Westlife Pre-Release Party - Early Hits 2

Left to right: Kian Egan, Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Brian McFadden.

In an earlier post, I made it through the first three singles released by Westlife from the self-titled debut album. They were Swear It Again, If I Let You Go, and Flying Without Wings. Westlife were signed to Sony BMG/UK by Simon Cowell of American Idol fame, and have been managed for their entire careers by Louis Walsh, one of the judges on X-Factor. Next out of the blocks was I Have A Dream, something I thought was a special recording for Christmas, because it wasn't on my CD. Turns out, the US version did not contain this song, and in fact only had 13 songs, while the 'international version' had 19 songs, at least according to Wikipedia, with different countries having a few different choices. That said, the Abba cover was released just prior to Christmas 1999 with a cover of Terry Jacks Seasons In The Sun as the B-side. It was #1 on the UK and Irish charts by Christmas.



The fifth and final single from the debut was Fool Again, written by the same team who had written If I Let You Go, the second hit. It was out in 2000, and hit the top spot on the UK charts, but interestingly enough, only made it to #2 on the Irish charts.



In November of 2000, Westlife released their second studio album, Coast To Coast. The clever marketing people at Sony BMG/UK decided to have them embark on a 24 hour tour from coast to coast of the UK. The album debuted on top of the UK charts, and the first single, a remake of Phil Collins' Against All Odds made into a 'duet' with Mariah Carey also soared to the top of the singles chart in both the UK and Ireland.



On November 31, Westlife will release their seventh studio album, Where We Are, in the UK. The first single, What About Now, was just released, and they debuted it with a live performance on the X-Factor show [click here to see it]. You can find the official Westlife site by clicking here.