Westlife

Westlife are an Irish boy band. Its current members are Shane Filan, Kian Egan, Nicky Byrne, and Mark Feehily. Bryan McFadden left the band on March 9 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 changed the spelling of his first name to 'Brian'.

The band has proven very successful in both Ireland and the United Kingdom, with twelve number-one singles between the years 1999 and 2003, as follows:

"Swear It Again" (1999)
"If I Let You Go" (1999)
"Flying Without Wings" featuring BoA in a later version (appeared on the Pokémon 2000 soundtrack) (1999)
"I Have A Dream"/"Seasons In The Sun" (covers of ABBA and Terry Jacks respectively) (1999)
"Fool Again" (2000)
"Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" (with Mariah Carey) (cover of Phil Collins) (2000)
"My Love" (2000)
"Uptown Girl" (cover of Billy Joel) (2001)
"Queen Of My Heart" (2001)
"World of Our Own" (2002)
"Unbreakable" (2002)
"Mandy" (cover of Barry Manilow) (2003)

Not every single of theirs have gone to No. 1 in the UK:

"What Makes a Man" (2000) #2
"Bop Bop Baby" (2002) #5
"Tonight/Miss You Nights" (2003) #3
"Hey Whatever" (2003) #4
"Obvious" (2004) #3

The band have also won ITV's Record of the Year competition on a record three occasions, with "Flying Without Wings", "My Love", and "Mandy".

Westlife has not managed success in America, although their debut single, "Swear It Again" was a minor hit on mainstream radio and MTV. Its video made MTV's TRL briefly, and it managed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 2000, going up to No. 20 on the chart.

Their debut American album was also released in 2000, and although they have not released another one there since, that has not stopped thousands of Americans from becoming Westlife fans. And beyond Europe and the USA, Westlife's fan base is truly global, including Canada, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

Like most other boy bands, Westlife is primarily marketed to teenage girls, but they have a large following among guys (approximately 20% of Westlife fans are male), and they have performed numerous times at gay venues in the UK. On August 19, 2005, bandmember Feehily came out as gay to the public, also announcing his relationship with Kevin McDaid of former boyband V.

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

Westlife's 7th full length album entitled Face to Face hits stores on October 31st, 2005. The first single, You Raise Me Up, debuts a week earlier on October 24th, 2005. The tracklisting follows:

1. You Raise Me Up 2. When You Tell Me That You Love Me 3. Amazing 4. That's Where You Find Love 5. She's Back 6. Desperado 7. Colour My World 8. In This Life 9. Heart Without A Home 10. Hit You With The Real Thing 11. Change Your Mind 12. Maybe Tomorrow

Discography

1999 "Westlife" #2 UK, #129 US
2000 "Coast to Coast" #1 UK
2001 "World of Our Own" #1 UK
2002 "Unbreakable - The Greatest Hits - Vol. 1" #1 UK
2003 "Turnaround" #1 UK
2004 "Allow Us To Be Frank" #3 UK
2005 "Face To Face" (Coming Soon)

Westlife will do a duet with Jessica Simpson

External links

Discography

See also

External links