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Westlife

Bibliográfia - Westlife

The Westlife brief is simple. Make records. Then break them.

From unknowns only two years ago, the Irish quintet has metamorphisised from pop newcomer at 1998\'s Smash Hits Awards to a veritable pop phenomena, country to country and coast to coast, far across the globe.

The eponymous debut album Westlife, released in November 1999, is now quadruple platinum in the UK with five million plus copies sold worldwide. In Ireland Westlife made record history by becoming the fastest selling album and now stands at 15 x platinum. The band also became a superstar act in the Asia Pacific region notching up platinum awards in seven separate territories (8 x platinum in Malaysia, 5 x platinum in the Philippines and an amazing 20 x platinum in Indonesia, where the album has become the biggest selling international release in the country\'s history).

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From Westlife came an unprecedented five UK Number 1 singles; Swear It Again (March \'99), If I Let You Go (August \'99) and Flying Without Wings in October that year, which stunned listeners with a maturity of style previously unknown in a boy band. Pundits proclaimed the strong BIOGRÁFIA

The Westlife brief is simple. Make records. Then break them.

From unknowns only two years ago, the Irish quintet has metamorphisised from pop newcomer at 1998\'s Smash Hits Awards to a veritable pop phenomena, country to country and coast to coast, far across the globe.

The eponymous debut album Westlife, released in November 1999, is now quadruple platinum in the UK with five million plus copies sold worldwide. In Ireland Westlife made record history by becoming the fastest selling album and now stands at 15 x platinum. The band also became a superstar act in the Asia Pacific region notching up platinum awards in seven separate territories (8 x platinum in Malaysia, 5 x platinum in the Philippines and an amazing 20 x platinum in Indonesia, where the album has become the biggest selling international release in the country\'s history).

From Westlife came an unprecedented five UK Number 1 singles; Swear It Again (March \'99), If I Let You Go (August \'99) and Flying Without Wings in October that year, which stunned listeners with a maturity of style previously unknown in a boy band. Pundits proclaimed the strong vocal harmonies as something akin to Boyz II Men, but the public didn\'t bother with talk. They went with action, voting Flying Without Wings 1999\'s Record Of The Year instead.

Next, the double A-side cover I Have A Dream/Seasons In The Sun slid easily into the history books as the UK Christmas/Millennium Number 1 and remained at the top spot for a further 2 weeks, while fifth title Fool Again claimed another first place in March 2000. Bryan McFadden, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Nicky Byrne and Shane Filan surpassed the Guinness World Record as the most successful new chart act of all time achieving five consecutive Number
1\'s with their first five singles.why stop there?

Westlife have gained a rapidly building US fanbase (\'Swear It Again\' peaked at Number 2 in the Billboard Sales Chart and reached Gold status with sales over 1
million), the lads are surely set to be the only European pop band to conquer the land since The Spice Girls.

Westlife\'s superstar pedigree was confirmed in September 2000 when the Mariah Carey collaboration Against All Odds added to their own record best as the sixth Westlife single to reach UK Number 1.

Mark, a lifelong Mariah fan, was impressed \"It was beyond all my wildest expectations\" he says.

Against All Odds is one of 16 tracks included on the band\'s current album Coast To Coast and as such heralds a brand new Westlife era.

\"I think musically we\'re ready for the second album\" says Kian. \"We\'re happy with what we\'ve accomplished and we\'re ready to try for something more!\"

With that in mind, Westlife were reunited with the recording and writing talents which helped launch their phenomenal success. Summer 2000 was spent commuting between the Stockholm studios of Cheiron (N\'Sync, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears) and working with Steve Mac and Wayne Hector in London.

\"We\'re very happy to be working with both sets of producers again. They keep impressing us with their ideas and we\'re comfortable with how they work - it\'s like we\'ve grown up together\" says Shane. \"On the whole, this album is a big step up for us, both vocally and musically\".

\"We\'ve kept our classic ballads but recorded a lot of upbeat stuff too\" agrees Kian. \"The idea is that after you\'ve listened a few times you can stand back from your expectations and say \'\'Wow! this actually IS really good!\'\'

Faster songs include Somebody Needs You, I Lay My Love On You and When You\'re Looking Like That. \"We wanted to do some great uptempos\" says Shane \"and I\'m sure we will surprise a lot of people.\" \"We\'re gonna have everyone dancing in their seats in the live show\" Bryan agrees.

\"My favourite track right now is My Love\" says Bryan. The second single from Coast to Coast is an anthem of strings and waterfall voices and marked an
amazing seventh Number 1 for Westlife in October 2000. \"We wanted an epic sound\" agrees Shane. \"Something we could imagine on football terraces\".

Angel\'s Wings is another crowd pleaser which will win fans of all ages. \"It\'s written about a baby being born but could relate to many things\" says Mark \"and I\'ll enjoy singing What Makes A Man. It\'s so much more than a simple pop song, and great fun to sing\".

In November 2000 Coast to Coast rocketed to the Number 1 spot in the first week. Not only did this represent a personal achievement for the band who beat their debut eponymous album which entered the UK charts at Number 2 last year, but also a remarkable achievement in outselling their nearest chart rivals by almost three to one. In only two weeks the album has already reached double platinum selling over 600,000 copies. Also, in this month Westlife were awarded an MTV Europe Music Award for \'Best UK & Ireland Act\' fighting off competition from Robbie Williams, Craig David, Travis and Sonique.

The Westlife UK & Ireland Arena Tour begins on February 9th 2001 at Newcastle Telewest Arena and finishes a remarkable 44 sold out dates later on April 18th in
Birmingham\'s NEC.

The mammoth trek across the country takes in week long residencies at Wembley and Glasgow\'s SECC, and includes a poignant eleven night stay at Dublin\'s The Point - home of the greatest turning point in Westlife lore.

It was one rainy St Patrick\'s Day - in 1998 to be precise - that an unknown Sligo pop group named IOU (Westlife\'s original name) first graced the stage at The Point, Dublin\'s biggest pop venue.

Supporting The Backstreet Boys, it was the West Coast lads\' biggest gig by far, and a long way from the school show Grease where Shane, Kian and Mark sang together for the first time. Aftershow singalongs produced instinctive harmonies and IOU were soon entertaining interval audiences then doing community gigs around town.

A local TV show brought IOU to the attention of Louis Walsh, pop Svengali esq, and an invitation to fill the BSB support slot was issued. After the show, Louis was impressed \"he said \'I can\'t see you up there and not manage you!\'\" recounts
Shane, and core IOU members Shane Kian and Mark were signed to RoLo
management, a first venture for Louis Walsh and Ronan Keating. Louis introduced new members Bryan, fresh from Billie Barry\'s stage school, and Nicky, ex football apprentice at Leeds united, to the ranks of the newly named Westlife.

Of course, all of that was in the early days; before the record deal, before the seven Number 1 singles, before the sold-out tour, MTV awards, Record of the Year and multi-platinum albums. That was when they were nowt but down to earth, up for a laugh, nice, normal lads.

RCA\'s A&R Consultant, Simon Cowell, reflects to when he offered Westlife a deal on the spot \"When showcasing them I instantly knew they were going to be a very successful band. They have surpassed my expectations. The great thing is that after all of their achievements they have remained down-to-earth. They are a great bunch of guys to work with\".

.it\'s lucky nothing has changed!

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Diszkográfia - Westlife

Westlife (199)
Coast To Coast(2000)
World of our own(2001)
Unbreakable – Greatest hits vol. 1(2002)
Turnaround(2003)
Allow Us To Be Frank(2004)
Face To Face (2005)
The Love Album(2006)
Back Home(2007)

Westlife cikkek