http://i45.tinypic.com/1o85fp.jpg

So today Shane Filan launched his brand new site and effectively his solo career.

www.shanefilan.com

He's written a message over on his site which announces a few things;
- he's signed to London Record / Universal
- he's been recording and writing in the UK & USA over the last few months
- first single due out in the summer
- debut album due later in the year, presumably after the second single

http://i45.tinypic.com/20iw80n.jpg
There's a few pics on his site of him in the studio and stuff like that, I piratically liked this one though of him signing the deal. :)
Hopefully I'm not the only one on here looking forwards to this!! :dance:

Having seen Shane's announcement, it looks more and more that he won't do covers which I was afraid of since Walsh kept saying he will be the next Buble. But since he wrote on his website that he has been writing songs and that there are photos few of him holding a notebook with the songs he wrote - I'm pretty sure he will release an original album :D

 

Also, I'm very glad he has signed with London Records and that he will release his 1st single in he summer - this probably means he will release also a 2nd single right before he releases the album. This would be a great move, something Westlife had in the beginning of the career, but then Syco decided against that which I will never understand why.

 

And, #FilanFriday was trending no.1 worldwide yesterday when the site was launched and it was still at no.4 almost 2 hours later. That is a very good start and it shows that people are interested in hearing his solo material.

 

Honestly, I'm much happier and excited about his career after seeing the announcement. :)

I'm really not sure how well he will do. He does have a good voice but Westlife kinda lost their popularity in the last few years and not sure if he'll be able to turn that around with a solo career.

Westlife's popularity in the singles chart definitely dropped off, but album wise and tour wise they were still very successful. It'll definitely be interesting to see how he will do, I don't think he'll have guaranteed success and it's going to be completely depending on the quality of the songs, but everything is set up nicely, he has an incredible voice and has great stage presence and a likable personality, I believe he was the most popular member of Westlife too and was sort of the leader to the outside world and therefore the most recognisable which should all stand him in good stead.

 

 

Agreed zeze, I'm a lot more excited/interested now that the announcement has happened. The only thing I don't like about this so far is Louis' involvement, I have 0% faith in that mans ability, I kinda hope he's just got his name to the project to help with contacts but isn't going to be hands on when it comes to the actual music side. Can't wait for the summer and to actually hear the music he's come up with.

 

Does anyone recognise the other people in the studio with Shane?

He was always the best member of Westlife (in terms of vocals), IMO, so I'm hoping he can do well, and I'm looking forward to new music from him! :D

I agree that Westlife weren't as popular as in the early years, but it is not easy being on top all the time after 14 years. However, their tours always sold out and they broke record by selling Croke Park tickets in 4 minutes - their last DVD has spent 17 weeks in Top 10 which never happened before. The reason why album sales weren't huge is because they released only 1 single per album in the last 3 years - I will NEVER understand why Syco didn't allow them to release more than 1 single.

 

So, while I'm also not very happy that Walsh is his manager, I think Syco was the bigger problem and reason of Westlife's problems - I honestly believe that they disbanded because they were tired of constantly arguing with them about wanting to release more singles and not wanting to record so many covers. As long as London Records treat Shane with respect, there won't be any problems. Louis loves Shane and wants him to do well.

Of the group, I always thought Shane and Mark had the best voices. I was surprised that McFadden was the first to have a shot at a solo career.

Of the group, I always thought Shane and Mark had the best voices. I was surprised that McFadden was the first to have a shot at a solo career.

 

Only because he was an idiot for wanting to quit Westlife :D BUT his Irish Sun and Set in Stone are actually very good because he is a very good songwriter - I recommend you to check them out.

 

But because of the bad press, I fear he will never have any success in the UK - if he released something that has the quality of Adele, it would have still flopped because people think he is some kind of villain.

Real To Me was good as well as Irish Son, haven't heard the other one.

Real To Me was good as well as Irish Son, haven't heard the other one.

 

I forgot to mention that I was talking about the albums Irish Son and Set in Stone, sorry :) but he does have the song called Set In Stone and it is very good ;)

Irish son is my favorite from Brian, really like it. I hope Shane can carve out a solo career for himself, i do like his voice so i hope he can get the material right. Also with his financial situation he needs success more than any of the others.

I'M BACK!!! Been doing other things after their break-up.

 

I'm excited for Shane! So glad #filanfriday trended #1 worldwide!

Still seeing fans from Indonesia, USA, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Philippines, Chile, Argentina, Hong Kong, Malaysia, UAE, UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Honduras, Brazil...

 

Anyway I have some of Filan's songtitles for the upcoming album (Source: ASCAP)

I wonder what among those will be the debut single..

 

MORE

 

Writers

EARLE BEN

FILAN SHANE

MUNGO ALEX

 

ALL ABOUT YOU

 

Writers

FILAN SHANE

MUNDAY DAVID

THORNALLEY PHIL

 

ALWAYS TOMORROW

 

Writers

EARLE BEN

FILAN SHANE

 

BABY LET'S DANCE

 

Writers

FILAN SHANE

GREEN JONATHAN IAN

THORNALLEY PHIL

 

WHEREVER YOU ARE

 

Writers

FILAN SHANE

GREEN JONATHAN IAN

THORNALLEY PHIL

Edited April 21, 201312 yr by myxxd

Thanks for this info - it is so great he is writing songs for himself. Wit everything he has said so far - that gives me more and more hope that his album will be completely original, if not even completely written/co-written by Shane :)

Oooh thanks for posting the songs!

I didn't recognize the other names so did a little research, they seem to have a country vibe going on, I'm a tiny bit worried that Louis is going to repeat the exact same mistakes he did with Wonderland with Shane. But I'm going to stay positive until we hear something, but it's crucial he gets some radio friendly and commercial sounding songs to guarantee a hit single. It's great to see him with writing credits though, I have enjoyed all the Westlife songs he has taken part in so I am positive he'll create some good music, plus I feel it's just more special when he's actively creating it. That said, I'm keeping fingers crossed we'll get some songs by Steve Mac, Wayne Hector and Savan Kotecha on the album somewhere.

Well, a part of the problem with Wonderland was the fact that they were completely new in the music industry - Shane is well known and he already has a solid fanbase from the start, so he won't struggle as much as Wonderland did.

 

I think it is important that he releases 3-4 singles which is mostly up to London Records and I don't think they would mess him up like Syco often did with Westlife. It would be great if he releases a 2nd single before the album comes out.

 

Also, it is important that he has enough promo and exposure - lots of tv and radio performances - I hope he will have a X Factor slot even though he isn't with Syco anymore - since Walsh is still his manager and a mentor on the show, I think he could pull some strings to get him there. I remember him saying last year how Shane will appear on X Factor bootcamp and that he will sing on the show. Hopefully, this is still in the cards as this would be a great opportunity for nice promotion.

 

But honestly, I'm just very happy he is creating something he loves even if he doesn't become hugely successful - it is a fickle business, only Robbie and Justin became extremely successful while Ronan has a decent career. So who knows - Shane could be very successful or not, it depends on various factors.

Edited April 21, 201312 yr by zeze88

I agree with your point about Wonderland, however Westlife didn't get great airplay for the latter part of their career, What About Now got quite good airplay but that was the only one and Radio 1 full blank refused to support them branding them a "radio 2 artist". That in itself wasn't a big deal to Westlife, but Shane will have a tougher time. Although, that said, if radio 1 aren't going to playlist him anyway (which is quite likely) then I guess just accepting that and aiming for a different market isn't a bad move as long as they're willing to accept that will make him more of an albums artist and to not expect singles to do so well. TBH he'll probably be an albums artist anyway as Westlife kinda were at the end. It's just from the publics point of view success seems to be determined on having hit singles so I hope he can get his debut single right and at least get a hit out of that.

 

Agreed about the singles too, they definitely need to get a lot out there for his debut era. I think it's safe to say they'll be two before the album, he's said the first single will be out in the summer and the album later in the year, so that sounds like he's aiming for a Q4 release of the album and I don't think they'd risk it without a single leading it in. Like you said an XF slot would be absolutely perfect to get him maximum exposure at the time. I hope they can promo the hell out of the album and give him the best possibly chance. Fingers crossed we'll get atleast 4 out of the first era, hopefully more if possible.

 

And again I agree on your last points, with Shane though, more so than Mark, I feel like he probably needs the success more, I can't even explain why I think that, I just feel there's more pressure on him to be successful than Mark. The fact they are both heavily involved with their debut albums makes me really happy. Shane could very easily have gone down the themed cover album idea that I'm sure a Louis Simon combo would have suggested but it's nice to see he's trying to do the opposite and is actively creating his music, I have a lot more respect for him doing that. I literally can't wait for Shane to drop his single and for us to get a glimpse as to how his music will sound.

 

Summer. Hurry. Up!

"Ex Westlifer Shane Filan has his debut solo album finished and ready to go. The singer, 33, who penned a €1million deal with London Records last month, has apparently now picked every track which will feature on his upcoming release. Record bosses are hoping the album will hit shelves before Christmas." TV3.ie

 

And going by his wifes tweets the album definitely sounds like it's done, hopefully not long until we hear news on a first single then! Getting very excited for this!

It is such a nice thing that he is doing something every Friday - last Friday he decided to follow 50 people on Twitter and he retweeted some of the fans questions or statements. As a result. FilanFriday was no.1 in the UK for about 1 hour. Today he followed 25 people without any retweets and he still managed to trend at no.3 in the UK.

 

It is great that he interacts with his fans and that he does something for that every Friday.

 

I hope he will at least tell us the name of the first single in a couple of weeks.

 

Looking how he gets positive feedback on social media and that journalists are reporting about his solo career, he could actually be successful - he definitely started alright.

As much as it's great that he's following people, I personally find this wait for any news boring. They've obviously been working on this album for quite some time and they were very quiet for the recording which I was really happy about as I find being drip feed tiny news bulletins ages apart really annoying. So when he launched I was really excited that things would start progressing, especially as the single & album were mentioned in his launch. But a month on we are literally no further forwards. I kinda wish they had held back on the launch until they were ready. I get they want #FilanFriday to trend and spread the word about Shanes music so people are aware he's going solo before he actually does, but they really need to come up with a better way than "whoever spams Shane the most gets a follow" method. At least do a Q&A or something where we may get some sort of info on this career.

I feel the same way as you do, but we just have to be patient :D

 

He said that the single will be out in the summer, so that could be June, July or August - that is why they aren't revealing too much. I mean, I find it strange that Union J already released a music video, a month before the single is out - it is better to do that a week before. I have a feeling that we will be getting the real news from Shane in a week or two. At least the name of the single and a release date would be nice.