Kian Egan, Mark Feehilly, Bryan McFadden, Shane Finlan and Nicky Byrne are Westlife, the Irish boy band that has already achieved megastar status in the U.K. and is now poised to try its luck in America. The band originated when Shane, Kian and Mark performed together in a production of Grease in their hometown of Sligo, Ireland. They came to the attention of Louis Walsh (manager of Boyzone, another U.K. boy band), who signed on as their manager and got them a highly visible spot opening for the Backstreet Boys at a gig in Dublin. Later, Ronan Keating (Boyzone's lead singer) became co-manager of the group along with Walsh. Nicky and Bryan were chosen to fill out the group after auditions in Dublin and the band was born. They signed a contract with BMG and a string of hits followed - in fact, Westlife shattered sales records when five of their singles debuted at #1 on the U.K. charts. Westlife's self-titled debut album was released in 1999. David Kuner
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