Westlife owes a lot to Ed Sheeran.
The 34-year-old singer has written several tracks for the band – now formed of Shane Filan, 46, Nicky Byrne, 47, Mark Feehily, 45, and 45 year old Kian Egan – including the newly-released Chariot, and Ed has boosted their profile by constantly bigging them up.
Shane is quoted by the Daily Star newspaper’s Wired column as saying: “Obviously, Ed has been involved with us since our reunion back in 2019.
“He wrote Hello My Love and quite a lot of songs for us. The new single as well, Chariot.
“So we’ve just been feeling the love from Ed. He has been incredible, talking about us everywhere he goes and bigging us up.”
Nicky added: “We go and sing with Ed in Ipswich [in July], and the first thing he says to us is, ‘Lads, what do you think of Chariot? It’s a great song.’
“He was just so excited for us.”
Westlife – excluding Mark, who is taking time off due to health reasons – are performing their greatest hits across two special nights at the iconic Royal Albert Hall, London, on October 27 and October 28.
Shane, Nicky and Kian will be playing at the venue for the first time, and they will be joined on stage by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.
The shows mark 25 years of Westlife and celebrates the band – originally including Brian McFadden, 45, but he left to pursue a solo career in March 2004 – being the UK’s top-selling album group of the 21st century.
Nicky said: “To hear the songs with the orchestra in that place, it’s just gonna be one hell of a party.”
Across their illustrious career – which began in 1998 – Westlife has bagged 36 number one albums worldwide, 14 UK number one singles, sold over 55 million records, amassed three billion global streams, and performed to more than six million fans around the world.