Westlife - Live At Croke Park

I don't usually make DVD reviews, but this is to formally end the ten-year special so I'll make an exception.

You all know that I'm a huge Westlife fan, I know a lot about them, all their sales figures, chart positions, world records and achievements but those are all numbers and figures. It's like just because they've sold 40 million records and have had 14 UK number ones that I tell myself that they're good. What people like me fail to realize is the main reason why we like Westlife so much, why it's become a big part of our lives.

The music, duh.

For a while I forgot exactly why I adore Westlife so much, what made them so brilliant for me. Westlife is about gorgeous, show-stopping ballads and the occasional catchy uptempo, and I mean it this time.

A DVD showing 85,000 screaming fans singing along to every single word and four seasoned performers and who know exactly what they're doing is bound to be something amazing.

Every Westlife fan has a story, and while I was watching the concert, I remembered mine.

I got goosebumps when they came out and sang Hit You With The Real Thing, which was tied with Amazing for my favorite song on Face To Face. I was screaming when they were singing World Of Our Own, one of my favorite songs to torture my anti-Westlife best friend with. I was horrified during the medley, but I love the vocals on Get Down On It..! I was almost crying when they sang Unbreakable, the first Westlife song I ever put into my iTunes library. I kind of cringed for Mark when he hit the bum note on Flying Without Wings but was in awe when he hit the long, relatively high note towards the end. I was bawling by the time they sang You Raise Me Up, the song that started it all for me, I remember watching it every day on the local music channel two years ago.

This concert is truly a celebration of ten years at the very top, but more so a celebration of timeless, brilliant Westlife ballads, and every fan will start crying at some point of the concert, it's like looking back at the phenomenal band you helped make famous, whose songs you sang along to and whose records you killed to buy.

Flashback: Westlife

In celebration of ten amazing years at the top of the boyband hierarchy, let's take a look back at Westlife's very first album, and see why it catapulted them into superstardom(which included 40 million albums sales, 14 number one singles and massive sold-out arena tours..).

Westlife was the first of maybe three or four experimental albums, all the songs had a certain sound to it that differed slightly from their albums. You can clearly hear them going down the ballad mid-tempo route, something they've come to master and repeat over and over again.

Westlife aren't your typical sing wimpy songs and jump around the stage boyband, they can actually sing pretty well. Have you ever heard of another big boyband who can master five-part harmonies like Westlife can? NOPE! Which is why the Westlife formula is heart-wrenching ballads and mushy love songs that show off just how un-wimpy their voices are.

That formula is clearest in two songs, Swear It Again and Flying Without Wings which are two of the biggest Westlife songs. See? That is exactly what I'm talking about, the formula in work. Swear It Again was used as their debut, and the song just exploded. People clearly reacted well to the formula, Simon and Louis saw it.

And the album tracks kept to that formula, I Need You, Can't Loose What You Never Had, Try Again and We Are One all used and supported the Westlife formula that people liked so much. They kept to that formula, while churning out some typical boyband songs like No No and Open Your Heart, that are still to this day, amazing.

It may not have been a number one album, but it dictated where the band would go music-wise, and proved the point that pop is a formula. Formula or not, Westlife is an amazing debut album and it was a huge success something that's extremely hard to do for a boyband or any artist.

The Best Westlife Live Performances

So let's define the word live first. We know that some supposed live TV performances are actually really mimed, but during rare occasions, artists sing live on TV in the UK. So, a live performance is a performance sung 100% by the act, no miming whatsoever. How do you tell? When an artist sings live, most of the time their voice is more raw, less processed and all those computer-generated voices have to be done by actual people. Then of course, you can look at their ears an see if they have earpieces. If they do, it's live.

These performances are from their tours, OK? OK.

So, what are the best of the best for me? Here goes!

1. Somebody Needs You from the Where Dreams Come True Tour DVD shot at the Point in Dublin, Ireland(2001)

The ultimate boyband song, very pop-y and catchy, and I can't believe they sang it on tour! The dance routine is strange at some parts, but the part when they jump on the chairs during the required dance break is cool. Plus the fact that they actually DANCE with real dancers.

2. Why Do I Love You from the In The Round Tour shot in Copenhagen, Denmark(2002)

There was no DVD for the In The Round Tour, but there is still fan footage floating around the internet, luckily for us. The song itself is amazing, it marks a more mature sound for Westlife while still keeping their teen pop roots in tact. This tour was done in the round, so the lads are walking all around the stage, which is cool. No dance routine, but I don't think it needs one. Nicky has a solo? Whoa.

3. When You're Looking Like That from the Greatest Hits Tour DVD shot at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England(2003)

I love the pauses in between each line at the start, and the intro's cool as well. Plus the fact that this was later in their career and the dancing sort of stopped during this era, but they're still dancing(I remember trying to figure out the steps to this back in elementary school..)! This was the last tour that Brian sang his parts on this song in, he left the band before the Turnaround tour and Kian took his part.

4. Written In The Stars from the Greatest Hits Tour DVD shot at the MEN Arena in Manchester, England(2003)

Another one of those amazing albums tracks that are performed on tour. The vocals on this are really outstanding, and the fact that they're suspended in mid-air on top of all the fans is really, really cool. Slow song, but it's an amazing performance.

5. Turnaround from the Turnaround Tour DVD shot at the Globe in Stockholm, Sweden(2004)

Solos everywhere! Haha, I love the arrangement on this, a lot of guitar work! The dance routine is cool as well, it just shows how much control Westlife have developed over the stage, how they hold the audience in their palms. Brilliant middle 8 as well! Cool costumes, cool dance routine, amazing arrangement and brilliant song, what more?

6. Amazing from the Face to Face Tour DVD shot at Wembley Arena in London, England

I adore this song, and hearing it live is just brilliant. Amazing performance, white costumes(similar to the WDCT tour outfits?) and a bit of movement here and there. Love it!

7. The 2008 Tour Medley from the 10 Years Of Westlife - Live at Croke Park Stadium DVD shot at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland

I haven't included a tour medley yet, but this is a huge exception. It's probably the only time they go near the audience, and you can see the reaction. They dance, sing and run around the audience, what else can you ask for? Plus the fact that they were performing some amazing songs in front of over 80,000 of their biggest fans was just amazing to watch, even if I wasn't really there during the actual concert.

That's it, seven of the best Westlife live performances, I hope you enjoyed watching them! I did! haha..

The Westlife Songs That Should've Been Singles

We all have our opinions about certain songs, if we like a song a lot we say that we want it to be a single, if we hate one, we say that it should've never been recorded but there are some songs that really, in my opinion, should've been singles for Westlife. I'm not so sure if Simon or Louis will agree with me, but from a perspective of a fan who hates the covers and loves the rare songs, here are the songs I really think should've been singles.

NOTE: This post takes a lot of references from the Most Iconic Westlife Songs post, so be sure to read that before reading this.

• On their first album, there was a song called No No on it, and I really, really think they should've given it a shot in the US, or even as the last single from the album(to gear people up for the C2C era..). It's very bubblegum pop-ish, and more on the uptempo side which makes it perfect for the US market(at the time they were promoting this album..), and as I said, it's like a cross between the Westlife era and the C2C era, making it a perfect transition single from the first to the second album.

• My Private Movie should've been the lead single for the US campaign, it had all the makings of the perfect success story. It was recorded especially for the US, it sounded a lot like the stuff boybands there were cranking out at the time, and it had Westlife's distinct vocals and even a bit of their style there. So why wasn't it a single? Gar.

• Dreams Come True should've been the second single from C2C instead of What Makes A Man, it continued the ultra-boyband sound they were going for, and it was an uptempo track, so it should've just worked. Plus the fact that they could've made an amazing dance routine for all the TV performances(not the over the top one they used on tour with the aliens and heavy stuff..) and wow everyone!

• Evergreen should've been a single from WOOO, primarily so they could kick Will Young's butt and people won't equate the song to Will Young because he didn't originally sing it! This is the second time an Idol winner has robbed a Westlife song and made it popular(Ruben from AI murdered Flying Without Wings, MURDERED I TELL YOU!), but Will Young didn't really murder the song. Still, Evergreen is an amazing song, and it really, truly should've been a single, to gradually move from WOOO to Unbreakable.

• Turnaround(the song) should've been a single from Turnaround(the album)! Besides the obvious reason(title track? duh.), it had all the makings of the next WOOO(see the most iconic Westlife songs post..) and it was different, edgy and most of all, Westlife-y! With the cool instrumentation and the amazing vocals(Kian had a solo when they went on tour with it!)

• Hit You With the Real Thing should've been the Christmas single from Face to Face, it's an amazing electro-pop song(see: Pop Poster Girl's review of the song) and it would've prepared the British public for Amazing better than When You Tell Me That You Love Me(the bland duet with Diana Ross) could've ever done. That and the fact that it's just very simply, a brilliant pop song.

• Catch My Breath should've been the third/fourth single from Back Home, for the simple reason that it's an amazing variation of the standard Westlife formula. It's a ballad with amazing vocals, spot-on harmonies and most importantly, a key change but the overall sound of the song is more modern pop/AC than the pop sound that Amazing and No No have.

The Best Westlife B-Sides/Bonus Tracks

YES! B-sides and Bonus Tracks are probably the most unnoticed songs of an artist's career, because they tend to be overshadowed by the single or album. I mean, if I said that my favorite Westlife song was Miss You When I'm Dreaming(just an example..), you'd probably think hard about what the hell I'm talking about.

B-sides are also probably the time when an act like Westlife can let loose, experiment, and get out all their frustrations. Because all their singles follow a formula, the b-side can sound like anything from rock to pop to swing to disco, pretty much anything. That's why I adore them so much, manufactured artists get to let loose for b-sides, and show us the music they like or the music they really want to make.

So, here's a tribute to some of the most amazing Westlife originals ever!

• Don't Calm The Storm was on the Swear It Again CDS and it's probably one of the most brilliant songs they've ever recorded. The first time I heard it, I was in awe, the song's gorgeous, but it wasn't stuck in a time warp. Elaborate? The song could've been released anytime in the past ten years(or even later..) and it would still be absolutely amazing.
• Don't Get Me Wrong was on the UK version of Coast To Coast(and the b-side to When You're Looking Like That, released in Asia) and may I say, it's completely out of place compared to the other songs. I said during the most iconic songs post that C2C was the era when they solidified their boyband status, and they sounded like their rivals(BSB, Nsync..) with songs like My Love, Somebody Needs You and Dreams Come True. You listen to the album now, and when you hear this song at the end, you just want to put it on World Of Our Own! It sounds a lot like a song you'd put on WOOO, ala Why Do I Love You..
• Crying Girl was the b-side to World Of Our Own(the song..), and it could've fit right into WOOO. The album lacked a track like this, the mid-tempo/slow but edgy song. They had the mid-tempo songs like Don't Let Me Go and When You Come Around but they lacked a song like this. Strange title and lyrics, but amazing, brilliant, mind-blowing melody and standard Westlife vocals.
• I Won't Let You Down is one of my favorite experimental Westlife songs. It sounds nothing like what they usually release, it actually sounds a lot like something by Michelle Branch or Ryan Cabrera. No wonder it was on the Hey Whatever single that was just as different from anything else they did before. Anyway, I love all the guitar stuff, and Brian/Bryan's vocals just matched the song so brilliantly. Amazing stuff!
• Let's Make Tonight Special was on the Swear It Again EP, and it's absolutely amazing(again..)! Loving the hints of R&B and the acapella parts scattered all around the song. Plus, Shane's voice sounds so young it burns(just joking.. duh..)! Seriously, this song will make you worship Westlife until you can't anymore. It just shows how amazing their vocals are, and how much they cream all the boybands when it comes to acapella work. On the subject of that, watch this short a capella vid back during the debut album:

• Reason For Living reminds me of a certain M2M song that I can't put my finger on, but it's good to hear everyone on this track! Another song that sounds a bit like I Won't Let You Down, but it's a bit more Westlife-y.
• I'll put Story of Love and Until the End Of Time together, since they pretty much sound the same. Story of Love was on the Japan version of Westlife and Until the End Of Time was on the Swear It Again EP. They're both bubblegum pop boyband confections, Westlife style. You know, the cheesy lyrics, some acapella work, standard boyband 'glitter and glitz' sound and instrumentation, but more mid-tempo than up-tempo.
• Singing Forever and Where We Belong go together as well, with the 'We're not giving up' thing. They were released around the same time as well, Where We Belong was on Tonight/Miss You Nights and Singing Forever was on Hey Whatever. Cheesy lyrics, yes, but once again we get brilliant melodies and amazing vocals.
• Miss You When I'm Dreaming was the b-side to Amazing, and I just want to worship them again for this. Can this song get any better? It's a ballad, but it's more a Catch My Breath(CMB)-like ballad than a Your Raise Me Up kind. If you adore CMB, listen to this and prepare to be blown away.
• Get Away is probably the most outrageous, non-cover, Westlife b-side ever. It's got a very 50's/60's thing going on(someone at TC said that it sounded like the Beach Boys, does it?), but seriously, this song is AMAZING! This was on the Us Against The World single, and when you listen to it after Us Against The World, you just want to strangle their songwriters for making something this amazing! Still, Shane's vocals are brilliant on this song!

The Best of Westlife

With their DVD marking 10 years of countless hits and their break almost halfway through, I'll be listing down the most iconic Westlife songs during the past ten years, in no particular order. There are a lot of Westlife songs that I adore, but aren't on this list, because they weren't really as instrumental in shaping their career as much as these songs have been.

There will be maybe one or two(two in the case of the Westlife era) iconic songs from each era, so read away!

• Everybody Knows was the first of three songs(Forever and A Good Thing were the other two) that they recorded prior to their infamous audition in front of Simon Cowell that lead to him signing them. Amazing song, amazing melody, amazing harmonies and amazing vocals. No wonder Simon signed them 30 seconds into the song!
• Swear It Again is still to this day, an amazing song and a brilliant debut single choice. Suggested by Simon and solidified by his father, Swear It Again debuted at number one in Ireland and the UK, making them the only boyband to debut at number one. The song itself showed what Westlife is about, amazing songs, simple melodies, outstanding vocals and monumental key changes. Swear It Again made the formula for every other Westlife song, and it did it well.
• Flying Without Wings has become Westlife's most iconic song, and it sure deserves to be called that. Prior to this, people thought Westlife were just another boyband who happened to have two number one singles but when this song came out, they took it all back. Flying Without Wings(Or FWW as fans call it..) was extremely mature for them at the time, they were only 18/19/20 year-olds at the time, and solidified their success. And it the perfect example of the Westlife formula.
• My Love was Westlife's seventh consecutive number one single, and it was a smash. The whole Coast To Coast(or C2C as we call it..) era brought Westlife to new territories, most prominently Asia. I remember hearing the singles from the C2C era a lot here, only I didn't know they were Westlife(I was what, 6 at the time?) until years later. They literally just exploded. Their debut album told people that they had arrived, but C2C just planted them firmly into the industry, and My Love led the way.
• When You're Looking Like That is one of the more uptempo songs, and it's always been a favorite during concerts, mainly because it's got the rock edge and it's relatively easy to make dance routines for it(watch: the opening of their GH Tour). Plus the fact that Kian said the song has some 'mean' electric guitar on it(read: the end of Chapter 23 of their autobiography)
• World Of Our Own(Or WOOO, for both the album and the song..) sustained the success C2C had, and they attempted to break the US market for the second time with this song. It's certainly edgier than their other songs, but you can really hear Westlife's identity in the song. They tried to write their own songs with this album, but as Bop Bop Baby proved, they didn't go down too well with the British public. Back to the song, WOOO has become the staple Westlife uptempo song(Watch: Dancing On Ice performance, and maybe every tour since the song was released..). When they need to perform an uptempo song, this is the one to sing. 
• Unbreakable was the very first Westlife song I downloaded, and once again, it's a song created with the unmistakeable Westlife formula. Another ballad, but isn't that what Westlife do? They make amazing ballads, ballads that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, and they do it extremely well. A perfect ballad for their Greatest Hits album.
• No, I'm not going to write about Mandy because I hate the song. On the Turnaround album, there's a track called Turnaround(duh.), and I personally think it should've been the lead single. It really had the possibility to be the next WOOO, with the edgy instrumentals and the fact that it's not a ballad! It's iconic in the sense that it would've been iconic, had it been released as a single.
• Then, Brian left. Allow Us To Be Frank(AUTBF) was released in 2004, but there's no really iconic song from that era, so I won't write much about it. The first of two themed albums, AUTBF is to this day, their lowest charting album.
• After AUTBF, Westlife went back to their roots, releasing You Raise Me Up, but that's not the iconic song from the Face To Face era, it's Amazing. Amazing is probably one of the most underrated Westlife songs ever. It's a brilliant pop song that reminds me of the days when Westlife weren't doing that many covers. Amazing was the song that made me buy my first Westlife album, and Amazing was the reason I became this big a fan. I don't see why the British didn't like the song, because it's downright brilliant!
• The Love Album came a year later, and it was another smash. The Rose was a beautiful version, but the iconic song of the TLA era is All Or Nothing. All Or Nothing was originally intended for Westlife to record, but Simon Cowell hated it, so it was given to O-Town and it became a hit. Years later, here they are, recording the song Simon rejected. Oh well, it's a gorgeous song, and a beautiful version.
• My personal favorite from Back Home is When I'm With You, but the iconic song from this era has got to be Catch My Breath. The song marks a new sound for Westlife, an updated sound with the same Westlife formula we all know and love. I seriously think this should've been the third single(fourth if you count Something Right) from Back Home, it would've left people wanting more from Westlife, and left all of us waiting for more next year.

EDIT: I can't believe I forgot this important song!

• During Westlife's first attempt at breaking the US market, they recorded a song specially for their US re-release called My Private Movie. Lyrically and melody-wise it was more for the US market, it sounded a lot like a typical Nsync song. It would've been huge, had they released this as a single, but as they said in their autobiography, if they had cracked the US, they wouldn't have lasted this long and had this much success, because the success would all go to their heads.