You raise me up

WESTLIFE

Westlife are an Irish boy band formed in 1998. They are to disband in 2012 after their farewell tour. The group's line-up was Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, and Brian McFadden (left the band in 2004). Westlife have sold over 45 million records worldwide which includes studio albums, singles, video release, and compilation albums.[1] Despite the group's worldwide success, they only have one hit single in the United States, "Swear It Again", which peaked in 2000 on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 20. The band were originally signed by Simon Cowell and are managed by Louis Walsh. The group have accumulated 14 number-one singles in the United Kingdom, the third-highest in UK history, tying with Cliff Richard. The group had also broken a few records, including "Music artist with most consecutive number 1's in the UK", which consists of their first seven singles and only behind The Beatles and Elvis Presley. The Official Charts Company credited Westlife as the second biggest-selling artist and biggest-selling band of the decade.[2] The band have 14 UK number ones and 25 top ten singles, consisting of 20.2 million records and videos in the UK across their 14-year career - 6.8 million singles, 11.9 million albums and 1.5 million videos.[3]

On 1 June 2008, Westlife marked their tenth anniversary with a concert in Croke Park, Dublin which had more than 83,000 fans attending the special occasion. Music Week revealed on their website that Westlife are the official third top touring act within the years 2005–2008, while they were seventh top touring act of 2008.[4] Also in 2008, they were declared Ireland's ninth-richest celebrities under 30 years old and thirteenth in general with 36 million euros as a group. In 2009, they dropped as sixteenth richest Irish with estimated 8 million euros each. They were named as the fourth most hard-working music artist in UK by PRS in 2010.[5] In August 2011, it was reported in the Irish Examiner that the profits of the band's firm grew five-fold in 2010.[6] On 19 October 2011, Westlife announced they were to split after their Greatest Hits was released on the 21st of November 2011 it debuted in Ireland at number1 for 1 week and debuted and peaked at number 4 in the UK and a farewell tour in Spring 2012.[7]

Westlife is an Irish musical group consisting of Shane Filan, Kian Egan, Nicky Byrne and Mark Feehily. One other member, Bryan McFadden, out on March 9, 2004 in order to devote more time to his family life with a former member of Atomic Kitten, Kerry Katona, although they later split up and he changed the spelling of his first name to 'Brian'.

The band has proven successful in Ireland and the United Kingdom, with its success scored 13 number one singles between 1999 and 2005, among others:

"Swear It Again" (1999)
"If I Let You Go" (1999)
"Flying Without Wings" by BoA (published in 2000 Pokémon movie theme song) (1999)
"I Have a Dream" / "Seasons In The Sun" (a cover of ABBA and Terry Jacks) (1999)
"Fool Again" (2000)
"Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" (duet with Mariah Carey) (cover of Phil Collins) (2000)
"My Love" (2000)
"Uptown Girl" (a cover of Billy Joel) (2001)
"Queen Of My Heart" (2001)
"Try Again" (2001)
"World of Our Own" (2002)
"Unbreakable" (2002)
"Mandy" (cover of Barry Manilow) (2003)
"You Raise Me Up" (2005)

Not all the singles that they make reaching the charts first in the United Kingdom:

"What Makes a Man" (2000) # 2
"Bop Bop Baby" (2002) # 5
"Tonight / Miss You Nights" (2003) # 3
"Hey Whatever" (2003) # 4
"Obvious" (2004) # 3

Westlife are also four times in a row won the "Record of the Year" ITV with their single "Flying Without Wings", "My Love", "Mandy", and "You Raise Me Up". Their debut album in Indonesia managed to get the award 20 times platinum for sales of more than one million copies. Westlife hold the record for best-selling foreign album in music history of Indonesia and also the only international artist who is able to sell an album in the top one million units in the region of Indonesia. [1] [2]

Westlife has not managed to penetrate the musical industry in the United States, although their debut single, "Swear It Again", at that time was quite popular on the radio and MTV. TRL on MTV, video clips "Swear It Again" had requested several times, and get in on the chart "hot 100" in one of the magazines in the U.S. (Billboard Magazine) summer edition at number 20.

Until now they have not managed to achieve similar success in the U.S.. Their debut album was released in 2000 failed after and that was the only album they released there. That does not mean no development Westlife fans there. The band is also very famous in Asia, Europe, Australia, and several countries in the Americas except the U.S..

Like the other boy band, their albums aimed at teenage girls, although there is also a fan of their men (approximately 20% of Westlife's fans are men). Westlife has appeared several times in several places the gay community.