Shane Filan
Shane Filan at The Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2009
Background information
Birth name	Shane Steven Filan
Born	(1979-07-05) 5 July 1979 (age 33)
Origin	Sligo, Ireland
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals
Labels	SonyBMG UK/Ireland
Associated acts	Westlife

Shane Steven Filan (born 5 July 1979) is an Irish singer and songwriter. He was one of the lead singers of an Irish boy band Westlife before the group disbanded in 2012.

  Biography

Filan was born on 5 July 1979 to Peter and Mae Filan, and grew up in Sligo, a busy commercial town in the northwest of Ireland. The youngest of seven children, he has three brothers and three sisters: Finbarr, Peter Jr, Yvonne, Liam, Denise and Mairead. His parents owned a diner in Sligo named Carlton Caf'e located on Castle Street and Shane used to work there as a waiter from a very early age.

Filan attended Summerhill College, a Catholic school, with Kian Egan and Mark Feehily. All three of them participated in a school production of Grease when they were about 12. The Hawkswell Theatre became a significant part of their careers. Filan was a fan of Michael Jackson as a child, and claimed the singer inspired him to pursue a career in music.^[1]

  Musical career

  As a band member

Before Westlife, Egan and Feehily were with Filan in a band known as I.O.U. with other Sligonians Derrick Lacey, Graham Keighron and Michael "Miggles" Garrett. He partly wrote the IOYOU's song Together Girl Forever. For 6 months, Shane's mum, Mae Filan, tried to phone Louis Walsh (who is also the manager of Boyzone). Eventually, she was able to speak to him and talked about her son's band. 3 of them were dropped and the other 3, Shane, Kian and Mark, joined ventures to finding 2 more slots for the band. Then they were joined by Nicky Byrne and Brian McFadden to form Westside. The name of the band then changed to Westlife as there were already a number of bands with the name Westside.

Filan, along with Mark Feehily, was the lead singer in Westlife. Their first album was released in November, 1999, titled Westlife. With Westlife, Filan has received twenty-eight platinum discs and sold 40 million records worldwide.^[2]

Filan has also co-written a few songs, along with the other band members, including:

• Fragile Heart
• Bop Bop Baby (Became a hit single and made it into #5 in U.K. singles charts)
• Don't Say It's Too Late
• I wanna grow old with you
• I'm missing loving you
• Singing Forever
• Where we belong
• Never knew I was losing you
• Love Crime
• How Does It Feel
• Crying Girl
• Reason For Living
• Miss You When I'm Dreaming
• A Little Part of Me / Little Part of Me / Extraordinary Love^A
• Love Ain't War^A
• This Life^A
• Closer
• Too Hard To Say Goodbye
• Last Mile of the way .

^ASongs were found to be Filan's co-written songs. No other details whether it's for Westlife or not.

He has also written songs for other artists, (together with his former bandmate McFadden):

• Listen Girl sung by John Ostberg
• Let Me Be the One sung by Simon Casey (the song written by only Shane himself)
• Sei Parte Ormai Di Me sung by Il Divo ^[3]
• The Music Won't Last / Music Won't Last by Jerry Given

In the week beginning 26 April 2010, an unreleased solo song by Filan called "Beautiful In White" leaked onto the Internet, but it was credited as being recorded by Shayne Ward instead of Filan. Filan performed the song on 13 March 2010 at a private wedding ceremony in Co. Kildare Ireland for Irish multimillionaire Mark Walker's daughter.

  As a solo artist

In 20 October 2011, Westlife announced and decided to split and go separate ways until the end of their 2012 Farewell Tour. Filan showed interest of being a solo music artist as his daily living. In December 2011, press said Filan is close to sealing a solo deal as several UK record labels are battling it out to sign the singer. Shane and his manager Louis Walsh, have been in talks with several record companies in London that month. "There's four, possibly five labels so far who have made it clear that they want to sign Shane," said a music source. "He's an incredible singer and he already has a very good idea of the kind of album he wants to make. He and Louis have been in meeting after meeting this week and are looking at their options. It's looking very good for Shane - he has his choice of record deals." Louis Walsh added:

"Shane Filan has one of the greatest voices out there," "He's a complete natural - he's never, ever out of tune. He wants to do an album of modern, contemporary songs along the lines of Michael Buble - something that would have wide appeal. He can tackle any music really simply because he has the voice."^[4] “I'm going to manage Shane Filan. He's going for the Michael Buble market,” Louis said on Irish TV over the weekend. “They're all good but I can only manage one. I love Shane's voice. I love Mark's voice too. The other boys are going to do TV and different stuff and radio. They are going out on a high,” “[He] is going to be a big artist. I will only manage someone if I believe in them. If I get someone amazing I will manage them.”^[5]

On 4 March 2012, it was updated that three major labels battling to sign him including Simon Cowell's record label, Syco Records.^[6] The Irish Daily Mirror can reveal the singer has a number of multi-million euro offers and is currently deciding which to go with. Songs are already being picked out for Shane’s debut album which could see him become one of the biggest singers to come out of Ireland since Ronan Keating. An insider said: “Everything seems to be going perfect for Shane right now. Having three labels fighting over you is about as good as it gets. It’s going to be a tough decision picking who he goes for as the offers are all extremely good. But for Shane a lot of it is coming down to what they can offer him. He wants to be sure there is good promotion waiting for when he begins as a solo artist. Behind the scenes his team are already eying up the songs that will go on his first record. They want to make sure the album is absolutely perfect. It seems to have been decided that Michael Buble is the person Shane should aim towards becoming. If a tenth of the people who bought a Buble album buy Shane’s first album he’ll be an immediate success. This is going to be a hugely hectic year for Shane. The hope is to get his album out towards the end of the year when there’s still a buzz after Westlife.”^[7]

On a 14 March 2012 interview with Melanie Finn, Filan said he'll be signing on the dotted line in the next few weeks and he admitted that the nerves are jangling at the thought of going it alone and didn't want to rush on things.

"It's exciting but, of course, I'll be nervous. It's only natural when you're coming out of a band after 14 years, you don't know where your life's going to take you," "But all I want to do is sing, sing great songs and see where it goes. It's down to the songs." I'm just working out now exactly what's happening, there's different things happening and we'll work it out in the next month or two. Obviously I want to make the right decision," he said.^[8]

Back in 2008, Filan showed no interest on planning a solo career.^[9]

  Personal life

Filan married his childhood sweetheart, Gillian on 28 December 2003 at Ballintubber Abbey, followed by a reception at Ashford Castle, Ireland.^[10] Gillian gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Nicole Rose, at Sligo General Hospital on 23 July 2005. Their second child, a son, Patrick Michael, was born at Sligo General Hospital on 15 September 2008. On 5 July 2009 (the day of his 30th birthday) Shane announced that he and Gillian were having their third child. Shane Peter, named after his father, was born at 9.34pm on 22 January 2010 weighing in at 6 lbs 9oz.

Shane likes to play golf in his spare time, but loves horses much more. He and his family own more than 70 of them, and used to compete at horse tournaments. All of Shane's horses are named Carlton something (e.g. Carlton Flight, Carlton Clover Association of Ireland). A massive Manchester United fan, Filan and bandmate Nicky Byrne proudly wore their Man Utd scarves as they were half time guests at Old Trafford for the game between United and Bolton Wanderers.

In 2010, Filan participated and won Soccer Aid, a British charity football match, alongside bandmate Nicky Byrne and the Rest of the World Team. Following in the footsteps of his bandmate, Kian, Filan appeared as Walsh's guest judge in the groups category of The X Factor. .

He and his eldest brother, Finbarr, run Shafin Developments – a property development company. The company was placed in receivership in May 2012^[11] and Filan was declared bankrupt a little over a month later after suffering losses in Ireland's property crash.^[12]

  References

  External links

• Official Website
• Shane Filan NL
• Shane Filan at the Internet Movie Database

Westlife Nicky Byrne Kian Egan Mark Feehily Shane Filan Brian McFadden Albums Studio albums Westlife Coast to Coast World of Our Own Turnaround Allow Us to Be Frank Face to Face The Love Album Back Home Where We Are Gravity Compilations Unbreakable: The Greatest Hits Volume 1 Released Greatest Hits Videos Video albums The Karaoke Collection Concerts DVD Where Dreams Come True: Live in Dublin The Greatest Hits: Live from M.E.N. Arena Turnaround Tour: Live in Stockholm The Number Ones Tour: Live in Sheffield Face to Face: Live at Wembley 10 Years of Westlife: Live at Croke Park Stadium Where We Are Tour: Live from The O2 Concert tours Where Dreams Come True Tour World of Our Own Tour Unbreakable Tour Turnaround Tour No. 1's Tour Face to Face Tour The Love Tour Back Home Tour Where We Are Tour Gravity Tour Greatest Hits Tour Book Westlife: Our Story Related Articles Discography Songs Originals Covers Tours Awards Simon Cowell Louis Walsh Ronan Keating Sony Music RCA Records Syco Music Georgina Ahern Jodi Albert Kevin McDaid Gillian Walsh Wonderland Westlife