More than 25 years since their debut album, Westlife is heading back on the road to celebrate Westlife 25: The Anniversary World Tour with a stop in Manila on January 20, 2027 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
For every Filipino growing up in the early aughts, Westlife was inescapable. The band was the follow-up to the wave of boy bands of the mid-to-late 1990s. From American boy bands such as the Backstreet Boys to *NSync to England’s Take That with their seminal hits like “Back for Good,” and Ireland’s Boyzone with “Words” and “Baby Can I Hold You.”
The Irish boyband was originally composed of Shane Filan, Kian Egan, Nicky Byrne, Mark Feehily, and Brian McFadden, Westlife debuted with their self-titled album with hits that we still know to this day such as “Swear It Again,” “Flying Without Wings,” “Fool Again,” and my personal favorite, “If I Let You Go.” For a country like the Philippines with its love affair with pop ballads, Westlife became a national obsession. You only have to check the number of times they’ve visited the country for proof, with their most recent stops being sold-out two-night concerts back in 2019 and 2023.
In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone Philippines, Westlife, now composed of Filan, Egan, and Byrne, shared how they’re gearing up for their Manila show and how excited they are to see their Filipino fans again. “Make sure you come down to the show. It’s gonna be a big celebration,” said Byrne.
The following has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Your Manila show is several months away but you started your 25th Anniversary tour at the Royal Albert Hall last October. Watching it online, it felt like such a special show for you guys performing alongside a whole orchestra. What did that performance mean to you?
Shane Filan: Yeah, it was a very, very special performance. It was a special celebration and a very special venue that we’d never played before. We always wanted to play the Royal Albert Hall. It was incredible to hear our songs live with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Everybody was in tuxedos, all the fans were dressed up, it was a standout moment in our career.
I think that night, it really showed us what Westlife means to people, you know? We could really see people’s faces in the audience, because we were so close to them. We could see people crying, laughing, kissing, hugging. It was just a different experience for us on stage. And we got to celebrate these beautiful songs that we’re very, very lucky to have, the history, and the memories. It kickstarted our 25th anniversary and after that show, I think the three of us came off that stage going, you know, the next couple of years are going to be unbelievable. So we got to make sure that these shows are our best ever that we’ve ever done for our Filipino fans and for our fans all over the world.
Speaking of the Filipino fans, for those who don’t know the importance or weight of performing at the Royal Albert Hall, can you share about the legacy of that venue and why it felt like it sort of re-energized you guys?
Nicky Byrne: Well, the Royal Albert Hall ticked so many boxes for so many different reasons. So we’re from Ireland, which isn’t part of Great Britain — which sometimes people get confused but to come over to Great Britain and to perform a place that is so historical and beautiful, when you walk around the corridors of the Royal Albert Hall, there’s Frank Sinatra, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, some of the world’s presidents, British monarchies, and prime ministers doing speeches, you feel like you’re in the presence of something very special over the last 100 plus years.
I think that was the pivotal moment, where we came off stage, we felt like a million dollars. We felt we’ve delivered something really special. We had to make sure that the fans would enjoy the night. We looked at each other and went, “Our fans are the best in the world.” And we know when we put on a good show, which we’re about to do now in the Philippines. They’re going to come to see and hear the songs and to relive their youth and to bring their old memories back to life. You don’t get to do that in life a lot. Life comes and goes, and sometimes people crave for the past. And this is an opportunity to come and sing with Westlife and celebrate with us.
Filan: It was a special night, a very special night.
On the topic of the 25th anniversary, you’ve been doing this for so long, and I’m curious, how you’ve grown and matured, and how does that inform or affect the way you appreciate your music and your career?
Kian Egan: Well, to be honest, I think, you know, we feel very lucky to be still doing it at this point in our lives. And after all, we’re a boy band, and when we started back in 1999, releasing “Swear It Again,” we always thought, well, if this lasts for three or four years, or if we manage to go around the world, and see parts of the world that we’ve never been to before, that would be an amazing experience. But obviously, things just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. We surpassed that typical five years of when most boy bands would break up. We did 14 years in the first run of Westlife. We were blown away by the fact that we were still able to do it after 14 years. But then, when we had the big break away from Westlife, for seven years, that was when it really kind of hit us and made us realize, wow, like that is actually what we did. And then when One Direction were starting to break, you start to see that happening again. I remember sitting on the sofa with my wife going, “Is that what I used to do?” And she was like, “Yeah, that’s literally it!” It’s pinch yourself stuff. We just feel so lucky to be in this position, to be able to tour the world 25 years later, and to have such big audiences still want to come and see us. The Philippines is so far away from where we come from, and to be so loved, it’s incredible. We just feel lucky, it’s the real truth of it all.
I’m so glad you mentioned One Direction, because outside looking in, we do see the difference between U.S. boy bands with British boy bands or Irish boy bands and now with K-pop boy bands like BTS. I’m curious how you see that as well?
Filan: It’s all pop music at the end of the day, you know? And I think every band is different. When we were younger, obviously, Backstreet Boys was probably one of our biggest inspirations, probably one of the main reasons we wanted to be a band. You had Take That, obviously, and New Kids on the Block before that. But at the end of the day, all the great bands like *NSync and One Direction, they all had standout songs. They all had incredible songs. When you think of the Backstreet Boys, you think of “I Want It That Way” or “Quit Playing Games.” You can literally name the songs immediately if you’re a pop music fan. And for us, I don’t think it was like a different formula, but we definitely were different because we released a lot of ballads and love songs, whereas all the other bands kind of went with tempo first. We went the opposite way. And I think that was down to Simon Cowell. He was very adamant for us to be different, and for us to be mainly about vocals, mainly about harmonies. And I think we stood out for that reason. We were very lucky to have “Swear It Again,” “Flying Without Wings,” “If I Let You Go,” and even “Fool Again”. We got off to a great start. It’s all down to the songs, you know? So every band has a place, as long as your songs are strong enough. And thankfully, we are one of those bands.
Nicky Byrne: I’d like to add one thing to that. When you say, what’s the difference? Or how do you do in Ireland or the U.K. versus the U.S.? It’s our culture. Both countries are very different and similar, because they’re English-speaking as their first language. But the fact that this band started in school together, unlike the other bands in the U.S. and some of the English and Irish bands he mentioned that were put together like from an audition process, I think there’s something special in that we know each other. So that makes it nearly harder to let this whole thing die away, if that makes sense. It really is deep in the core, it’s almost family. There’s a little bit of extra specialness that none of those other bands have.
Filan: We did have an audition for the lads, Nicky and Brian, and we got to pick them as the band. Not a team of record producers or people. We wanted to pick people that we thought we could get on with. We had to see if they can fit into our group and become friends.
“If I Let You Go” is my favorite across your discography. I’m curious for you three individually, what’s the song that you always give that extra 10 percent when you perform it?
Filan: I’m going to go with “Swear It Again.” “If I Let You Go” is my wife’s favorite song, actually. She loves that one the most. But, yeah, “Swear It Again,” for me, it’s very special. It was my mom’s favorite song. So I always try to sing it a bit nicer or a bit better for her.
Byrne: For me today, because it does change daily, I am going to go with “When You’re Looking Like That”.
Kian Egan: It’s funny because this morning, when I was lying in bed drinking my first coffee, I was scrolling on doomscrolling on Instagram, and an acoustic version of “My Love” came up, and I was like, “Wow, that sounds so pretty.” And it really kind of got me. I was like, “Wow, that’s so lovely. It was so lovely to hear it. It had a bit of a touch for me this morning.
Westlife 25: The Anniversary World Tour in Manila is on January 20, 2027 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Tickets go on sale May 15, Friday at smtickets.com
Presented by Wilbros Live
