
Full Name: Shane Steven Filan
D.O.B.: July 5, 1979
Place of birth: Sligo, Ireland
Biography
Filan was born on July 5, 1979 to Peter and Mae Filan, and grew up in Sligo, a small town in the northwest of Ireland. The youngest of seven children, he has three brothers and three sisters: Finbarr, Peter Jr, Yvonne, Liam, Denise and Mairead. His parents owned a diner in Sligo named Carlton Cafe located on Castle Street and Shane used to work there as a waiter from a very early age. Filan attended Summerhill College, a Catholic school, with Kian Egan and Mark Feehily. All three of them participated in a school production of Grease when they were about 12. The Hawkswell Theatre became a significant part of their careers. Filan was a fan of Michael Jackson as a child, and claimed the singer inspired him to pursue a career in music.
Musical career
Before Westlife, Egan and Feehily were with Filan in a band known as I.O.U. with other Sligonians Derrick Lacey, Graham Keighron and Michael "Miggles" Garrett. He partly written the IOYOU's song Together Girl Forever. For 6 months, Shane's mom, Mae Filan, tried to phone Louis Walsh (who is also the Manager of Boyzone). Eventually, she was able to speak to him and talked about his son's band. 3 of them are dropped, and the other 3, Shane, Kian and Mark joined ventures to finding 2 more slots for the band. Then they were joined by Nicky Byrne and Brian Mcfadden to form Westlife.
Filan, along with Mark Feehily, is the main lead singer (first voice) in Westlife. In most of Westlife's songs, Filan always start the song first. Their first album was released in November, 1999, titled Westlife. With Westlife, Filan has received twenty-eight platinum discs and sold 40 million records worldwide.
Filan has also co-written a few songs, along with the other band members, including: • Fragile Heart • Bop Bop Baby (Became a hit single and made it into #5 in U.K. singles charts) • I Wanna Grow Old With You • Don't Say It's Too Late • Love Crime • How Does It Feel • Crying Girl • Reason For Living • Miss You When I'm Dreaming He has also written songs for other artists, (together with his former bandmate McFadden): • Listen Girl sung by John Ostberg • Let Me Be the One sung by Simon Casey (the song written by only Shane himself) • Sei Parte Ormai Di Me sung by Il Divo Filan's recent appearance when he becomes Walsh's guest judge in the groups category of The X Factor. Among the four guest judges, he is the only guy.
Personal Life
Filan married his childhood sweetheart, Gillian Walsh (bandmate Kian Egan's cousin) on Sunday December 28, 2003 at Ballintubber Abbey, followed by a reception at Ashford Castle, Ireland.[4] Gillian gave birth to their first child, a daughter, Nicole Rose, at Sligo General Hospital on 23 July 2005. Their second child, a son, Patrick Michael, was born at Sligo General Hospital on September 15, 2008. On 5 July 2009(the day of his 30th birthday) Shane Announced that he and Gillian are expecting their third child, due in January 2010.
Shane likes to play golf in his spare time, but loves horses much more. He and his family own more than 70 of them, and used to compete at horse tournaments. All of Shane's horses are named Carlton something (e.g. Carlton Flight, Carlton Clover Association of Ireland). A massive Manchester United fan, Filan and bandmate Nicky Byrne proudly wore their Man Utd scarfs as they were half time guests at Old Trafford for the game between United and Bolton Wanderers He and his eldest brother, Finbarr, have a company called Shafin Developments Ltd. They are hoping to expand its portfolio with the proposed construction of 63 luxury apartments at the rear of Lisroyan House, Knappagh Road, Sligo