Westlife

Name: Westlife
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Westlife Wiki Profile

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Westlife is an Irish pop band formed on July 3, 1998. The group's original lineup comprised Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and Brian McFadden. Currently, Filan and Feehily serve as the band's lead vocalists. The band is the only act in UK history to have their first seven singles go straight to flixster.actor.pane.770835133 - flixster

flixster.actor.pane.770835133 - flixster

Number 1, and they have gone on to sell over 40 million records worldwide which includes their studio, single, video, and compilation albums.

They were signed by Simon Cowell and are currently managed by Louis Walsh. In 2008, they were declared as Ireland's ninth-richest celebrities under 30 years old and 13th in general. 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 band has also broken a few top records, including "Music artist with most consecutive number 1's in the UK" and the "Biggest selling arena act in the Wembley Arena".

Over years of their career, Westlife's music has evolved from teen pop to a pop sound, with an emphasis on ballads. All of the band members are songwriters, although most of their hits have been composed by external writers, most notably Steve Mac and Wayne Hector. On June 1st, 2008, Westlife marked their 10th anniversary with a concert in Croke Park, Dublin which saw more than 82,000 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.

Collaboration

The band is signed under the management of the major record label Sony Music. Louis Walsh, Simon Cowell, Sonny Takhar, Tim Byrne are some of Westlife's management and production team. Aside from Steve Mac and Wayne Hector, the lads have the opportunies to work for their original songs with some of the well-known songwriters/producers. Here are some of them that we can widely see on their studio albums: 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, Darren Hayes, and Ben Adams. For their remixed songs, Rokstone, Orphanz, Ashanti Boyz, Wideboys, Soul Seekerz, and Jim Steinman have already worked for the band to complete their single releases.

The group had studio recorded and live collaborations in some of the most renowned music acts such as 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)"), Delta Goodrem ("All Out of Love"), and "If I Had Words" with The Vards. "I Have A Dream", with Indonesian childstar 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 Korean singer BoA as two separate duets.

They had 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"), 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").

Some of the famous music video directors have got the chance to work with Westlife. WIth the likes of Cameron Casey, Wayne Isham, Nigel Dick, Stuart Gosling, Phil Griffin, Antti Jokinen, David Mould, Alex Hemming, Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini. Prominent stars Claudia Schiffer, Robert Bathurst, James Wilby, Ioan Gruffudd, Crispin Bonham-Carter, Tim McInnerny, Vinnie Jones and Alexa Chung have also starred in their music videos.

VITAL STATS

Westlife Information:

Members

Nicky Byrne
Kian Egan
Mark Feehily
Shane Filan

Formermembers

Brian McFadden (1998–2004)

Origin

Dublin and Sligo, Ireland

Labels

Sony BMG,
RCA,
Syco Music,
Arista

Years active

1998–present

Genres

Pop

Trivia

Westlife member Nicky Byrne is married to Georgina Ahern, daughter of Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern.

Nicky is known for his husky voice, Mark has a soulful voice, and Bryan supplies a plaintive voice.

Boyzone singer Ronan Keating was brought in to co-manage the band with Walsh.

Although the band has enjoyed unprecedented success in the Irish singles chart, many detractors argue it has been achieved by releasing bland unmemorable ballads and cover versions into a declining singles market.

Westlife is primarily marketed to teenage girls, but they also have a large following of male fans and have performed numerous times at gay venues in the UK.

Mark Feehily put to rest years of speculation among fans that he was gay by publicly coming out of the closet in the UK tabloid The Sun, and announced his relationship with Kevin McDaid of the former boy band V.

Bryan McFadden left the band on 9 March 2004 to devote more of his time to his family life with the British TV personality and former Atomic Kitten member Kerry Katona, although he has subsequently separated from her and reverted the spelling of his first name back to its original 'Brian'.

Westlife would also collaborate with Asian-music sensation, BoA, on a Korean language version of the song which would appear on her mini-album, Shine We Are!

The original Westlife hit most known to American audiences is "Flying Without Wings", since it was later a success for American Idol winner Ruben Studdard.

Westlife's debut single and music video "Swear It Again" was released in the US in Summer 2000 and was a minor hit on mainstream radio and MTV, reaching number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and being shown briefly on MTV's Total Request Live.

Westlife have not managed success in the United States.

Westlife have had record-selling indoor arena tours and are one of the biggest pop acts to come out of Ireland.

Westlife's fan base is global: they have had success all over the world, especially Scandinavia and South East Asia, but also elsewhere in Europe, Canada, Latin America, South Africa and Australia.

Kian is a multi-instrumentalist who has a distinctive rock voice.

Shane is the group's lead singer, using a commercial pop style, and does some songwriting.

Westlife were discovered by Louis Walsh, the manager of 1990s boy band Boyzone.

The bands' origins are in Sligo in northwest Ireland, where Filan, Egan, and Feehily were in a six-member vocal group named IOU, which put out a single called "Together Girl Forever".

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

Westlife has collaborated with the Asian successful band, BoA, to record a Korean cover of Westlife's hit Flying Without Wings. The song was featured on BoA's mini album Shine We Are.

Westlife is currently formed of 4 members: Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, Mark Feehily, and Kian Egan. The fifth member, Brian McFadden, has left the band in 2004, in order to be with his wife.

Westlife holds the record of the most successful debut in the British Singles Chart: Their first 7 singles entered #1: Swear It Again, If I Let You Go, Flying Without Wings, I Have A Dream / Seasons In The Sun, Fool Again, Against All Odds, and My Love.

Westlife has managed to release 12 singles that reached the #1 in the British Singles Chart.

Westlife's co-manager was Ronan Keating, Boyzone's vocalist and a solo artist by his own.

Westlife's original manager was Louis Walsh, the manager of the successful Irish boys band Boyzone.

Westlife had covered many songs by famous artists, including Sarah McLachlan, Billy Joel, ABBA, Phil Collins and Cliff Richard.

Westlife was formed in July 1998. It originally had 5 members: Shane Filan, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Nicky Byrne, and Bryan McFadden. In March 2004, Bryan has left the band to be with his wife, and after more than a year of silence, Westlife came back in October 2005 with new Album.

Westlife have made world records in their past years for the most no. one singles in a row.

Last update: Oct 10 2009, 7:46 AM EDT by JetFaxel (content history

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