Our beloved Irish boy band, Westlife, kicked off a comeback with #TheTwentyTour: their first-ever tour since their split in 2012!
The ‘boys’, like how we remember them, are touring the UK, Ireland and Asia, celebrating with their 14 amazing number 1’s and 20 years of hits! Their 2018 reunion bestowed upon the world 3 new singles from their forthcoming album ‘Spectrum’ that will be coming out November 8th. They were originally signed by Simon Cowell in the United Kingdom, and now consists of Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and Nicky Byrne.
Stadium Melawati was filled with 14,000 fans over the two-nights concert who were eager to meet their boys! It might have been 20 years, but fans displayed their persistent loyalty by snapping up all 14,000 tickets within 48 hours in April!
Fans were seized to attention when the media of the 4 faces of the beloved boyband flashed on the screen with the acapella of the top hit ‘Swear It Again’ giving a strong hint that the boys will be up in a jiffy!
The boys greeted their die-hard fans of 2 decades with ‘Hello, My Love’, one of the 3 released new singles from their new album ‘Spectrum’. The boys who are now men in their 40s looked finer than wine in their black suits and the same captivating voices that stole our hearts in high school.
It felt like a grand Karaoke sing-along party, as they performed their most popular hits like ‘My Love’, ‘Uptown Girl’, ‘When You’re Looking Like That’, ‘If I Let You Go’, ‘I Have A Dream’, Swear It Again’, ‘Unbreakable’, the songs we know all the words to.
Their performance was even completed with slick moves in true 90s boy-band style, proving that they’ve still got it going!
Their medley tribute to Queen did Queen proud and got the entire stadium up on their feet!
There was a short intimate acoustic set where they sang snippets of smaller hits like ‘No, No’, ‘Bop Bop Baby’, ‘Fool Again’ where they challenged fans to hold the note in You Neeeeeeever Told Me for the longest time in the entire tour, and Shane even joked about how he used to be confused about the lyrics of ‘Seasons In The Sun’ on stage.
Slotted in the middle of the show were the other new singles like ‘Dynamite’ which has a present-day Westlife connotation, and ‘Better Man’ which has the classic Westlife flavour signed all over lyrically and musically. It was co-written by Ed Sheeran who claimed that his first few songs played on the guitar was Westlife songs and famous Westlife composer Steve Mac. Ed Sheeran wrote 6 tracks for the album and co-produced Spectrum.
The show ended with the well-loved hits ‘Flying Without Wings’ and ‘World Of Our Own’ with the boys all dressed in white, the perfect scene to send our minds back to 1998. Oh, the nostalgia and butterflies in our tummy.
Did Westlife get you Swearing It All Over Again? Leave a comment!
Header image credits: thetwentytour | chellee_cherie | nickybyrneinsta