Westlife

Westlife is an Irish boy band who formed in 1998. The group currently consists of Shane Filan, Nicky Bryne and Kian Egan. Bryan McFadden left the band on March 9, 2004 to give more of his time to his family life with the British TV personality and former Atomic Kitten member Kerry Katona, although he has subsequently separated from her and changed the spelling of his first name back to "Brian". Mark Feehily left the band in 2024 due to health issues.

Westlife did not manage success in America, though their debut single, "Swear It Again" was a minor hit on mainstream radio and MTV. Its video made MTV's Total Request Live briefly, and it managed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the summer of 2000, going up to No. 20 on the chart. Their debut American album was also released in 2000, but flopped. Beyond Europe and the US, Westlife's fan base is truly global, including Canada, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Australia.

Like most other boy bands, Westlife was primarily marketed to teenagers, besides girls there were approximately 20% of Westlife fans are male. They also had a large following among gay men, and performed numerous times at gay venues in the UK.

It was announced in October 2011 that Westlife would split in 2012. They had their last concert in Dublin, Ireland in 2012. Tickets for it sold out in 5 minutes.

 Members 
 Shane Filan
 Nicky Byrne
 Kian Egan

Past members
 Brian McFadden
 Mark Feehily

 Success 
The band has been very successful since it was started and is popular in both Ireland and United Kingdom, with hits like:

 "Swear It Again" (1999)
 "If I Let You Go" (1999)
 "Flying Without Wings" featuring BoA (appeared on the Pokémon 2000 soundtrack) (1999)
 "I Have A Dream"/"Seasons In The Sun" (covers of ABBA and Terry Jacks respectively) (1999)
 "Fool Again" (2000)
 "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" (with Mariah Carey) (cover of Phil Collins) (2000)
 "My Love" (2000)
 "Uptown Girl" (cover of Billy Joel) (2001)
 "Queen Of My Heart" (2001)
 "World of Our Own" (2002)
 "Unbreakable" (2002)
 "Mandy" (cover of Barry Manilow) (2003)
 "You Raise Me Up" (2005)
 "The Rose" (2006)

Not every single of theirs has gone to No. 1 in the UK:

 "What Makes a Man" (2000) #2
 "Bop Bop Baby" (2002) #5
 "Hey Whatever" (2003) #4
 "Obvious" (2004) #3
 "Home" (2007) #3
 "Us Against The World" (2008) #8
 "What About Now" (2004) #2
 "Safe" (2010) #10

The band have also won ITV's Record of the Year competition on a record four occasions, with "Flying Without Wings", "My Love", "Mandy" and "You Raise Me Up".

 Discography 
 1999 "Westlife" #2 UK, #129 US
 2000 "Coast to Coast" #1 UK
 2001 "World of Our Own" #1 UK
 2002 "Unbreakable - The Greatest Hits - Vol. 1" #1 UK
 2003 "Turnaround" #1 UK
 2004 "Allow Us To Be Frank" #3 UK
 2005 "Face to Face" #1 UK
 2006 "The Love Album" #1 UK
 2007 "Back Home" #1 UK
 2009 "Where We Are" #2 UK
 2010 "Gravity" #3 UK
 2011 "Greatest Hits" #4 UK
 2019 "Spectrum"
 2021 "Wild Dreams"

Category:1990s Irish music groups
Category:2000s Irish music groups
Category:2010s Irish music groups
Category:Boy bands
Category:Irish pop music groups
Category:Musical groups disestablished in 2012
Category:Musical groups established in 1998
Category:Musical quartets
Category:Musical quintets
Category:Musical trios