WESTLIFE
Westlife are an all male Irish pop music group from Sligo,Dublin which is in the North West of Ireland.
They were formed in July 1998.The original group was made up with Nicky Bryne,Kian Egan,Mark Feehily,Shane Filan and Bryan McFadden.
Kian Egan, Mark Feehily and Shane Filan were originally in a group calld IOYOU,(IOU) with Derrick Lacey, Graham Keighron and Michael Garret, they released a single called 'Together Girl Forever'.
On the 9th March 2004,Bryan McFadden left West-life to pursue his solo career.Changing his name back to Brian,his first single "Real to Me" reached No1 in the charts. He went on to release more singles, without a lot of success.
The band was found by Louis Walsh who was the manager of 1990's boyband Boyzone. Louis was contacted by Shane Filan's mother. IOYOU didn't meet up to Simon Cowell's strict criteria and was refused a record contract with BMG. Changes had to be made if the band was to continue. Two of the boys, Derrick Lacey and Graham Keighron were given the sack. Auditions were then held in Dublin to find replacements. The band then recruited Nicky Bryne and Brian McFadden. Then a third member of the group was dropped, Michael Garret. The group was renamed 'Westside', but as this name was already used, it was decided their name shoul be 'Westlife'. Ronan Keating joined forces with Louis Walsh, to become co-manager of the group.
Westlife has had 14 number one singles in the UK between the years 1999 and 2006.
They are the first UK act with 4 number 1's in a year.
They also had the first No1 song in the UK download charts. (Flying without wings.)
They have 25 plus multi platinum albums and have sold more than 40 million records worldwide.
Westlife were crowned the best lrish pop act at the annual lreland Meteor Awards held on the 15th February 2008. They have won this for the last eight years, making them the only act to have done so.
Westlife have also won record of the year in the UK, 4 times.
Shane Filan, Mark Feehily and Bryan McFaddan shared most of the lead vocals.
Some 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 groups musical influances include boy bands such as Boyzone, TakeThat, Backstreet Boys and Boyz 11 Men.
1998/ 2002: Westlife's big break came when they were the opening act for Boyzone in Dublin 1998. It was later that year they won Best New Tour Act at the Smash thlits poll Winners party. In March 1999, they realeased their first single "Swear it Again" which toped the charts in lreland and the UK for 2 weeks. "lf l let You Go" followed this in Augut 1999 and "Flyng Without Wings" in October 1999. Both of these songs reached the No1 spot.
"Flying Without Wings" was also included on the soundtrack for the film "Pokemon 2000". Their first album "Westlife" was released November 1999 and reaehed No2 in the charts.
In December their fourth single (a double side) "I Have a Dream"/ "Seasons in the Sun" knocked Cliff Richard off the No1 spot, earning them the UK Christmas number one. The fifthand final single from the album "Fool Again" also reached No1.
The band went on a short UK and Asian tour before releasing their second album, "Coast to Coast"which was released and beat the Spice Girls for the No1 position .
Befoe relasing "Coast to Coast" Westlife duetted with Mariah Carey on the clssic song "Against All Odds". This too got to number one, matching the Beatle's record of having 7 straight debut No 1 singles. Unfortunately Westlife did not manage to set a new record of 8, as Bob the Builder beat them to top spot at Chrostmas 2000.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)