Westlife Concerts Setlist

Westlife is an Irish pop band. They were formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The founding members were Shane Filan (born in 1979 in Sligo, Ireland), Mark Feehily (1980, Sligo, Ireland), Nicky Byrne (1978, Dublin, Ireland), Kian Egan (1980, Sligo, Ireland), and Brian McFadden (1980, Dublin, Ireland), all vocalists.

Egan, Filan, and Feehily all attended the same Catholic high school in Sligo, Ireland. They also were all part of a high school production of the musical “Grease”. Having had a great experience singing on stage, they and 3 other cast members formed the group “Six as One” in 1997, later renamed “IOYOU”. They put out two singles together, produced by the label Sound Records.

The boy group was brought to the attention of famed music producer Simon Cowell, who suggested firing at least 3 group members, because, as he put it “they’re the ugliest band I have ever seen”. So, only Egan, Filan, and Feehily remained. Through auditions, McFadden and Byrne joined the group. Thus, in 1998, the new Irish pop boyband “Westlife” was born. Originally, they were supposed to be called “Westside” after the 1957 musical by Jerome Robbins “West Side Story”. However, that name was already taken, so they went with Westlife after a slight alteration. They were signed by RCA Records.

Also in 1998, they got to perform a Westlife concert show as an opening act for the Backstreet Boys performing in Dublin, which greatly helped them gain popularity. They were also featured on the long-running Irish talk show The Late Late Show as a musical guest. Their self-titled debut album, “Westlife”, came out in November 1999. It topped the charts in their home country of Ireland, while also reaching the #2 spot on the OCC chart over in the UK. Between 1999 and 2010, the Irish boyband released a total of 10 studio albums.

However, in 2012, they shocked their fans with the announcement of the breakup of their band. In their statement, they stressed that the decision was made amicably, the members just felt that they needed a break, and then wanted to move on to new ventures. MacFadden had already departed from the band in 2004.

Their break-up lasted for 6 years. In October 2018, Westlife announced through their official social media pages that they are soon to be back together. MacFadden was the only one not to return, he instead stayed with his new pop duo “Boyzlife”. Byrne and the rest of the boys went on a reunion Westlife concert tour called “The Twenty Tour” in 2019.

Since then, they also released two more albums, thus they have 12 in total. The best selling one among them is their second one, “Coast to Coast” from November 2000, which sold 7 million copies worldwide. Meanwhile, the latest new Westlife album came out in November 2021, with the title “Wild Dreams”.

Their biggest hits to date are “If I Let You Go” (1999), “My Love” (2000), “I Lay My Love On You” (also 2000), and “Queen of My Heart” (2001). Westlife holds the record of the most consecutive #1 albums (3) in a decade in the UK and Ireland for a band since The Beatles.