| Name | Westlife |
|---|---|
| Background | group_or_band |
| Origin | Sligo and Dublin, Ireland |
| Genre | Pop, teen pop, dance-pop, pop rock, jazz, big band |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Label | |
| Url | www.westlife.com |
| Current members | Nicky ByrneKian EganMark FeehilyShane Filan |
| Past members | Brian McFadden |
Westlife is an Irish pop group formed on 3 July 1998. The group's original lineup comprised Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and Brian McFadden (departed from the band in 2004). The group is the only act in British or Irish history to have their first seven singles go straight to Number 1, and they have gone on to sell over 44 million records worldwide which includes their studio, single, video, and compilation albums. Despite the group's worldwide success, they've only had one U.S. hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts: "Swear It Again", which made it to #20 in 2000.
Westlife were originally signed by Simon Cowell and are currently managed by Louis Walsh. 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 group has also broken a few top records, including "Music artist with most consecutive number 1's in the UK". It was officially announced by the Official Charts Company that they are the "2nd biggest selling artist" (trailing behind Robbie Williams) and "Biggest selling band of the decade" (beating Coldplay) in UK with 11 million album sales.
On 1 June 2008, Westlife marked their 10th anniversary with a concert in Croke Park, Dublin which had more than 83,000 fans attending the special occasion. Music Week revealed on their website that Westlife is the official third top touring act within the years 2005–2008, while they were 7th top touring act of 2008. Also in 2008, they were declared as Ireland's ninth-richest celebrities under 30 years old and 13th in general with 36 million euros as a group. In 2009, they dropped as 16th richest Irish with estimated 8 million euros each. They are named as the fourth most hard-working music artist in UK by PRS in 2010.
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, they launched their first world tour, "Where Dreams Come True Tour", unofficially nicknamed "The No Stools Tour" due to the group'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).
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 group 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 group to spend more time with his family and work on solo projects. On that day, a press conference was held where all the group'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 with moderate success.
In late 2006, Westlife signed a brand new five-album deal with Sony BMG. Their eighth album, The Love Album, was a "love" concept album which consisted of popular love song covers. The album outsold 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 group then went on to other Australian cities before moving on to South Africa, the UK and Ireland. Westlife staged 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 two-hour show called The Westlife Show where they performed 10 of their songs, some voted by the fans through online and some 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 group. 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 group's lowest charting single to date. Before the release of the second single, they embarked on the Back Home Tour on 2008 February 25. This tour marked 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 the 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 boy'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 group announced that they will be on hiatus for a year after their Back Home Tour and that there would not be an album release in 2008 as they would be spending more time on the production of their tenth album. As promised, the group'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.
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 group 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.
On the last week of January 2009, a DVD entitled The Karaoke Collection was released. It contains some of their music video hits. In 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 word last 8 March 2009 that Westlife will come back to music charts when they start recording in 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.
Their tenth album, Where We Are, was released on 30 November 2009 in the UK and peaked at #2 on both Irish and UK Albums Chart. The new single "What About Now", was released a few weeks earlier on 23 October 2009, with digital downloads being available the day before. The said single peaked at# 2 on both Irish and UK Singles Chart. Daughtry's original version of the song gained exposure on the audition rounds of The X Factor prior to Westlife's release. They were also part of the Haiti charity single in early 2010, "Everybody Hurts", an R.E.M. cover which was organized by Cowell. The tour in support of this album is called "The Where We Are Tour". The video album for this said tour will be released in DVD and Blu-Ray format in 29 November 2010.
After going back to RCA Records for a one year album contract, they announced their second greatest hits to be released in November 2011. It was recorded on May 2011 with the band's Gravity producer John Shanks. Filan answered when he was asked about the radical change in their music: "We’ve definitely changed – our music has evolved, but not drastically. Westlife is never going to drastically change, but I think we can get more exciting, different and more fun for the fans." On 14 May 2011, Irish songwriter Ruth-Anne Cunningham confirmed on her official site that she's working with Shanks and the band. On 27 May 2011, Feehily thanked Cunningham, Steve Anderson, Pete "Boxsta" Martin and Utters for a week of songwriting with new tunes on the way. On their latest press release, they stated the upcoming album will have four or five new tracks aside from their earlier hits. Three or four of them will be singles. The first single will be out on 14 August 2011 and it'll be uptempo co-written by band member Feehily and producer Shanks. Feehily added, "It is the first time in about ten years that we've put something out in the summertime so we hope you're going to buy it". "It's a very different Westlife", "We are putting the finishing touches to our new songs" The band is set to play the single on the Marquee in Cork on 9 July 2011 where fans are expected to hear a sneak peak of the song. With a new compilation album coming out, it is highly speculated Westlife will be doing a new greatest hits tour. According to The Mirror, a source close to the band revealed plans for them to play either the Aviva Stadium or another Croke Park gig towards the summer of 2012.
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. While they were there, they gave a live performance of the song "Daytime Friends", originally by country music legend Kenny Rogers.
The group has recorded studio and live performances with some of the most renowned music acts: 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)"), and Delta Goodrem ("All Out of Love"). They have also collaboorated on "If I Had Words" with The Vards, "I Have A Dream" with Indonesian child-star 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 with Korean singer BoA as two separate duets.
Westlife has 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"), Leehom Wang ("You Raise Me Up"), Mary Black ("Walking in the Air"), Kevin Spacey ("Fly Me to the Moon"), Do ("Heaven"), JLS ("Flying Without Wings"), Boyzone ("No Matter What"), 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").
In an interview with OK Magazine, when the band was asked who they would like to duet with if they could pick anyone, they chose Beyonce and Christina Aguilera. They find interest in collaborating also with Tinie Tempah, Boyzone, Take That, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood. Before they were reported to have recording as a duet with Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, Julio Iglesias, and Bryan Adams. Some artists expressed the love to work the band like Chipmunk and boxer Mike Tyson. Some well-known music artists also recorded the group's songs in reality like Ronan Keating, Will Young, Shayne Ward, Ruben Studdard. (See Songs covered by other artists)
Aside from Steve Mac and Wayne Hector, the group has had opportunities to work on their original songs with many well-known songwriters/producers including 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, Chris Braide, Sam Watters, Louis Biancaniello, Steve Anderson, Ruth-Anne Cunningham and John Shanks.
Long-time collaborator Wayne Hector once defined the essence of Westlife songwriting:
"If you want to write a song for Westlife, you’ve got to have a lyric that connects on a basic level. We’ve always thought the reason Westlife songs have been so successful is because it’s about situations that everybody goes through. We weren’t trying to be too clever about it, we were trying to be emotional."
For their remixed songs, Rokstone, Orphanz, Ashanti Boyz, Wideboys, Soul Seekerz, and Jim Steinman have already worked for the group on some of their single releases. Some of the music video directors who have worked with Westlife are: Cameron Casey, Wayne Isham, Nigel Dick, Stuart Gosling, Phil Griffin, Antti Jokinen, David Mould, Alex Hemming, Philip Andelman, Sean De Sparengo, Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini.
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, 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, Hope, The Fuel, Wow, Jedward, JLS, and Wonderland have supported them on different tours.
The band already performed to famous people such as Pope John Paul II, US President Barack Obama, the Sultan of Brunei and Queen Elizabeth II.
Every Westlife album have always been a mixture of genres. R&B; genre is evident as a sound of the band since the start where their voices were harmonizing and blending with each other. We can hear it on their songs "When I'm With You", "How to Break a Heart", and "Sound of a Broken Heart". Acoustic genre also took place as they have its versions with their songs "My Love", "Flying Without Wings", and "If I Let You Go". Club or electronic sounds were also heard from their remixes on each singles released. Dance music is also a genre of Westlife as heard on their songs "When You're Looking Like That", "Bad Girls", and "Uptown Girl". Live music has came to their way as they have officially released recorded live sounds such as "You Raise Me Up" (Live at Croke Park) and "To Be With You". They did country music too like their recording of "Daytime Friends, Nighttime Lovers". As a pop band they are also inspired to cover songs that were different and put into their own genre which is pop (With the likes of "Home" from jazz music, "I'm Already There" from country music).
During their starting days, the band's musical content was mostly about love and inspirational songs but as they grew older, they have given the chance the songs that were from an individual's everyday experience in life. As for their image, they publicly begun as boyband with wholesome and clean-cut image. Now, they call themselves a manband with a more broad and manly looking image as they grow older.
The group's influences are Michael Jackson, Backstreet Boys, and Boyzone while pop is their main music influence. They are adored by many people even celebrities like Chris Martin of Coldplay. The band have "tribute bands" performing their songs like Envy, Westlives, That's Life, and Westlike. On the other hand, Westlife also paid tribute to their co-boybands as one of the tour setlist.
To the list of their books, they have official and unofficial books released online. The lone book written by the members of Westlife was released on 16 June 2008 by HarperCollins UK Publishing entitled 'Westlife - Our Story', as part of their 10th year celebration. The book was said to be written by each group member 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. On 28 May 2009, they re-released the autobiography, adding their Croke Park experience and first time in a paperback edition. At that time also, the band released a 3-piece perfume set entitled "X". It leaked on December 2008 and was formally released on November 2009. In September 2010, they will release their second fragrance entitled "With Love".
On 4 November 2005, they 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 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, Soccer Aid organizations. Most recently, they performed "Us Against the World" live on Sports Relief, of Bluebell Wood, London and participating in Galway's Irish Water Safety Campaign by doing an advertisement. They are also an official supporter of One World Beat. They are involved also on the Helping For Haiti charity single that was released 8 February 2010 on UK. They are promoting Who's Calling awareness campaign of Childline. They are also included as ambassadors of The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC). They also support the Outward Bound Trust.
Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:World Music Awards winners Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Sony BMG artists Category:2000s music groups Category:1990s music groups Category:Musical quartets Category:Musical quintets Category:Irish pop music groups Category:Irish boy bands Category:Musical groups established in 1998
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