RONAN IN BOYZONE

    Boyzone was one of the many boybands to surface in the UK during  the mid 90's but it was definitely the most successful band .Other than Ronan Keating the band composed of Shane Lynch, Keith Duffy, Stephen Gately and Michael Graham. Following the success of Take That, Louis Walsh (who later became Boyzone's manager) held auditions for the band in November of 1993 in Dublin . About 300 guys turned up but of course Ronan, Stephen, Keith, and Shane were chosen because they had what it took to be in the band. Michael joined the group a few months later when he was recalled for another audition. The boys were not sure how boyzone would work out , would it be a success or would it  be one of the unsuccessful bands. But they remained positive all the way up to the release of their first single "Working My Way Back To You", which went up to No.3 on the Irish charts. Few weeks later, "Love Me For A Reason" their next single went straight to No.1 in Ireland and climbed up to No.2 on the UK charts. Since the first two songs they released were cover versions of original songs, Boyzone received a lot of criticism. So in April 1994 they decided to release "Key To My Life" a song written by Ronan , Stephen and Michael. Of course boyzone proved all the critics wrong when it went straight to no.1 in Ireland and no 3 in the UK. In July 1995 their new single "So Good" went to No.3 and their album "Said and Done " reached No.1.In 1995 the boys went for promotional tours all over Europe and Southeast Asia where their popularity had spread. Their next song "Father And Son" went to no.2 on the UK charts .At the Smash Hits Awards Boyzone won the Best Album Award while Stephen won the Best Dressed Man of 1995.The year 1996 started well when boyzone was nominated in the category of best International newcomer at the Brit Awards.         

     In 1996 for a large part of the summer the boyz toured the UK. Mikey's daughter Hannah and Keith's son Jordan were born shortly before the start of Boyzone's UK tour and rumors suggested that the band would split. However, Boyzone soon proved the critics wrong When they released their first no.1 single in the UK "words" a cover of the 1967 bee gees hit, followed by the release of their second album," A Different Beat" in November 1996, which also climbed up to No.1. At the Smash Hits Awards 1996  they collected 6 awards which included Best International Group, Best Album "Different Beat" ,Best Single "words" and Ronan picked up 3 awards individually for the Best Dressed Person, Most Fanciable Male and Best Haircut .In 1997 Ronan realized that he had the knack for hosting live events so he hosted many events like BBC's The Top Of The Pops, The Miss World Competition, and the MTV Europe Awards held in Holland in November.

    In February 1998 Tragedy hit the Keating family, when Ronan's mother Marie died followed two weeks later by his grandmother and in April by his 16-year-old cousin. But even through all of it Ronan realized that he would make it through and he sure did.                 

    Boyzone's next single 'All That I Need' hit number one in April, and was shortly followed by Ronan marrying his girlfriend Yvonne Connolly on the Caribbean Island of Nevis. Boyzone's 3rd album, 'Where We Belong' went straight to number one in the UK album charts and later went to number one again when it was re-released containing the tracks 'No Matter What' and 'I Love The Way You Love Me'. In February 99 'When The Going Gets Tough' ( cover by Billy Ocean) was released in support of Comic Relief. It stayed at number one for two weeks and became the biggest selling Comic Relief single ever. In March, Ronan and Yvonne celebrated the safe arrival of their son Jack. In May the boyz gained their sixth number one single with, 'You Needed Me'. Their new album, 'By Request', was released on the 31st May and tickets for their December tour also went on sale during the May tour.

    Many boyzone fans were disappointed when in June1999 Stephen Gately announced that he was gay and in love with boyfriend Eloy De Jong  from the disbanded boy band Caught In The Act. In June 1999 boyzone officially split up and started working on various solo projects. Ronan's first solo single 'When You Say Nothing At All' was released in July and remained at number one for 2 weeks in the UK.

   In November 1999 MTV Europe awards were hosted again by none other than Ronan in Dublin. Ronan is the first person in the history of the awards to present it twice and he's very proud to do so, especially as it is going to be held in his home country. Also Boyzone were nominated for three awards - Best Album (They won in this category for,' By Request'), Best Pop Act and Best UK and Ireland Act. Ronan's solo single When You Say Nothing At All was nominated for the 1999 Record of the Year but unfortunately just missed out and was narrowly beaten by Westlife with Flying Without Wings. Ro and the rest of the Boyz, who won Record of the Year the previous year for "No Matter What "performed their latest single, "Every Day I Love You".

     In December the Boyz latest single Every Day I Love You failed to clinch the Number One spot when it was released instead it took third place in the charts with Sir Cliff Richard getting Number One.

The Millennium tour was the last gig that the boyz wanted to do together before taking a break for Christmas but unfortunately Ronan did not want to do this as he was now concentrating on launching himself as a solo artist 

   Ronan's second single Life Is A Rollercoaster went straight in at number one despite over half the sales being disqualified due to a mistake by his record company. His album, Ronan(2000), also hit number one in the UK but unfortunately could only get to number two in Ireland.

      Stephen also released his debut album in 2000. It got to number 7 in the UK charts after his single,' New Beginning' got to number. 3 in the singles chart .On the other hand Mikey's debut,' You're My Angel' only reached number 13.Keith Duffy on the other hand has been involved in game show hosting and acting in the UK whereas Shane has taken up motor racing as a career. Ronan's new album will be out very soon this May. So I guess Boyzone's story of fame continues.

    
In conclusion Boyzone has come a long way since 1994.They have achieved a lot over the years including three No.1 albums and an unbroken string of smash hit singles, proving themselves to be one of the most durable boy bands ever. They have been the face and voice of Pepsi; they have 4 Irish Music Awards under their belts; lead singer Ronan has presented the MTV Awards, Miss World, the Eurovision Song Contest and the BBC 1 talent show Get Your Act Together. They are the first band in history to have 16 singles enter the top 3, Boyzone have also seen their mature sound and real songwriting ability acknowledged in the form of an Ivor Novello award for Picture Of You. Their third album, Where We Belong, went five times platinum and helped to bring in an older audience without alienating the younger one. Thus we can definitely say that Boyzone was one of the greatest bands of our times.