Westlife was created by five original group members in Sligo, Dublin in 1998. Sligo was also the hometown of Boyzone, another highly successful boyband that was formed in 1993 that was responsible for paving the way for Westlife.
Three of the original band members, Kian Egan, Shane Filan and Mark Feehily had performed together in their high school production of Grease, the musical. After finding success on the musical, the trio decided to form a band and named it 6 as 1 but they later changed it to I.O.YOU.
In 1997, I.O.YOU. released their first single, “Together Girl Forever” in 1997, but it did not do as well as anticipated. After limited success, Shane Filan’s mother contacted Boyzone’s manager at the time, Louis Walsh who agreed to manage the group alongside Ronan Keating.
Unimpressed by the limited success of their first single, the management team decided to change the lineup of I.O.YOU. Three of the members, Graham, Michael and Derek were asked to leave and auditions were held to find new members. Eventually, the three were replaced by Brian McFadden and Nicky Byrne and Westlife band was formed officially.
In April 1999, Westlife released its first single ‘Swear It Again‘ and it became the bestselling debut single that Ireland had ever seen.
In 2002, Westlife released their very first Greatest Hits album, which was followed up by Turnaround in November 2003. In 2004, Brian McFadden announced that he was leaving the band to concentrate on his growing family. A year after leaving the group, McFadden started working on his solo project titled Real to Me; his first single did well and it topped the charts in 2004. After McFadden’s exit, the remaining band members continued touring in various parts of the UK and the US.
