Westlife
Westlife have had fourteen number one singles in the United Kingdom between the years 1999 and 2006, the third-highest such total in UK history, behind Elvis Presley and The Beatles, and tied with Cliff Richard. They are also the only artist/group to win 'Record of the Year' in the UK four times. They are worth an estimated €28 million (about $38 million)[1] .
Westlife were awarded the Best Irish Pop Act, a public voting category, at the annual Ireland Meteor Awards for the seventh consecutive year on 2 February 2007.
Westlife: Big Break
Westlife's first big break came in 1998 when they opened for the Boyzone in Dublin. Later that year, they won Best New Tour Act at the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party.
In March 1999, their first single, "Swear It Again", was released, and went straight to the top of the charts in Ireland and the UK. The band's success was to be confirmed when their second single, "If I Let You Go", entered the charts at number 1 in August 1999, followed by "Flying Without Wings" in October, which repeated the feat. This version was included in the soundtrack for the Warner Brothers film, Pokemon 2000. They became the first number one artist of the new millennium when their double-A-side single, "I Have a Dream"/"Seasons in the Sun" knocked Cliff Richard's "The Millennium Prayer" off the top spot. Westlife had the honour of the Christmas number one. Their first album, simply titled Westlife, was released in November 1999 and was also a big hit, peaking at #2. The album included those four #1 singles, and the follow-up "Fool Again" which also reached the top spot in April 2000. They then went on a UK tour performing at Newcastle Metro Arena where they invited a number of fans on stage.
Coast to Coast
Westlife's next album was quickly recorded, and released in November 2000. Coast to Coast was an enormous hit in the UK, becoming the country's 4th biggest selling album of the year and Westlife's biggest selling album to date. Westlife took on a signing tour around the UK called "Coast To Coast". 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 ballad "My Love". Both singles reached #1 in the UK charts. With this, Westlife broke an unexpected record, having their first seven singles debut at the top of the UK charts. In December 2000, however, that run was broken when they failed to secure their eighth chart-topper in a row when kid's favourite Bob The Builder's "Can We Fix It" was crowned Christmas number one.
In 2001, the boys launched their first world tour, unofficially nicknamed "The No Stools Tour", because of the band's reputation of performing perched on stools.
World of Our Own
Westlife released their third album in November 2001 called World of Our Own, which featured several songs that eventually became Number 1 hits including "Uptown Girl", "Queen of My Heart" and "World of Our Own".
This album also featured the original version of "Evergreen", which was then covered by Gareth Gates and Will Young for Pop Idol.
Westlife took this album and went on their second tour but this time in the round. The tour was taken all over Europe and the UK.
Greatest Hits
November 2002 saw Westlife release their Greatest Hits album, Unbreakable - The Greatest Hits Vol. 1, amidst rumours of a split. They released their first single from this album in October 2002, Unbreakable. This was followed by the double a-side single of Tonight and Miss You Nights.
In 2003 Westlife toured the UK and Europe with the greatest hits, and still shrugged off rumours of a split.
Turnaround
In September 2003, Westlife released "Hey Whatever", which made it to Number 4 in the UK Charts. In November 2003 came Westlife's 'Make or Break' and fourth studio album Turnaround, which made number 1 on the UK charts. Along with the number 1 album was their twelfth number 1 single. "Mandy" (a cover of Barry Manilow's ballad) was released in November 2003. "Obvious" was also released on the album and charted at number 3 in February 2004.
In 2003, Westlife also won Record of the Year for the third time in five years.
The departure of Brian Mcfadden
On 9 March 2004, just three weeks before Westlife were due to embark on their fourth European tour, Bryan McFadden left the band. He subsequently started a solo career, changing the spelling of his first name back to its original 'Brian'. Brian McFadden entered the chart at number one with his first solo single, "Real To Me". He went on to release more singles, but to only moderate success. The five members were now down to four.
The New Westlife
Allow Us to Be Frank
Less than a month after McFadden's departure, the boys kicked off their fourth arena Turnaround tour. They released a live version of Flying Without Wings as an official UK download. They released their come-back album Allow Us to Be Frank later in the year, a Rat Pack-inspired album. Westlife did not release a single from this album even though they shot many music videos. They did, however, release more official UK downloads, including Ain't That A Kick In The Head and Smile.
Before the album release, Westlife travelled up and down the UK to find "the perfect fan" to help promote their album. After X Factor style auditions, they found Joanne Hindley (who later appeared on X Factor). They recorded "The Way You Look Tonight". To celebrate their first ever fan to appear on a Westlife song they televised it, showing auditions and live performances. Their performances included Joanne, their fathers and glamour model Katie Price. They also performed alone.
The album became their first since their debut not to top the chart and peaking at its entry position Number Three.
Face to Face
In 2005, after a four-month break, they came back with "You Raise Me Up", a cover of a Secret Garden song, which was the first single off their seventh album Face to Face. On 6 November 2005, both the album and the single ("You Raise Me Up") were at Number 1 in the UK charts at the same time. It was the first time the band had held both top album and single position in the same week.[2]
In December 2005, Westlife released the second single off their album, "When You Tell Me That You Love Me", which was a duet with Diana Ross who had previously sung the song alone. Westlife then released their third single Amazing which is their last non-cover single to date.
The Love Album
In late 2006, Westlife signed a brand new five album deal with Sony/BMG. Their 7th studio album, The Love Album, consists all of covers of love songs.
The first single from The Love Album was a cover version of Bette Midler's classic "The Rose", which became their 14th UK number one single. This made Westlife the third act (along with Cliff Richard) in the UK chart history to have most number one singles, only behind Elvis Presley (21, 18 of them different songs) and The Beatles (17). Plans for the release of Total Eclipse of the Heart and that a video were being made were scrapped. In February, the band announced that they would no longer be releasing Bonnie Tyler's song "Total Eclipse of the Heart", produced by Jim Steinman, nor any other singles from the album.
Westlife kicked off their eight tour called The Love Tour on 21 February 2007 in Perth, Australia. The tour took in other cities in Australia, before moving on to South Africa, the UK and Ireland, ending in Dublin on 3 May. The band played its last major concert of 2007 at Carlisle[3]on Sunday 12 August at Bitts Park in Carlisle, England.
Back Home
Westlife's 8th studio album Back Home was released Monday, 5 November 2007 and contains nine new and original songs and three cover songs as the band has spent recent weeks in the studio working with producers including Steve Mac, Quiz Larossi, Jorgen Elofsson and Maratone. The album debuted at number 1 on the UK Music Charts.[4][5]
On 29 October 2007, Westlife released the first single from the album, a cover of "Home" by Michael Bublé and it debuted at number 3 in the UK Chart.[6] [7]
Westlife: Approaching 10 Years
Despite celebrating 10 years in the business next year Westlife are determined that they will not split up. They are planning to take a year out of the spotlight following their January 2008 Back Home Tour. Fans began to panic over news the guys are taking a year long break after their upcoming tour. "The fans are all not sure because that's what Boyzone said and whatever but we're just going to take a lot longer to make this 10th album," Mark confirmed. "This is a big tour coming up and then we're actually taking a year off after that. It's a big one for us and a big one for the fans. So it's not like we're taking a year off- we're taking a year away from releasing an album in November because we've done the nine albums in nine years.” while talking to Female First.co.uk [8]
On 2 November 2007, Westlife announced they will play Croke Park in Dublin[9] on 1 June 2008 during an interview on Irish TV show The Late Late Show. Croke Park is the fourth biggest stadium in Europe which holds 82,300 people making the concert Westlife's biggest performance to date. Kian described the tour to be a pop extravaganza. Shane confirmed that the band will not release a new album in 2008 but they will release a tour DVD. It was confirmed on 22 November that Shayne Ward will be supporting Westlife for their massive gig at Croke Park, Dublin which takes place on 1 June 08
Duets
Westlife have performed duets with some of the biggest names of the music industry, including Mariah Carey, Donny Osmond, Lulu, Donna Summer, Diana Ross, Lionel Richie, Christian Castro, Ronan Keating and more recently Delta Goodrem. Claudia Schiffer and Vinnie Jones have also starred in their music videos. Westlife also collaborated with Asian-music sensation BoA with the song "Flying Without Wings", which would appear on her mini-album, Shine We Are!.
