PERSONEL BIO

Shane Filan
Shane Filan at The Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2009
Background information
Birth name	Shane Steven Filan
Born	5 July 1979 (age 33)
Origin	Sligo, Ireland
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals
Labels	SonyBMG UK/Ireland
Associated acts	Westlife

Shane Steven Filan (born 5 July 1979) is an Irish singer and songwriter. He was one of the lead singers of an Irish boy band Westlife before the group disbanded in 2012.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Musical career 1.1.1 As a band member 1.1.2 As a solo artist 1.2 Personal life 2 References 3 External links

Biography

Filan was born on 5 July 1979 to Peter and Mae Filan, and grew up in Sligo, a busy commercial town in the northwest of Ireland. The youngest of seven children, he has three brothers and three sisters: Finbarr, Peter Jr, Yvonne, Liam, Denise and Mairead. His parents owned a diner in Sligo named Carlton Caf'e located on Castle Street and Shane used to work there as a waiter from a very early age.
Filan attended Summerhill College, a Catholic school, with Kian Egan and Mark Feehily. All three of them participated in a school production of Grease when they were about 12. The Hawkswell Theatre became a significant part of their careers. Filan was a fan of Michael Jackson as a child, and claimed the singer inspired him to pursue a career in music.^[1]

Musical career

As a band member

Before Westlife, Egan and Feehily were with Filan in a band known as I.O.U. with other Sligonians Derrick Lacey, Graham Keighron and Michael "Miggles" Garrett. He partly wrote the IOYOU's song Together Girl Forever. For 6 months, Shane's mum, Mae Filan, tried to phone Louis Walsh (who is also the manager of Boyzone). Eventually, she was able to speak to him and talked about her son's band. 3 of them were dropped and the other 3, Shane, Kian and Mark, joined ventures to finding 2 more slots for the band. Then they were joined by Nicky Byrne and Brian McFadden to form Westside. The name of the band then changed to Westlife as there were already a number of bands with the name Westside.
Filan, along with Mark Feehily, was the lead singer in Westlife. Their first album was released in November, 1999, titled Westlife. With Westlife, Filan has received twenty-eight platinum discs and sold 40 million records worldwide.^[2]
Filan has also co-written a few songs, along with the other band members, including:

• Fragile Heart
• Bop Bop Baby (Became a hit single and made it into #5 in U.K. singles charts)
• Don't Say It's Too Late
• I wanna grow old with you
• I'm missing loving you
• Singing Forever
• Where we belong
• Never knew I was losing you
• Love Crime
• How Does It Feel
• Crying Girl
• Reason For Living
• Miss You When I'm Dreaming
• A Little Part of Me / Little Part of Me / Extraordinary Love^A
• Love Ain't War^A
• This Life^A
• Closer
• Too Hard To Say Goodbye
• Last Mile of the way .

^ASongs were found to be Filan's co-written songs. No other details whether it's for Westlife or not.
He has also written songs for other artists, (together with his former bandmate McFadden):

• Listen Girl sung by John Ostberg
• Let Me Be the One sung by Simon Casey (the song written by only Shane himself)
• Sei Parte Ormai Di Me sung by Il Divo ^[3]
• The Music Won't Last / Music Won't Last by Jerry Given

In the week beginning 26 April 2010, an unreleased solo song by Filan called "Beautiful In White" leaked onto the Internet, but it was credited as being recorded by Shayne Ward instead of Filan. Filan performed the song on 13 March 2010 at a private wedding ceremony in Co. Kildare Ireland for Irish multimillionaire Mark Walker's daughter.

As a solo artist

In 20 October 2011, Westlife announced and decided to split and go separate ways until the end of their 2012 Farewell Tour. Filan showed interest of being a solo music artist as his daily living. In December 2011, press said Filan is close to sealing a solo deal as several UK record labels are battling it out to sign the singer. Shane and his manager Louis Walsh, have been in talks with several record companies in London that month. "There's four, possibly five labels so far who have made it clear that they want to sign Shane," said a music source. "He's an incredible singer and he already has a very good idea of the kind of album he wants to make. He and Louis have been in meeting after meeting this week and are looking at their options. It's looking very good for Shane - he has his choice of record deals." Louis Walsh added:

"Shane Filan has one of the greatest voices out there," "He's a complete natural - he's never, ever out of tune. He wants to do an album of modern, contemporary songs along the lines of Michael Buble - something that would have wide appeal. He can tackle any music really simply because he has the voice."^[4] “I'm going to manage Shane Filan. He's going for the Michael Buble market,” Louis said on Irish TV over the weekend. “They're all good but I can only manage one. I love Shane's voice. I love Mark's voice too. The other boys are going to do TV and different stuff and radio. They are going out on a high,” “[He] is going to be a big artist. I will only manage someone if I believe in them. If I get someone amazing I will manage them.”^[5]

On 4 March 2012, it was updated that three major labels battling to sign him including Simon Cowell's record label, Syco Records.^[6] The Irish Daily Mirror can reveal the singer has a number of multi-million euro offers and is currently deciding which to go with. Songs are already being picked out for Shane’s debut album which could see him become one of the biggest singers to come out of Ireland since Ronan Keating. An insider said: “Everything seems to be going perfect for Shane right now. Having three labels fighting over you is about as good as it gets. It’s going to be a tough decision picking who he goes for as the offers are all extremely good. But for Shane a lot of it is coming down to what they can offer him. He wants to be sure there is good promotion waiting for when he begins as a solo artist. Behind the scenes his team are already eying up the songs that will go on his first record. They want to make sure the album is absolutely perfect. It seems to have been decided that Michael Buble is the person Shane should aim towards becoming. If a tenth of the people who bought a Buble album buy Shane’s first album he’ll be an immediate success. This is going to be a hugely hectic year for Shane. The hope is to get his album out towards the end of the year when there’s still a buzz after Westlife.”^[7]
On a 14 March 2012 interview with Melanie Finn, Filan said he'll be signing on the dotted line in the next few weeks and he admitted that the nerves are jangling at the thought of going it alone and didn't want to rush on things.

"It's exciting but, of course, I'll be nervous. It's only natural when you're coming out of a band after 14 years, you don't know where your life's going to take you," "But all I want to do is sing, sing great songs and see where it goes. It's down to the songs." I'm just working out now exactly what's happening, there's different things happening and we'll work it out in the next month or two. Obviously I want to make the right decision," he said.^[8]

Back in 2008, Filan showed no interest on planning a solo career.^[9]

Personal life

Filan married his childhood sweetheart, Gillian on 28 December 2003 at Ballintubber Abbey, followed by a reception at Ashford Castle, Ireland.^[10] Gillian gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Nicole Rose, at Sligo General Hospital on 23 July 2005. Their second child, a son, Patrick Michael, was born at Sligo General Hospital on 15 September 2008. On 5 July 2009 (the day of his 30th birthday) Shane announced that he and Gillian were having their third child. Shane Peter, named after his father, was born at 9.34pm on 22 January 2010 weighing in at 6 lbs 9oz.
Shane likes to play golf in his spare time, but loves horses much more. He and his family own more than 70 of them, and used to compete at horse tournaments. All of Shane's horses are named Carlton something (e.g. Carlton Flight, Carlton Clover Association of Ireland). A massive Manchester United fan, Filan and bandmate Nicky Byrne proudly wore their Man Utd scarves as they were half time guests at Old Trafford for the game between United and Bolton Wanderers.
In 2010, Filan participated and won Soccer Aid, a British charity football match, alongside bandmate Nicky Byrne and the Rest of the World Team. Following in the footsteps of his bandmate, Kian, Filan appeared as Walsh's guest judge in the groups category of The X Factor. .
He and his eldest brother, Finbarr, run Shafin Developments – a property development company. The company was placed in receivership in May 2012^[11] and Filan was declared bankrupt a little over a month later after suffering losses in Ireland's property crash.^[12]

Nicky Byrne
Background information
Birth name	Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne Jr
Born	9 October 1978 (age 33) Dublin, Ireland
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, radio presenter, TV presenter, footballer
Instruments	Vocal
Years active	1998–present
Associated acts	Westlife

Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne, Jr (born 9 October 1978) is a singer-songwriter, radio and TV presenter and former footballer. From 1998 until 2012 he was the oldest member of Irish pop band, Westlife.
Before his music career, he played professional football and represented Republic of Ireland at several underage levels. Since then he has had a successful international radio and TV presenting career. His wife Georgina is the daughter of former Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and they have twin sons called Rocco Bertie Byrne and Jay Nicky Byrne.

Contents 1 Public life 1.1 Football career 1.2 Music career 1.3 Presenting career 1.4 Philantrophy 2 Personal life 2.1 Family 3 References 4 External links

Public life

Football career

Byrne was a footballer who played for Home Farm and St. Kevins Boys in North Dublin.^[2] He became a professional football player, and joined Leeds United as a goalkeeper in 1995, and was a squad member of the FA Youth Cup winning team of 1997^[3]
He played for Leeds for two years, leaving when his contract expired in June 1997. He played in a reserve game for Scarborough F.C. and in a trial game with Cambridge United before returning to join Dublin club Shelbourne. He then signed for Cobh Ramblers playing 11 games, then St. Francis F.C., all in Ireland's League of Ireland.^[4]
On 14 May 2009 Byrne was a substitute for a Liverpool F.C. Legends XI that played against an All Star XI in a Hillsborough Memorial match to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. All the proceeds from the match went to the Marina Dalglish appeal.
He represented the Republic of Ireland at U15, U16 and U18 levels. He is a fan of Celtic FC, and on 9 August 2011 played in a Celtic Legends XI at Celtic Park in front of a 54,000 crowd against a Manchester Utd Legends team.
In 2010, Byrne participated and won Soccer Aid, a British charity football match, alongside bandmate Shane Filan and the Rest of the World Team.

Music career

In June 1998, Byrne attended an audition for new Irish boyband, where he was spotted by Boyzone manager Louis Walsh, who approached him to join his new venture, Westlife. Byrne joined Westlife along with Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and former member Brian McFadden. The band's name had to be changed to Westlife after it was discovered a number of bands already had the name Westside.
Byrne revealed in Westlife: Our Story that he had wanted to change the name of the band to West High; but the others preferred Westlife.
With Westlife, Byrne has had 25 top ten UK singles, 14 of which, were number one, 7 number one albums and has sold in excess of over 45 million records worldwide. It is certified that Westlife have sold 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.
Byrne also had a number one single in Ireland in 2002, alongside the Republic of Ireland national football team and Dustin the Turkey with the Irish 2002 FIFA World Cup anthem, "Here Come The Good Times (Ireland)".
Byrne has also co-written songs, along with his former bandmates, including:^[5]

• "Nothing Is Impossible"
• "Don't Let Me Go"
• "When You Come Around"
• "Imaginary Diva"
• "Reason For Living"
• "Crying Girl"
• "You Don't Know"
• "Never Knew I Was Losing You"
• "Where We Belong"
• "Singing Forever"
• "I Won't Let You Down"
• "You See Friends (I See Lovers)"
• "I'm Missing Loving You"
• "When It Comes to Love"
• "Too Hard to Say Goodbye"
• "Wide Open"
• "Last Mile Of The Way"

Byrne is also one of the board of directors of Clikthrough, a video interactive site.^[6]

Presenting career

In 2003, Byrne guest-hosted an edition of CD:UK with Cat Deeley.
Throughout the years, Nicky has appeared on Children in Need and Comic Relief several times. In 2001, he co-hosted Children in Need live from Belfast and in 2011 and co-hosted a BBC Radio 2 radio special with Patrick Kielty for the cause. Nicky has narrated stage shows such as The Snowman Christmas Special and the Picture of You documentary dedicated to former Boyzone member Stephen Gately who died on October 10, 2009.
Byrne has also hosted the Cheerios ChildLine Concert, a record, seven times, which was broadcast on RTÉ2, and in more recent years TV3 (Ireland). In addition, Byrne presented several editions of the Celebrity Sunday radio programme on RTÉ 2fm in 2010.^[7] Listeners tuned in from as far and wide as Mexico, Chile, England, Scotland, Philippines and Indonesia. The fourth and final edition of the programme, broadcast on February 14, 2010, trended worldwide on Twitter.^[8]
FM104 publicly offered him a job the day Westlife announced their split.^[9]
In September 2012, Byrne will host the RTÉ reality TV show Football's Next Star. The series will follow ten young hopefuls competing for a chance to win a place with Celtic Football Club's youth squad.^[10]
He has spoken of his desire for a role on The X Factor.^[11]

Philantrophy

In 2010, Byrne and his family organised the 'Nikki Byrne Twilight Ball', a fundraising event, in memory of their father who passed away in November 2009. The event raised over €200,000 and completely funded a television and radio heart attack awareness campaign in connection with 'The Irish Heart Foundation'.^[12]
Nicky, and his wife Georgina, are keen supporters of the Irish Premature Babies charity.
Nicky also supports UNICEF and has taken part in several Unicef Campaigns, such as the Unicef 'Euro for Zero' campaign where the goal was to raise as much money as possible in November of 2010 for Child Survival Programmes.

Personal life

Family

Nicky was born to parents Yvonne and Nicholas. He has an older sister, Gillian, and a younger brother, Adam.
Byrne married his childhood sweetheart Georgina Ahern, whom he met when they were about 15 years old, on 5 August 2003 at the Wicklow Registry Office, Wicklow, County Wicklow.^[13] The civil ceremony was followed on 9 August by a church blessing at the Roman Catholic Church of St Pierre et St Paul in Gallardon, Eure-et-Loir, France and a reception at the nearby 16th century Château d'Esclimont.^[14]
Georgina gave birth to fraternal twin sons, Jay and Rocco, on 20 April 2007, almost eight weeks prematurely. The children were christened on 15 July 2007 in the Saint Sylvester Roman Catholic Church in Malahide, County Dublin.^[15]
Godparents for the children are Nicky's sister Gillian Byrne and her husband Mark Gallagher and Georgina's sister Cecelia Ahern and Nicky's brother Adam McGarry Byrne.^[16]
Nicky's father, Nikki Byrne Sr., died on November 3, 2009, from a heart attack. Westlife's promotional tour of the UK was cancelled as Nicky flew to Dublin to be with his family.^[17] Byrne Sr. sang part-time on Dublin's cabaret and karaoke scene and was presented with a Harley-Davidson motorbike by his son on his sixtieth birthday party the year before his death.^[18]

Mark Feehily
Mark Feehily at The Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2009 (Photo: Harry Wad)
Background information
Birth name	Markus Michael Patrick Feehily
Born	28 May 1980 (age 32) Sligo, Ireland
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, piano, tin-whistle
Years active	1998–present
Associated acts	Westlife
Website	www.westlife.com

Markus Michael Patrick Feehily (born 28 May 1980) was one of the lead singers of the Irish boyband Westlife.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 References 5 External links

Early life

Mark Feehily was born in Sligo, Ireland, to Marie Verdon and Oliver Feehily. He has two younger brothers, Barry (born 1985) and Colin (born 1989).

Career

He rose to fame as one of the two lead singers of the boyband Westlife. He shared lead vocals with Shane Filan. Before Westlife, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and Kian Egan came from the band IOYOU, which released the single "Together Girl Forever".^[1] Louis Walsh, the manager of the 1990s boy-band Boyzone, was contacted by Filan's mother and came to know about the group. The group was established on 3 July 1998 with the addition of two more members, Nicky Byrne and Brian McFadden. Boyzone singer Ronan Keating was brought in to co-manage the group with Walsh. Mark has also co-written songs, some with the other band members.
Mark has sung completely solo on songs for the band in some instances: a song the band wrote called "Imaginary Diva" of World of Our Own album and externally written "Talk Me Down" of Where We Are album and also "Before It's Too Late" of Gravity. At live performances, he also sang completely solo for the songs "Oh Holy Night", "Imaginary Diva" and "Il Adore". He has also co-written songs, some with the other band members.
Mark is banned for life from the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles following an incident during which he got drunk and threw some items from a window of the hotel.^[2]
Mark has spoken to The Boston Globe of his embarrassment about Westlife's Rat Pack-tribute album, Allow Us to Be Frank, and blamed their label for forcing them to record it after Robbie Williams had success with this type of music, dismissing the instance a "weird time" in Westlife's career.^[3]
Mark intends to have a solo career after Westlife and wishes to write a book and an album.^[4]

Personal life

In August 2005, he publicly revealed he was gay during an interview with the British tabloid The Sun.^[5] Mark had recognized his sexual orientation when he was 14 or 15 years old.^[6] His family, band mates and close friends knew his sexual orientation.^[2][5] Westlife's manager Louis Walsh, however, was unaware of Mark's sexual orientation when he began managing the group.^[7] As the only gay member in Westlife, Mark kept his sexual orientation private and never had a boyfriend.^[1] Unlike his band mates, Mark did not discuss his private life in interviews, although he had dated women prior to his coming out.^[1][8] He was shown with girlfriends in the press, but "in order to avoid speculation".^[1] In yet another interview, he told The Sydney Morning Herald that despite the fact that the majority of Westlife's fans are female, there had really been no negative reaction.^[9]
During the interview with The Sun, Mark also announced his romantic relationship with British fashion photographer Kevin McDaid, a member of the now-defunct British boy band V.^[5] The pair, who lived together,^[1] had been dating since January 2005 after having met at a Cheerios Childline Concert in Ireland. Mark said that while he did not intend on getting married right away, he was happy to know he could form a civil partnership in Britain with the recent passing of the Civil Partnership Act.^[9] In December 2007, Mark and Kevin appeared on the cover of Attitude. After five years together, the couple was engaged in February 2010, which was confirmed by Mark himself via the social networking website Twitter.^[10] In 2011, Mark discussed the couple's plans concerning having children together and discussed their marriage plans.^[6] On 31 December 2011, he announced via his Twitter account that he and Kevin had split up.^{[citation needed]}
Mark supports the charity group Aware. He was shortlisted in 2011 as one of the top 50 most influential gays in United Kingdom.^[11] He congratulated his local football club Sligo Rovers on their victory in the 2011 FAI Cup Final.^[12]

Kian Egan
Kian Egan at The Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2009
Background information
Birth name	Kian John Francis Egan
Born	29 April 1980 (age 32) Sligo, Ireland
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, drums, piano, guitar
Years active	1998–present
Associated acts	Westlife, Wonderland, Jodi Albert

Kian John Francis Kelly Egan (born 29 April 1980) is an Irish musician. He was a member of the boyband Westlife and a coach on The Voice of Ireland.

Contents 1 Music career 2 TV career 3 Private life 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Music career

He was also in a pop group called IOYOU with fellow Westlife members Mark Feehily and Shane Filan, as well as Graham Keighron, Michael "Miggles" Garrett and Derrick Lacey.
Egan plays many instruments inside and outside the group, including the piano and guitar and was a former member of Sligo punk rock group Skrod.
Aside from being a member of Irish boy band Westlife, Kian, (during a year long hiatus from the group on 2008) launched a new venture along with Louis Walsh to put together and co-manage girlband, Wonderland, their debut album reached number 6 in Ireland and number 8 in the UK; just 4 months later, however, they were dropped by Mercury Records.
Egan has also co-written a few songs, including;

• "Too Hard To Say Goodbye"
• "Closer"
• "Don't Let Me Go"
• "When You Come Around"
• "Imaginary Diva"
• "Reason For Living"
• "Crying Girl"
• "You Don't Know"
• "Never Knew I Was Losing You"
• "Where We Belong"
• "Singing Forever"
• "I Won't Let You Down"
• "You See Friends (I See Lovers)"
• "I'm Missing Loving You"
• "When It Comes to Love"

"Timeless" for the pop band D-Side.

TV career

He has been on Celebrity Juice along with Amanda Byram, Paddy McGuinness and Laura Whitmore.
He was one of the four coaches on The Voice of Ireland.^[1] However, his dreams of winning the show went to tatters as he threw his lot in with Jim Devine, a Northern Irishman. This immediately put him at a disadvantage to the other contestants as, ahead of the final, people in Northern Ireland could not download his single, the tally of which contributed to his vote. Egan was left fuming and in need of support from Sharon Corr as he whinged about the unfairness of it all and had "huge rows" about it but to no avail.^[2][3]
In June Kian announced in an interview with the Sunday Life that he was "looking at doing a TV show in the next few weeks with Sky on surfing". Later reports suggested that the show would be eight episodes long and would broadcast on Sky One later in the year.^[4]

Private life

Egan was born to Patricia and Kevin (d. 2009). He has three brothers; Tom, Gavin and Colm, and three sisters; Marielle, Vivienne and Fenella. He is the fifth of 7 children. He attended Summerhill College secondary school in Sligo, where he met fellow band members Mark Feehily and Shane Filan.
Egan married actress/singer Jodi Albert on 8 May 2009 in Barbados. Along with a selection of friends, including Jodi’s former co-stars of the Channel 4 television show Hollyoaks, Kian and Jodi enjoyed time together at a Caribbean resort before tying the knot at Turtle Beach Great House. Sadly, Kian’s father was unable to attend the wedding after being diagnosed with a brain tumour and died not long after.
Egan spoke of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa but said he would not go after Thierry Henry knocked out the Republic of Ireland national football team with his hand in Paris.^[5]
On 31 July 2011 he and Jodi announced they were expecting their first baby.^[6] Kian announced through Westlife's official Facebook page that Jodi had given birth to a baby boy named Koa at 18:10 on 20 December 2011.
In his free time, he enjoys surfing.^[7]

See also

• Mac Aodhagáin, a bardic family of medieval Ireland from whom Egan descends

References

External links

• Kian Egan at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website of Westlife
• One Breathe Westlife
• Westlife Forever - fansite