'Working with Ed has made us cool with our kids'

Irish chart-toppers to release song written by 'fan' Sheeran

- BY CASEY COOPER-FISKE and HANNAH ROBERTS

WITH 14 No1 singles and eight No1 albums behind them during their stellar career, Westlife are the most successful boyband in chart history.

Only Elvis Presley and The Beatles have produced more chart topping singles than the Irish boyband, currently made up of Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan, Kian Egan and Mark Feehily, with their late-1990s and early 2000s heyday seeing them top the charts with songs such as Flying Without Wings, You Raise Me Up and If I Let You Go.

The Sligo-Dublin group, who are celebrating their 25th anniversary together with the release of a new single called Chariot, a new compilation album and a tour, were also joined by Brian McFadden during their peak, who left in 2004, and are temporarily without Mark due to health issues.

The new single has seen Westlife team up with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, who has written Chariot for the band and performed with them at a concert at Portman Road in Ipswich, the home of the town's football club which Sheeran supports.

"Look he's a legend, he's such an amazing songwriter, he writes nearly three to four songs a day, he's super fast," Kian explains.

"We were just so honoured to kind of have him involved in us, and he tells the story of the fact that he learned to play the guitar to Flying Without Wings, our song from way back in '99 and he goes around saying that's one of the best songs of all time.

"He's been a massive Westlife fan since he was a kid, so to hear that from such a huge superstar, when he's in interviews, championing us like that, it's incredible.

"But then to also have him get involved in our music, the first album that we did when we came back together in 2019, he was so heavily involved in that.