{"id":81261,"date":"2025-10-17T18:57:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/81261\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T18:57:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T18:57:12","slug":"belfast-and-dublin-gigs-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/81261\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast and Dublin gigs announced"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760609827_62_grey-placeholder.png\" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 hagXkB hide-when-no-script\" aria-label=\"image unavailable\"\/><img decoding=\"async\"   src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ad1753e0-ab3c-11f0-b2a1-6f537f66f9aa.jpg.webp.webp\" loading=\"eager\" alt=\"Westlife The picture features three men wearing dark jackets and standing beside each other. The three men have dark t-shirts on and are standing in front of a grey background. \" class=\"sc-5340b511-0 bGQwLJ\"\/>Westlife<\/p>\n<p>Band members Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, and Kian Egan said, &#8220;Belfast has always held a special place in our hearts&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Westlife will be kicking off a tour celebrating 25 years of touring, with concerts set to be staged in Belfast and Dublin. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">The group, formed in 1998, have sold over 44 million records worldwide and have become one of the most successful pop groups globally. <\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Speaking to Cool FM on Friday, the band said they aren&#8217;t counting the Covid pandemic, and it said &#8220;it&#8217;s actually been 25 years since we started our first ever tour&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">The band is best known for hits including Flying Without Wings, Fool Again and Unbreakable, with their latest album Wild Dreams, being released in 2021.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">First up will be five nights at Dublin&#8217;s 3Arena, between 22 October and 26 October, 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">They will follow this up with three concerts at Belfast&#8217;s SSE Arena on October 27, 28, and 29, maintaining their record for the most performances at the venue, surpassing any other artist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Band members Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, and Kian Egan said: &#8220;Belfast has always held a special place in our hearts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">&#8220;The crowds here are unbelievable, the atmosphere is like nowhere else in the world. We can&#8217;t wait to see everyone again next October.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">Initially a five-member group, Brian McFadden left the band in 2004 to pursue a solo career and dedicate more time to his family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\"> In 2022, <a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/c1w1e5w92yqo\" class=\"sc-f9178328-0 jZoZnB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mark Feehily paused his performances to prioritise his recovery<\/a> after experiencing health challenges.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-9a00e533-0 bJoRPJ\">The band have played more than 200 shows since their reunion in 2019 and performed across 30 countries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Westlife Band members Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, and Kian Egan said, &#8220;Belfast has always held a special place&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,46,409],"class_list":["post-81261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}