PETALING JAYA, April 26 — Iconic boyband Westlife will return to Malaysia this August as part of The 20 Tour, and member Shane Filan promises it to be a night to remember for avid fans of the 90’s pop act.
While the setlist promises to deliver on the nostalgia factor with hits like Uptown Girl and My Love, Filan revealed that the show will have more than a few surprises in store for its audience.
“There were so many things you couldn’t do years ago without the right technology.
“This new tour will be a visually spectacular show, as we’ve got the team from Cirque du Soleil who put on shows in Las Vegas to be the tour’s producers,” he said.
“This show will definitely be the best Westlife concert you’ve ever seen, it’s on a different level altogether.”
The Westlife frontman added that the members were ecstatic when they found out that both Malaysian dates for the tour had sold out after just 32 hours.
“Westlife has always had a special relationship with Malaysia and we’ve always had a huge fanbase there.
“The fact that the Malaysian promoters approached us to do two shows was great and even more so when it sold out so quickly,” he said.
“It’s always nice to hear that your show sold out so fast because it gives you a lot of excitement and confidence for going to that country.
“When you come to a country where you’re gonna have two shows, you know the fans there have a lot of love for you.”
Westlife’s lead vocalist Mark Feehily recalled fond memories of visiting Malaysia during the band’s first global tour, the ‘East Meets Westlife Tour’ in 2000.
“I remember being 18 or 19 years old and landing in Malaysia, and everyone was so hyped up. Everything was so amazingly crazy.
“It was the first time I was ever in Asia and we landed in a country that was thousands and thousands of miles away from home, and we weren’t used to being famous or people knowing about us, even in our home country,” said Feehily.
“When we got to the other side of the world in a different continent with a different language and culture, everyone still knew every song and all the lyrics. It’s an experience not many people get to have.”
Along with their popular singles, the band will also be teasing new material from their upcoming album Spectrum during the tour.
Feehily said that while the band was more than happy to perform musical throwbacks with their older hits, they also wanted to present an updated version of themselves that wouldn’t be out of place in today’s pop music scene.
“Something that I felt was very important for the band to get across was that this isn’t just us coming back and going, ‘oh hi, we’re these old guys that used to be a big band back in the 90’s’.
“We feel very much like a young and fresh band. A big part of our reunion is that it’s not just going to be about the past, even though we’re very grateful and proud of it,” said Feehily.
And who better to introduce a contemporary edge to their music than Ed Sheeran, one of the biggest pop music acts in the world?
The band’s latest singles Hello My Love and Better Man were both co-written by Sheeran, who Feehily said has also lent his songwriting talents to many other tracks on the new Westlife album.
Feehily is excited for fans to get a taste of the new songs they’ve been working on ahead of Spectrum’s release on September 6.
“It’s going to be about the future and a new version of Westlife,” he said.
The band will be performing in Malaysia at Malawati Indoor Stadium, Shah Alam on August 8 and 9.
