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Westlife: The biggest band to NEVER make it in America?


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Posted
4 minutes ago, popmusicisdead said:

they were huge when i was growing up. i would say they were bigger than NSYNC or BSB here locally because they were very ballad heavy and you know how much Filipinos stan ballads

I would say they were bigger in Indonesia too

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Posted
53 minutes ago, popmusicisdead said:

they were huge when i was growing up. i would say they were bigger than NSYNC or BSB here locally because they were very ballad heavy and you know how much Filipinos stan ballads

Yeah they are bigger than BSB and NSYNC in Southeast Asia

 

I would say even Blue is bigger than NSYNC !

 

Westlife > BSB > Blue > NSYNC

Posted

 

Ngl I still loved some of their hits for nostalgia

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted

they were the kings of the chart for a good while, imo they made choice and missed big time on mariah collab which instead should had been brandy or xtina for more fresh choices at that time.

Posted

Idk if I remember Westlife, I'll check their tracks soon. 

 

I'm surprised Mariah worked with Westlife and 98° instead of BSB and N*Sync. I feel like Rainbow would be more massive with them.

 

Blue low key destroyed the other boy bands with this track

 

 

 

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Posted
4 hours ago, holyground13 said:

yeah exactly this - Take That would be more famous and remembered in my view and they also never made it to the states. I'm Irish and I forget about Westlife's existence sometimes.

I think Westlife were bigger WW. 
 

US radio refused to play them 


They were black listed btw 

 

Quote

"We sent over a CD of WORLD OF OUR OWN (their second LP) with no name on it. They didn't know it was Westlife and every single radio station in the States - all came back and said that this is an absolutely huge hit.

"They said it was great for radio and people are gonna love it, especially as there's just a slight bit of rock guitar to it.

"But as soon as we revealed it was Westlife, the radio pluggers all went, 'Whoa, not Westlife - it's a boyband.' And we cannot break that down, no matter what song we come out with.

"The problem with America is that it's all radio and you've got to break into radio first. And currently radio doesn't want to play boy bands or pop music.

 

Posted
16 minutes ago, Polgg48 said:

they were the kings of the chart for a good while, imo they made choice and missed big time on mariah collab which instead should had been brandy or xtina for more fresh choices at that time.

They hated Xtina :rip: 

Posted

mmm where? I only know "Uptown girl" and years later I discovered that is a cover.

Posted

Never heard of this band

Posted

They were a boy band. The US had way too many boy bands. 

Posted

Can we agree this cover of their song is terrible 

 

:suburban:

 

Posted

the US already had BSB/NSync at the time, they didn't care for another one... I gotta say though Westlife had some bops x

Posted

They were also popular in Latin America, but never as big as BSB or NSYNC

Posted

Never heard of that :psyduck:

Posted

Westlife is huge WW, probably second behind BSB. They are for sure bigger than NSync, maybe Take That too. They have hits for hits, despite not having success in the US. I love their music, feel good AC bops!

Posted

they're forgagatten for a reason

Posted

both Take That and Westlife had one US hit . Take That peaked at #7 with Back For Good in  1995 and Westlife Swear It Again peaked at #20 in 1999.

Posted

The male little mix tbh

Posted

i found it so odd. same with kylie. they both have like 40 top 40 hits in the UK but its crickets over here. i dont get it.

Posted

Mandy was a classic 

Posted
On 1/19/2024 at 2:16 PM, Shelter said:

Can we agree this cover of their song is terrible 

 

:suburban:

 

This cover is amazing what are you talking about

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Posted
On 1/19/2024 at 2:07 PM, unclefloprry said:

mmm where? I only know "Uptown girl" and years later I discovered that is a cover.

You didn't know that "Uptown Girl" was a Billy Joel song and knew of the Westlife cover instead? :deadbanana2:

 

As for where, they were big everywhere except North America. It's not really hard to look up their stats or read this thread.

Posted (edited)
On 1/19/2024 at 5:39 AM, Mordecai said:

They're not bands but same goes for Robbie Williams and Kylie (though tbf they both had a hit or two each but it never lasted beyond that). The thought that they're non-existent in the biggest music market in the world despite being HUGE is so odd :rip:

Kylie had multiple hits in America though. Robbie is the only who truly could not make it there, even with incredible 10/10 insta-classic songs like "Angels" and "Feel" which were hits literally everywhere else but US/Canada. Like "Angels" should've been a US smash just like it was a smash everywhere else. It's bizarre. Someone ****** up on the label side.

Edited by MatiRod
Posted

For boy bands it’s absolutely either Westlife or Take That.

Posted
On 1/19/2024 at 1:59 PM, Shelter said:

They hated Xtina :rip: 

They actually wanted to collab with Xtina to break into the U.S. but she/her label refused. A collab at the time would've done more for Westlife in the U.S. than it would have for Xtina in Europe (who later smashed there on her own with Stripped anyway).

 

Of course, that's why they started bad-mouthing her afterwards, but Xtina's management dragging them like this will never not send me:

 

Quote

"It's bad that a band with so little talent finds it necessary to try to get the press to bad-mouth another artist with real talent."

 

Source

Boy bands were truly seen as the pits back then. :dies:

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