In 2024, around St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish boy band-turned-pop group Westlife will begin their first-ever run of North American tour dates.
For the first time in their more than 20-year history, the Irish boy band Westlife will perform in North America.
Westlife has released 36 No. 1 albums, sold more than 55 million records, and amassed over a billion YouTube streams. They are currently en route to several significant cities in the United States and Canada around St. Patrick’s Day in 2019.
Although the tenure is brief, it has been a long time coming. On March 13, Westlife will begin their four-date North American tour at Toronto’s Meridian Hall. On March 14, they’ll perform in Boston’s MGM Music Hall at Fenway, the renowned Radio City Music Hall in New York City on March 16 and finish the performance at the Chicago Theatre on March 18.
The concerts will feature the band’s greatest hits, including “Swear It Again,” “Flying Without Wings,” “World of Our Own,” “My Love,” “If I Let You Go,” and “Hello My Love,” according to a press release.
When Westlife initially entered the pop music industry in the late ’90s and early ’00s, most of North America had its eyes on Backstreet Boys and NSYNC, two other boy bands that Westlife opened for.
Westlife were managed by Louis Walsh, then known as the mastermind behind Boyzone, a group he created to become an Irish version of the popular English group, Take That. Later, Walsh was a judge on “The X Factor UK,” where he assisted in coaching one Irish and four British hopefuls into becoming the first contemporary boy band from the British Isles to make it big in the U.S.: One Direction.