| HISTORY |
| The Westlife story really began way back in December 1996 when the three original members of Westlife were performing in a local production of the musical 'Grease'. Shane Filan, Kian Egan and Mark Feehilly were all born and bred in Sligo, a small town a few hours west of the Republic of Ireland's capital city, Dublin. During breaks the three would get together and sing covers of some of their favourite songs including Boyz II Men's 'I Make Love To You'. The reaction to their singing was so positive that they decided to form a band as soon as they had finished their exams at school. This they duly did and on July 3 1997 they formed I.O.U. Kian, Shane and Mark wanted to find other voices for the band so an audition was held on July '98.. From that moment on they had loads of offers. Ronan asked them to sign with RCA and to change the name of the band because he thought IOU wasn't a good name at all! They chose Westside but they had to further amend it because there was already another US band called Westside, so they eventually chose the name Westlife Their present manager Louis Walsh also saw this television-contribution by chance. He was immediately filled with enthusiasm - and frustrates simultaneously, because he had no idea, how he should come with the band in contact. To our luck, Shane's has called mother in Louis' office, while he tried to find us, Kian tells. And as the two finally together sat, Louis offered us, as a supporting act with the Backstreet Boys, to appear in Dublin. This concert was a giant-success for WESTLIFE. The interest of Ronan, that sat in the public, was awakened. An urgent problem also became clear simultaneous however: We knew, that the band was not yet complete, Mark explains the situation. We all wanted to do the next step onward, but two singers were simply still missing it Together with Louis we organized one audition in order to find two further band-members. Nicky Byrne (19) had come back to his family in Dublin. He had done two years with Leeds United training. I like to sing simply immensely and have always used each pretext in order to go on the stage and, to present a song. As I heard audition about that, I was conscious, that I want only this job and have sung me the heart from the soul. That resembles Nicky's also did friend Bryan McFadden, that had already made a name for itself in Dublin as singers. We were already made friends then and I remember exactly, I yielded to Nicky said: The best might win, and doesn't forget to call me, Bryan remembers. We wanted to be simply both in this band. Ultimately the competition not at all occurred first then, Shane tells. Nickies and Bryan were the first, that came to the audition, and as we had experienced it we simply knew, that our team is perfect with them. November '98 saw them performing for the first part of the Boyzone's tour and they soon won the Smash hits Best New Act award which Spice Girls and Boyzone had won previously. On April '98 they released their first single "Swear It Again" which went straight to number 1 in the UK singles chart. They continued to rewrite the record books by being the first band ever to have their first seven singles all go to the No.1 spots on the UK charts. These singles were "Sweat It Again","If I Let You Go", "Flying Without Wings", "I Had A Dream / Seasons In The Sun', 'Fool Again', 'Against All Odds' and 'My Love'. Their next single was 'What Makes A Man' which went to No.2 in the UK charts. Their most recent release was 'Uptown Girl' (a cover of the Billy Joel hit) and gave Westlife their eighth No.1! Westlife won 'Best Pop Act' at the 2000 Brit Awards. |
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