Shane Filan of Westlife on his biggest inspiration

 Westlife is an Irish pop group that started in 1997 and became famous in 1999. Well, there's the guys (by order of the pic above): Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan and Brian McFadden (he left the group in 2004). Their main influences in pop music are Madonna, Phil Collins, George Michael, Boyzone, Backstreet Boys and Take That.

Shane Filan (the guy on the right) is one of the most recognized faces from the group, aside the fact that he is heard in 95% of Westlife's music. He is one of the three founding members (along with Kian and Mark) and one of the main forces in the group's career. 
I admit that I have been a fan of their music for 11 years already, no joke. In fact, I also had the opportunity some months ago to have an official autobiography of them, entitled "Westlife: In Our Own Words" (which I bought in a book bargain - nice!).
There in that book, I got to know more about them, their reasons why they love music and their career. 


OK. Going back to Mr. Filan, he got his love of singing from his dad. That's just the singing part. But when he was 8 years, this man (pic below) inspired this young man to do theater acting and eventually inspired him to become a performer.
The man right down there...yup. It's Michael Jackson.

Here is Shane's word on Michael: "It's my life - singing - it's the best thing I could do. But it was Michael Jackson who encouraged me to go on stage; I got a lot of inspiration from him."

 

How's about that for "Behind every great man is another great man"? AAOW!