Nicky Byrne
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Nicky Byrne
| Nicky Byrne | |
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 Nicky Byrne at The Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2009 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne Jr |
| Born | 9 October 1978 Dublin, Ireland |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter, radio presenter, TV presenter, footballer |
| Instruments | Vocal |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Associated acts | Westlife |
Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne, Jr (born 9 October 1978) is a singer-songwriter, radio and TV presenter and former footballer. From 1998 until 2012 he was the oldest member of Irish pop band, Westlife.
Before his music career, he played professional football and represented Republic of Ireland at several underage levels. Since then he has had a successful international radio and TV presenting career. His wife Georgina is the daughter of former Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and they have twin sons called Rocco Bertie Byrne and Jay Nicky Byrne.
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Public life
Football career
Byrne was a footballer who played for Home Farm and St. Kevins Boys in North Dublin.[1] He became a professional football player, and joined Leeds United as a goalkeeper in 1995, and was a squad member of the FA Youth Cup winning team of 1997[2]
He played for Leeds for two years, leaving when his contract expired in June 1997. He played in a reserve game for Scarborough F.C. and in a trial game with Cambridge United before returning to join Dublin club Shelbourne. He then signed for Cobh Ramblers playing 11 games, then St. Francis F.C., all in Ireland's League of Ireland.[3]
On 14 May 2009 Byrne was a substitute for a Liverpool F.C. Legends XI that played against an All Star XI in a Hillsborough Memorial match to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. All the proceeds from the match went to the Marina Dalglish appeal.
He represented the Republic of Ireland at U15, U16 and U18 levels. He is a fan of Celtic FC, and on 9 August 2011 played in a Celtic Legends XI at Celtic Park in front of a 54,000 crowd against a Manchester Utd Legends team.
Music career
Main article: Westlife
In June 1998, Byrne attended an audition for new Irish boyband, where he was spotted by Boyzone manager Louis Walsh, who approached him to join his new venture, Westlife. Byrne joined Westlife along with Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Shane Filan and former member Brian McFadden. The band's name had to be changed to Westlife after it was discovered a number of bands already had the name Westside.
Byrne revealed in Westlife: Our Story that he had wanted to change the name of the band to West High; but the others preferred Westlife.
With Westlife, Byrne has had 25 top ten UK singles, 14 of which, were number one, 7 number one albums and has sold in excess of over 45 million records worldwide. It is certified that Westlife have sold 20.2 million records and videos in the UK across their 14-year career - 6.8 million singles, 11.9 million albums and 1.5 million videos.
Byrne also had a number one single in Ireland in 2002, alongside the Republic of Ireland national football team and Dustin the Turkey with the Irish 2002 FIFA World Cup anthem, "Here Come The Good Times (Ireland)".
Byrne has also co-written songs, along with his fellow band members, including:[4]
- "Nothing Is Impossible"
- "Don't Let Me Go"
- "When You Come Around"
- "Imaginary Diva"
- "Reason For Living"
- "Crying Girl"
- "You Don't Know"
- "Never Knew I Was Losing You"
- "Where We Belong"
- "Singing Forever"
- "I Won't Let You Down"
- "You See Friends (I See Lovers)"
- "I'm Missing Loving You"
- "When It Comes to Love"
- "Too Hard to Say Goodbye"
- "Wide Open"
- "Last Mile Of The Way"
Byrne is also one of the board of directors of Clikthrough, a video interactive site.[5]
Presenting career
Throughout the years, Nicky has appeared several times on Children in Need and Comic Relief. In 2001, he co-hosted Children in Need live from Belfast and in 2011, he co-hosted a BBC Radio 2 radio special with Patrick Kielty for the cause.
In 2003, Byrne guest-hosted an edition of CD:UK with Cat Deeley.
Byrne presented several editions of the Celebrity Sunday radio programme on RTÉ 2fm in 2010.[6] Listeners tuned in from as far and wide as Mexico, Chile, England, Scotland, Philippines and Indonesia. The fourth and final edition of the programme, broadcast on February 14, 2010, trended worldwide on Twitter.[7]
FM104 publicly offered him a job the day Westlife announced their split.[8]
Byrne has hosted the Cheerios ChildLine Concert a record seven times, which was broadcast on RTÉ2, and in more recent years TV3 (Ireland).
Nicky has narrated stage shows such as The Snowman Christmas Special and the Picture of You documentary dedicated to former Boyzone member Stephen Gately who died on October 10, 2009.
In September 2012, Byrne will host the RTÉ reality TV show Football's Next Star. The series will follow ten young hopefuls competing for a chance to win a place with Celtic Football Club's youth squad.[9]
He has spoken of his desire for a role on The X Factor.[10]
Philantrophy
In 2010, Byrne and his family organised the 'Nikki Byrne Twilight Ball', a fundraising event, in memory of their father who passed away in November 2009. The event raised over €200,000 and completely funded a television and radio heart attack awareness campaign in connection with The Irish Heart Foundation.[11]
Nicky, and his wife Georgina, are keen supporters of the Irish Premature Babies charity.
Personal life
Family
Nicky was born to parents Yvonne and Nicholas. He has an older sister, Gillian, and a younger brother, Adam.
Byrne married his childhood sweetheart Georgina Ahern, whom he met when they were about 12 years old, on 5 August 2003 at the Wicklow Registry Office, Wicklow, County Wicklow.[12] The civil ceremony was followed on 9 August by a church blessing at the Roman Catholic Church of St Pierre et St Paul in Gallardon, Eure-et-Loir, France and a reception at the nearby 16th century Château d'Esclimont.[13]
Georgina gave birth to fraternal twin sons, Jay and Rocco, on 20 April 2007, almost eight weeks prematurely. The children were christened on 15 July 2007 in the Saint Sylvester Roman Catholic Church in Malahide, County Dublin.[14]
Godparents for the children are Nicky's sister Gillian Byrne and her husband Mark Gallagher and Georgina's sister Cecelia Ahern and Nicky's brother Adam McGarry Byrne.[15]
Nicky's father, Nikki Byrne Sr., died on November 3, 2009, from a heart attack. Westlife's promotional tour of the UK was cancelled as Nicky flew to Dublin to be with his family.[16] Byrne Sr. sang part-time on Dublin's cabaret and karaoke scene and was presented with a Harley-Davidson motorbike by his son on his sixtieth birthday party the year before his death.[17]
References
- ^ "Home Farm F.C.". http://www.homefarmfc.ie/news.php.
- ^ "Nicky Byrne — Biography". http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0970757/bio.
- ^ "Club History". http://www.cobhramblers.com/history.htm.
- ^ Westlife Songwriters List. thecommitted.net.
- ^ http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/people.asp?privcapId=61249990
- ^ "Nicky Byrne hosts 2fm's Celebrity Sunday". RTÉ Entertainment. 5 February 2010. http://www.rte.ie/arts/2010/0205/byrnen.html. Retrieved 2010-02-05.
- ^ "Nicky Byrne signs for extra 2fm shows". RTÉ Entertainment. 15 February 2010. http://www.rte.ie/arts/2010/0215/byrnen.html. Retrieved 2010-02-15.
- ^ "Job offer for Westlife's Nicky Byrne". RTÉ Entertainment. 21 October 2011. http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/1021/byrnen.html. Retrieved 2011-10-21.
- ^ Template:IFTN
- ^ "Westlife star keen on X Factor job". RTÉ Entertainment. 29 November 2011. http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/1129/westlife.html. Retrieved 2011-11-29.
- ^ "Heart Attack Awareness Campaign". The Irish Heart Foundation. 16 August 2011. https://www.irishheart.ie/iopen24/heart-attack-awareness-campaign-t-937.html. Retrieved 2011-08-16.
- ^ BBC News (9 August 2003). "Westlife star's French wedding" (Website). BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/3135709.stm. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
- ^ "Taoiseach becomes grandad to twin boys". The Irish Times. 4 April 2007. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2007/0421/1176455026505.html.
- ^ "Westlifer Nicky Byrne's twin babies are christened". London: Daily Mail. 16 July 2007. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=468674&in_page_id=1811.
- ^ Heffernan, Breda (16 July 2007). "Bertie's a double winner". Irish Independent. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/berties-a-double-winner-1038154.html. Breda Heffernan, Monday July 16, 2007.
- ^ Ben Todd and Eva Marie Gibney. Westlife star Nicky Byrne puts on a brave face as he comforts his mother after father's death. Daily Mail. 4th November 2009.
- ^ "Nicky Byrne mourns death of father". RTÉ Entertainment. 4 November 2009. http://www.rte.ie/arts/2009/1104/byrnen.html. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
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