Westlife

Westlife is an Irish pop band that was formed on July 3, 1998. They were signed on by Simon Cowell and are currently managed by Louis Walsh. The Boyzone Singer Ronan Keating works as a co-manager of the band. Over the years, Westlife's music has evolved from teen pop to an adult contemporary sound, with an emphasis on ballads.

Members included Nicky Byrne ; Kian Egan ; Mark Feehily ; Shane Filan ; Bryan McFadden but on March 9, 2004, Bryan McFadden departed from the band to spend more time with his family and to work on his solo projects. The remaining members remained in the band.

Within a matter of a few years, members of the Irish pop group Westlife went from singing in their school's performance of the musical Grease to selling more than 10 million records worldwide. This was not an easy feat considering that the United Kingdom is filled with burgeoning talents trying to replicate the success of boy groups like Take That and Boyzone, which spawned solo artists Robbie Williams and Ronan Keating, respectively. Westlife has been able to rise above other spotlight seekers, though, to find record-setting success.

Shane Filan, Kian Egan, and Mark Feehily formed the backbone of Westlife while the three were attending school in the mid 1990s and performing around Dublin, Ireland, as IOU. Like the Backstreet Boys and O-Town, an entertainment manager had a hand in the formation of Westlife. When IOU appeared on a Dublin television show, the group piqued the attention of Louis Walsh, a pop "Svengali" who also managed the similar-sounding Boyzone. To showcase the group, Walsh offered IOU a spot opening for the Backstreet Boys at the Dublin club The Point.

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.

After the group came together as Westlife in 1998, Walsh took them under his wing and introduced them to Nicky Byrne, an ex-soccer apprentice, and Bryan McFadden, who was attending a local stage school.

According to Westlife's record company biography, RCA Records signed the group immediately after seeing a performance. "When showcasing them, I instantly knew they were going to be a very successful band. They have surpassed my expectations. The great thing is that after all of their achievements, they have remained down-to-earth. They are a great bunch of guys to work with," said RCA Records A&R consultant Simon Cowell.

The deal also brought onboard a co-manager, Ronan Keating, who is best known in the United States for his appearance on the Notting Hill film soundtrack. Westlife's first single, "Flying Without Wings" debuted at number one on the British charts in 1999. The same success followed with "Seasons in the Sun" and "Swear It Again" in 2000.



The group's self-titled debut album was released in November of 1999 and became the fastest-selling album in Irish music history. It has since gone quadruple platinum in the United Kingdom and sold more than five million copies worldwide. In Indonesia, Westlife has been dubbed the biggest-selling international release. The album offered five British number one singles including "Swear It Again," "If I Let you Go" and "Flying Without Wings."

Following in the general practice of saturating the market with an influx of singles to drive sales and broaden exposure for a group, Westlife sent their covers of "I Have a Dream"/"Seasons in the Sun" and later the fifth single, "Fool Again," to stores. The group also earned a Guinness World Records 2001 listing as the most successful new chart act of all time for achieving consecutive number one spots on the British charts with its first seven singles.

After finding success in Britain, Westlife moved on to the United States where "Swear It Again" peaked at number two on the Billboard sales chart. While Boyzone paired with U2 for the song "The Sweetest Thing," Westlife collaborated with American favorite Mariah Carey on the song "Against All Odds" in September of 2000.

Like the group's previous singles, "Against All Odds" hit number one in the United Kingdom. Feehily was thrilled to work with Carey: "It was beyond all my wildest expectations," he said in the RCA biography.



(In the picture above is - Bryan McFadden)

In between touring and making several guest appearances, Westlife traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, and London, England, in the summer of 2000 to record its second album, Coast to Coast, which includes the Carey-Westlife piece "Against All Odds" and a cover of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl."

Working with two different sets of producers--the single-named Cheiron in Stockholm, and Steve Mac and Wayne Hector in London--allowed the members of Westlife to indulge in their pop sensibilities.

"We're very happy to be working with both sets of producers again. They keep impressing us with their ideas and we're comfortable with how they work--it's like we've grown up together," RCA Records quoted Filan as saying. "On the whole, this album is a big step up for us, both vocally and musically."




The first single, "My Love," achieved the same success as previous releases, reaching number one in October of 2000.

British magazine New Musical Express (NME) panned Coast to Coast, however, implying that its lyrics were shallow. "'Angel's Wings' includes the line, 'You make everything that used to seem so big seem to be small'--surely an excuse that ranks up there with 'Sorry love, it's a bit cold' and one which shatters the few illusions we had left of Kian [Egan]."

The popularity of Coast to Coast helped the album top its rivals on the charts and at the MTV Europe Music Awards. Westlife beat out Robbie Williams, Craig David, Travis, and Sonique for the Best United Kingdom and Ireland Act prize. The group also won a BRIT Award for Best Pop Act in 2001.

As of the summer of 2001, Westlife had begun work on a collaborative single with Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, whom NME called a "serial collaborator."

Egan told NME that the song is "very much like Bryan Adams' old stuff rather than his new stuff. It's in the same kind of style as '(Everything I Do) I Do It For You.' We're really excited because he's got a great voice and it's a brilliant opportunity for us."

Fame reportedly started wearing on the group after newspapers shared accounts of Westlife's drinking sprees. During a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in May of 2001, Westlife told journalists that they just want to be normal guys.

"We make good music and we're successful all over the world but when it comes to having a private life we got to have a private life. If one of us goes to a bar and is photographed coming out of it, that's not his fault," Filan is quoted as saying in a Reuters news service story on the Yahoo! News website.

Still, fans have flocked to see Westlife. Sixteen fans were injured on May 25, 2001, at Soemantri Bodjonegoro sports stadium in Jakarta, Indonesia, when the audience of 15,000 surged toward the stage at the end of the show. Two months earlier, four fans were crushed to death during an autograph signing at a shopping mall in the same city.
Despite speculation that the group's reign at the top of the pop charts was coming to an end, Westlife planned for continued success with at least four more records on BMG as part of the group's contract with the label. Westlife--who made history in May of 2001 for becoming the first boy band to play in South Africa--planned to record songs in Spanish as its next musical venture.

The band released their eleventh UK #1 single, "Unbreakable", in 2002.

Amidst rumors of a split, Westlife released their first greatest hits album in November that same year. Unbreakable- The Greatest Hits Vol. 1 zoomed all the way to #1 in the UK.

In 2003, Westlife went on to their third world tour, The Greatest Hits Tour , shrugging off rumors 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.

On 9March 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 had an emotional individual speeches. The four remaining lads thought that it would be the end of Westlife's running.

Brian'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'. His first solo single, "Real To Me" 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.

Less than a month after McFadden's departure, the band kicked off their "Turnaround Tour".

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 2005 , 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.

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.

On November 5 , 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.

On June 16, 2008, Haper Collins 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. In a recent interview, they have said that they will be bringing on a perfume called 'X' that means their 10 years in music.