Of course we all know who Westlife are, but for those of ya that were born yesterday, here's a little bio to catch up!
Westlife exists from:
In 1997 Kian, Mark and Shane, together with 3 others, were in a band called I.O.You. The band released a single in Ireland, called "Together girl forever". After limited succes, Shane's mother called Louis Walsh, manager of Boyzone at the time, whom she knew from college. Louis was quite impressed by the boys and together with Ronan Keating he decided to manage them.
Bryan McFadden
Mark Feehiley
Kian Egan
Shane Filan
Nicky Byrne
However, 3 members had to leave and auditions were held in Dublin to find 2 new members. Nicky and Bryan were chosen, and the group was formed. Initially they called themselves Westside, but it appeared that there was an American band with the same name, so they changed it into Westlife.
Their first single released as Westlife, "Swear it again", went straight to the top position of the Irish and British charts. Their second single, "If I let you go" also went straight for the #1 position and became a big hit in all of Europe. Westlife was a massive succes. Soon their record-breaking debut album, "Westlife", was released and they were now officially famous.
Their second album was released and within 3 years of time, Westlife had sold more than 10 million copies of their first 2 albums, worldwide. Singles like "When you're looking like that" and "Uptown girl" again hit #1 spots worldwide, and the end of their succes was still nowhere to be seen.
Their third album "World of our own" included some self-written material of the lads and featured the self-written single "Bop bop baby", which reached a well earned #5 spot in British charts. Other singles taken from "World of our own", such as "Queen of my heart" and "World of our own" again did extremely well worldwide, and another album was on the way.
A "Greatest Hits" album was released in November 2002, but with the explicit message that this album was absolutely not to be seen as the end of Westlife, but more as the beginnig of a new era. The "Greatest Hits" album includes, next to the well-known chart-topping hitsingles, a bunch of new material. 7 new songs, from which 2 were recently released as a single: "Unbreakable", another huge succes, and their latest single "Tonight" is on sale now!
