Tuesday April 12 2011
Chart-toppers Westlife will be adding to their bulging bank accounts after nabbing an exclusive gig in Dubai.
The Herald can reveal how the four Irish stars are being flown to the millionaire's playground to perform a once-off concert for the Jebel Ali International Hotel's 30th anniversary celebrations.
But the services of Nicky Byrne, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan and Shane Filan certainly don't come cheap -- they'll be picking up a rumoured €100,000 for their two-hour stint on stage.
Seeing them perform in the United Arab Emirates city isn't for those worried about their finances, either.
Fans of the Raise Me Up crooners will have to fork out a cool €85 for the gig in the Jebel Ali International Centre of Excellence, which is in the heart of the glitzy city.
Speaking to the Herald backstage at their O2 gig in Dublin, Nicky Byrne spoke about how much the lads were looking forward to it.
outdoor
"We're going to Dubai on Thursday and we haven't been back there since 2005 so that will be a good one. It's an outdoor gig, I think it's for about 6,000 or 8,000 people. It's going to be great," he explained.
The four lads, who have been together for 13 years and have shifted 44 million records, have just finished the Irish and UK leg of their tour, which included five sell-out gigs in the O2 Dublin as they toured their new Gravity album.
They have now entered a new phase in their career after they opted to leave Simon Cowell's label SyCo in favour of moving to Sony RCA.
Nicky has since claimed that their former boss Simon Cowell was more interested in his own fame than the band.
"We signed to Simon back in 1998 and he was brilliant but then came the development of X Factor and American Idol.
"Simon became famous himself and his interests went that way rather than on Westlife. We almost felt a little bit unloved with Simon Cowell, if I was to be honest," Nicky explained.
However, the switch to Sony RCA after 13 years with Cowell is a good move for the band, Nicky claimed.
"We need someone telling you that's going to be a hit or not. Simon got so busy and would do it at the very last minute and we needed someone who was on it all the time.
hectic
"We have that now at RCA. It's their job to put us in with the right producers and co-writers."
However, Kian has admitted that their hectic schedule is starting to take its toll on the band members, the older they get. "It's getting slower, it's getting harder. We came straight off the tour and it's straight into the Greatest Hits phase off the back of this, it will be another whole whirlwind. It's not going to stop after this tour. It's going to be pretty manic for the next year and a half," he explained.
"When we finish this tour, we've got a few foreign gigs and then it's straight back into the studio. Then we've got a load of summer shows and then the first single from the Greatest Hits coming in August so it's really, really fast this year. Since we've left SyCo, because of the way they did things, we really wanted to turn things on their head."
Yet despite them revisiting some of their best-known hits from their lengthy career, he also ruled out any reunion with former member Brian McFadden, whose future is now up in the air after his split from former fiancee Delta Goodrem.
"I don't necessarily see it happening, it would have to be something really special and something small, not this big thing," he added.
mfinn@herald.ie
- Melanie Finn
No comments:
Post a Comment