Profile Shane Filan

Shane Steven Filan (born July 5, 1979) is one of the lead singers in the Irish pop band Westlife. Filan is one of the five original Westlife members, along with other current members Kian Egan, Mark Feehily and Nicky Byrne and former member Brian McFadden.

Biography

Filan was born on July 5, 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.

Musical career

Main article: Westlife

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, is the main lead singer (first voice) 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 lossing 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

^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.

He also participated and won with a team on Soccer Aid 2010. Following in the footsteps of his bandmate, Kian, Filan appeared as Walsh's guest judge in the groups category of The X Factor.

Personal life

Filan married his childhood sweetheart, Gillian on Sunday December 28, 2003 at Ballintubber Abbey, followed by a reception at Ashford Castle, Ireland.^[4] 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 September 15, 2008. On 5 July 2009 (the day of his 30th birthday) Shane announced in 2009 that he and Gillian were having their third child. Shane Peter Filan, named after his father, was born at 9.34pm on Friday January 22, 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 scarfs as they were half time guests at Old Trafford for the game between United and Bolton Wanderers.

Shane won the 2010 Soccer Aid, a British charity football match with the Rest of the World team.

He and his eldest brother, Finbarr, have a company called Shafin Developments Ltd. They are hoping to expand its portfolio with the proposed construction of 63 luxury apartments at the rear of Lisroyan House, Knappagh Road, Sligo.

Shane is the second cousin of Cobra Starship guitarist Ryland Blackinton.