Here are Shane Kian and mark in I.O.U! (Mark left,Kian middle and Shane on the right)

This Irish boy band, originally known as Westside, emerged in the late 90s.

It all started in a small town in Ireland, Sligo.
Where Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and Kian Egan grew up together.

They came together in a local Sligo production of Grease. They formed IOU with
three fellow actors after friends encouraged them to continue singing, and began performing cover versions in local clubs.

And then a demo tape of a track written by Shane Filan and Mark Feehily, "Together Girl Forever", found its way to Boyzone manager Louis Walsh.

Suitably impressed, Walsh hired them to support the US boy band Backstreet Boys when they visited Dublin.

But the other three guys, weren't good enough, so they set up an audition.

And Bryan McFadden and Nicky Byrne had got to know each other in a karaoke bar a couple of years earlier. So they decided to go the audition together.
But they never thought that both of them could make it. Two friends plus three friends, no that's not gonna happen. But it did. So they had a test week, to see if they were what they wanted. Shane, Mark and Kian really liked Bryan and Nicky. So
Bryan and Nicky replaced the other three guys.

Ronan Keating became involved with the band as co-manager in April 1998.

After a showcase appearance at London's Café‚ de Paris in February 1999, the band changed their name to Westlife after learning of the existence of several American acts performing as Westside. Westlife showcased in front of all the top record producers and BMG’s Simon Cowell signed them to a record deal! Within 20 seconds of hearing what this band could do he immediately knew he was going to sign them to a record deal! Groomed as natural successors to Boyzone, the quintet's debut single "Swear It Again” was a highly predictable Irish and UK chart-topper in May. The follow-up, "If I Let You Go", repeated the feat when it entered the UK singles chart at number 1 in August. "Flying Without Wings" made it three number 1s in a row in October.

Their status as the most popular boy band of the moment was underlined when their double a-side, featuring cover versions of Abba's "I Have A Dream" and Terry Jacks' "Seasons In The Sun", topped the charts for four weeks over Christmas and the new year. They created UK chart history in April 2000 when "Fool Again" became their fifth number 1 single in a row. They were flying over to New York when they found out the chart position of “Fool Again” and everybody in England and Ireland had heard about Westlife breaking the record for the most singles in a row! When they got to New York nobody had even heard of them! Later in the year, the group's duet with Mariah Carey on a cover version of Phil Collins' "Against All Odds", and "My Love", became their sixth and seventh number ones respectively. Both singles featured on Coast To Coast, a virtual rewrite of their debut album. Their Christmas single "What Makes A Man"/"My Girl" was pipped to the coveted number 1 slot by children television's character Bob The Builder. The group bounced back to the top in March 2001 with their cover version of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl", released for the Comic Relief charity. In November, the anodyne "Queen Of My Heart" earned the group their ninth chart-topper. The quintet notched up their tenth number 1 in February 2002 with "World Of Our Own".

The catchy "Bop Bop Baby" was a notable failure, only reaching number 5 in May. And they felt a bit sorry for that because they're used to being on the top of all the charts, and that it was Shane Filan and Bryan McFadden who had written the song together.

Now they've had lots of up-tempo songs, and Westlife started to miss these big powerful ballads they used to have, so they came back with a really big ballad called Unbreakable. The song is about a love being unbreakable and no matter whatever happens they will always love each other. The songwriter had written it to his mother who died...
So in November 2002, their single "Unbreakable" reached number one!!
And they made history again, because with Unbreakable coming number one, they had 11 straight number ones!! And it's only The Beatels and Elvis Presley, who had more number ones than Westlife!
Because of that their first 7 singles reached number one, they got a place in the Guinness Book of Records!
And their newest album: “Westlife - unbreakable the greatest hits”, reached number 1 in the english album chart!!

They're almost alone with what they're doing in the music business, they care about the music. They always sing live at concerts.... and so on.
They have five beautiful angel voices.
They're not like other boy bands, where only one or two of them can sing, and they can all dance very good, and they have to be good-looking.
But Westlife, they're more like a vocal group... and they're all very good-looking.

Maybe a part of their success is because they treat people with respect, and not thinking that they are better than other people just because they're super stars. And that they've not changed after all this success... they're still the same people as they were before Westlife.
They are just five normal guys who are doing the thing they love. Singing, and making good music.

In 2003 they released their Turnaround album! People didn’t no what to expect! They all thought that this album would be a flop because no other band had released another album after the Greatest hits or they’d split up just after the Greatest hits album was released. Westlife proved everyone wrong yet again!

The new westlife! After Bryan left!

On February 9^th 2004 Bryan was feeling depressed and wanted to get out! The lads tried to stop him, they wanted to take him counselling but he was having none of it. His mind was made up, he wanted to spend more time with his wife and his two adorable little girls! Yet again people thought it was over but Westlife proved them wrong again! They did the Turnaround tour which was a massive success and only 24 people out of about 480,000 asked for a refund on the tickets because Bryan had left which isn’t too bad!

That year the lads released their first ever four piece album! An album compiling of the rat pack era songs! Allow us to be frank wasn’t as successful as the other albums as it only got to number three in the charts!

They did the No1’s tour in 2005 and that was a huge success too! Split rumours came up again but Westlife continue to prove them wrong! Around Christmas time of 2004

Shane found out that his wife Gillian was expecting their first born baby due in August of 2005! It wasn’t a planned pregnancy but both Shane and Gillian Filan were both over the moon about the news!