33 Facts About Westlife

Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998.

Westlife is the act with the most Number 1 debuts on the UK Singles Chart, with all 14 of their chart-toppers landing there in their first week.

Westlife is one of the most successful music groups of all time, among the highest-profile acts in 2000s popular culture in most territories worldwide, and one of the few boy bands to have continued success after their commercial peak.

Also in the same month and year, Westlife released their third album World of Our Own, their second No 1 album in the UK and their third No 1 album in Ireland.

In 2002, Westlife went on their second world tour, the World of Our Own Tour.

Related searches

Also during that time, Westlife bagged another Guinness World Record for most public appearances by a pop group in a 36-hour period.

In 2003, Westlife went on their third world tour, The Greatest Hits Tour and was invited to play at the annual Edinburgh Military Tattoo, shrugging off rumours of a split which is what most of the pop bands do after a Greatest Hits album and tour.

McFadden's final public performance as part of Westlife was at Newcastle upon Tyne's Powerhouse nightclub on 27 February 2004.

Westlife subsequently began a solo career, and reverted the spelling of his first name back to its original 'Brian'.

Westlife continued to tour Europe as part of their "The Number Ones Tour" which started in early 2005.

In October 2005, Westlife returned with their comeback single, "You Raise Me Up", which was taken from their sixth album Face to Face, their thirteenth No 1.

In late 2006, Westlife signed a brand new five-album deal with Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

Westlife then kicked off their eighth world tour, "The Love Tour", in Perth, Australia.

On 5 November 2007, Westlife released their eighth album, Back Home, which contained nine new original songs along with three cover songs.

On 15 December 2007, they had a two-hour show called The Westlife Show where they performed 10 of their songs, some of which were voted online by fans and some from Back Home.

From 2005 to 2008, Music Week revealed on their website that Westlife was the official third top touring act within the years while they were the seventh top touring act of 2008.

Westlife said that it will be a one-year break, from that day up to 1 July 2009.

On 13 December 2008, while on a break, Westlife made an unexpected appearance during that year's X Factor final where they performed "Flying Without Wings" with runners-up JLS.

On 18 March 2009, Westlife won the Best Irish Pop Act on the 2009 Meteor Awards for the ninth consecutive time.

Over this period, Westlife were the most successful musical act and group at reaching the top spot with 11 No 1 singles only from the said decade, top act with most total number of weeks at No 1 with individual credits and second to most total number of weeks at No 1 with 14 weeks.

Westlife is the second biggest selling music act in the UK of the 21st century.

Westlife was named the fourth most hard-working music artist and third most hard-working band in the UK by PRS in 2010.

On 14 March 2011, Westlife confirmed that they had left Cowell after 13 years and his record label Syco Music after nine years.

Westlife later said his account was hacked and debunked the announcement.

On 19 October 2011, Westlife officially announced they were splitting after an album and a tour.

Related searches

Cowell and some media predicted a possible reunion in the future, but Westlife put an end to that speculation by vowing they would never reunite.

Westlife made it as a supporting act to Mariah Carey and Wet Wet Wet.

Westlife had been in contact with Ed Sheeran and James Arthur to create songs for the band.

On 17 December 2021, a Westlife concert filmed at London's Bush Hall Venue and broadcast by Tencent's WeChat across China's most popular social media platform had an audience of almost 28 million.

Westlife's name was used by the main character Vicky Pollard in the popular UK comedy television series Little Britain with one of her famous lines, "swapping her baby for a Westlife CD".

In 2002, Westlife re-recorded their hit song "Flying Without Wings" with Mexican singer Cristian Castro and with Korean singer BoA as two separate duets.

Westlife have always been known as a vocal - harmony group and not a typical boyband as they are not known for dancing or any other typical boyband attributes.

Some products that Westlife officially released, aside from their music releases, include video games, Cadbury chocolates, books, calendars, and tour merchandise such as T-shirts, jewellery, stationery, toiletries, dolls, watches, clocks, mugs, duvets, wallpaper, key chains, and posters.