westlife History

Westlife are an Irish boy band established on 3 July 1998. They are to disband in 2012 after their farewell tour. The group's line-up was Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan, and Brian McFadden (left the band in 2004). The group is the only act in British and Irish history to have their first seven singles peak at number one. Westlife have sold over 44 million records worldwide which includes studio albums, singles, video release, and compilation albums. 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