This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
Twenty-five years after they first conquered the charts, Westlife are preparing for the biggest celebration of their career – and feeling more grateful than ever.
“Our fans have gone from teenagers chasing tour buses and sitting outside hotels until 4am to becoming parents themselves and now they bring their kids to our shows. We’ve all grown up together, and there’s a whole new Westlife army joining in,” says Nicky Byrne.
As they prepare to release their 39th single, Your Love Amazes Me, bandmates Nicky, Kian Egan and Shane Filan say the track is a ‘love letter’ to those who’ve stayed the course.
“It’s a deliberate return to our roots,” says Kian, 46. “That might sound cheesy, but when you’re our age it’s a heartfelt message. When we were talking about the 25th anniversary and how to celebrate, we wanted to make a classic Westlife ballad, and we’re so happy the fans are enjoying it.”
View 8 ImagesWestlife kicked off their 25th anniversary celebrations with a performance at the Royal Albert Hall(Image: Getty Images)
After the release of their new single and a 21-track greatest hits album, the trio are also about to take off on one of the biggest world tours of their career with 72 dates planned across the globe.
“We’ve just added extra dates in Australia and New Zealand, Mexico and Asia. We’re going to parts of Europe we’ve never been to as a band. Amazingly, this looks bigger than the first and second tours we ever did. That’s something to be celebrated, it really is,” says Nicky, 47.
“Where we go from here nobody has a crystal ball, but we’ll go and enjoy this and visit the places where Westlife still has a footprint and an audience waiting for us.”
Before the world tour begins, the band will be reunited with the man who helped launch it all – Simon Cowell, who gave them their first record deal, as they perform live on Britain’s Got Talent this weekend.
View 8 ImagesWestlife signed with Simon Cowell in 1998 and were first managed by Ronan Keating and Louis Walsh(Image: Maxwell/REX/Shutterstock)
“It’ll be the first time we’ve seen Simon in a few years,” says Shane, 46. “He was such a huge part of all those songs, all those ballads. He was the one who wanted us to be different. He didn’t want us to be the Backstreet Boys or Take That. He wanted us to sing big powerful ballads. And we did seven in a row! We were like, ‘What is going on here?’ But we got seven number ones and Simon was right.”
The feat gives them a record that even The Beatles didn’t manage, with seven consecutive number one singles. They’ve also clocked up 14 UK No.1 singles, sold more than 55 million records worldwide and performed to over six million fans.
Kian admits, “At the start we were definitely worried about how many love songs we were releasing. But when we look back on it now we realise that this is the music that stands the test of time, it’s songs like Swear It Again, You Raise Me Up and Flying Without Wings.” Shane agrees: “They are moments in time, moments in people’s lives.”
View 8 ImagesThe band say they were initially concerned about their ballad ratio, but the hits kept rolling in – pictured winning Record of the Year for Flying Without Wings(Image: Press Association)
As young lads from Sligo and Nicky hailing from Dublin, the band were willing to give it everything to succeed. “There was a part of us that wanted this so badly,” says Nicky. “I remember a conversation with Simon when he signed us in 1998, we sat down in RCA records and we said, ‘We want this. We don’t want any days off,’ and he laughed and winked at us and said, ‘I’ll hold you to that.’ But we absolutely meant that.
“There is no such thing as part-time pop stars,” he adds. “We’ve always said that. And when we signed that deal it was almost like singing an imaginary letter to our families where we said, ‘Look I’m going to jump on this ship now and I don’t know when I’ll be back.’ And we committed to it. And we committed to each other. And it took off beyond our imagination and our lives changed inside out so quickly. We got an opportunity, we took it and we ran with it.”
The band were together 13 years from 1998 to when they split in 2012. They survived Brian McFadden quitting the band in 2004, but took what turned out to be a six-year hiatus in 2012.
View 8 ImagesThe foursome’s comeback was a huge success – playing Wembley for the first time in 2022(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
“When we broke up it was the right thing to do even though some of us may not have wanted it,” admits Kian. “We might have looked at it and thought, ‘Well what are we going to do now?’
“Stepping away from Westlife for those six years became a very positive thing for us because it made us appreciate what we had . As the years went on and we were away from it the thought of doing it again became a fairytale in our minds. The fans started to miss us. We started to miss doing it.
“Then conversations came back around, ‘Could we do this again?’ It felt really special when we did. Standing on stage for our comeback show in Belfast in 2018 was electric. And we’ve held on to that feeling ever since. Covid put a stop to everything for a few years so in a strange way, the breaks in the middle have had an impact in keeping us together.”
The band have now grown from passionate teenagers to becoming each other’s loyal family. “We really have grown together in a way a family would. We’ve fallen out, we’ve gotten back together again. We also get on as mates, we go out to dinner together and have drinks together. We’ve all put each other to bed at various points!” laughs Nicky.
View 8 ImagesNow the band’s children have become like family(Image: Getty Images)
“The biggest thing I put our success down to is communication, being able to tell each other genuinely if we’re upset or if we don’t want to do something and allow each other those moments that you may not like to hear but you listen and go, ‘Fine, OK’. Not everything can work all of the time. And being able to deal with that is the reason we’ve been able to keep going. It’s like a marriage.”
And now even the band’s children have become an extended family. Shane says: “I think it’s one of the most special things about it all. Our kids have grown up – the youngest, Kian’s son Coby is eight, and the eldest, my daughter Nicole is 21. We have nine Westlife kids who are very good friends. They have their own WhatsApp group where they text each other to see who is going to what shows on what weekend. It’s lovely to see. It’s more special now to share this with our families and our kids especially.”
But there will be one notable absence from the anniversary celebrations. Bandmate Mark Feehily, who stepped back from touring following health issues since 2022, will not be joining them. While Mark has lent his vocals to their new singles, he hasn’t been on stage with them in four years.
View 8 ImagesMark last performed with the band on the Wild Dreams tour in 2022(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)
View 8 ImagesWestlife: The Ultimate Collection is out now
Kian says: “We’re devastated he won’t be joining us on this tour. We’ll be missing him every night just as much as the fans will. But he’s given us his full support. This is the 25th anniversary, it’s something that we all felt needed to be celebrated. We hope as soon as he’s ready he’ll be back with us and we look forward to that moment.”
For now the band are preparing to head off on tour again as a three piece, starting with 13 nights in Dublin. After 25 years in the business, the band say the feeling of walking on stage still hasn’t faded.
Kian says: “One minute you’re in your dressing room, the next you’re standing on stage in front of thousands of people. It’s an incredible experience and one we never get used to. When the lights go down in the arena and then our lights come up on stage it really is truly epic. Every time we start a new tour, the opening few nights, it takes you a moment to hold back your emotions and gather yourself to perform.”
Nicky says: “When we were starting off we had so much energy and so many points to prove. Thankfully, touch wood, we did. Now these are the years where we want to enjoy these shows and celebrate these songs.”
Shane adds: “We want to give everyone their money’s worth. You know people are going out and getting their hair done, booking hotels, sorting travel. It’s expensive to go to a concert for anybody these days. We want to go out and play everyone’s favourite song.”
“These songs will probably last long after us,” says Nicky. “Somebody else might still be singing them in 50 years’ time.”
Article continues below
Westlife’s new album 25 – The Ultimate Collection is out now. Final tickets for the UK leg of Westlife 25: The Anniversary World Tour are on sale now at LiveNation.co.uk
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.