ Westlife Celebrate Chart Double
  10. ^ Carlisle Live featuring Westlife and supporting guests
  11. ^ UK Music Charts | The Official UK Top 75 albums
  12. ^ BBC Radio 1 - Chart Show - The UK Top 40 Albums
  13. ^ BBC Radio 1 - The UK Top 40 Singles
  14. ^ Westlife: Pop's not dead! video interview with stv.tv
  15. ^ Female First.co.uk interview
  16. ^ Ten Years of Westlife Concert


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