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About Westlife
Westlife was originally
signed by Simon Cowell
in 1998 and had five
members which were Nicky
Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark
Freehily, Shane Filan
and Brian Mcfadden.
Brian left the band to
follow his own solo
career.
Their first big chance
came in 1998 when they
were the opening act for
a Boyzone and Backstreet
Boys concert in Dublin.
This earned them the
award for the best new
tour act and they were
soon to release a
single, Swear it again
which shot straight to
the top of the Irish and
UK charts for a
fortnight.
Their second and third
singles If I let you go
and Flying without wings
both achieved number one
in the charts.
Unfortunately, Westlife,
their first album,
wasn't so popular and
only peaked at 2nd in
the UK and witnessed the
biggest drop in history
from 3rd to 37th.
They did in fact manage
to get all of their
first seven singles to
number one, a feat that
has only ever been
matched by the Beatles.
They then released coast
to coast which beat even
the spice girls and
reached the number one
spot. This remains the
biggest selling Westlife
album. Unfortunately
they were unable to make
it eight at number one
with What makes a man as
they were beaten by the
Christmas bob the
builder record can we
fix it.
Westlife named their
first tour Where dreams
come true although some
gave it the nickname the
no stools tour due to
the fact that Westlife
was notorious for always
performing their songs
whilst sitting on
stools.
Ironically Westlife
released the album
unbreakable just before
Brian left the group.
This, he said, was to
spend more time with his
family and solo career.
There were rumours of a
split-up during this
period as unbreakable
reached number one in
the charts. The four
remaining members didn't
split, however, and now
make up Westlife as it
is known today.
Just a year after five
were down to four they
performed their
Turnaround tour and
released Flying without
wings as a digital
download, thus becoming
the first ever number
one in the newly created
download charts. Another
first for Westlife was
when they managed to
hold both number one in
the Album and singles
charts with You raise me
up and Face to face.
Westlife took a year out
to spend with their
friends and family and
returned in June 2009 to
work on their tenth
studio album. The band
are set to go on tour in
2010 and have already
chosen three comeback
songs with their manager
Louis Walsh and
Simon Cowell.
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