Three years after their last
concert in the Philippines, the Irish boy band Boyzone will
return to the country to perform their career's biggest hits live as part of
their 25th anniversary and farewell tour. The concert, produced by OvationProductions (promoter in the Philippines of other well known boy bands such as The
Backstreet Boys, New Kids On the Block, Boyz ll Men, Color Me Badd, All-4-One,
K-Pop’s Big Bang and also co-producer of One Direction, it celebrates its 40th
anniversary next year), is to be held at the Mall of Asia Arena on August 26, 2018 (check out video here). It is the final chance for their millions of
Filipino fans to watch them perform together.
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| Boyzone in 1998. The late Stephen Gately is second from right (Stefan Rosseau/PA) |
The band first performed in
the country on August 29, 1997 (at New Cebu Coliseum in Cebu City) and, the
next day, at the Folk Arts Theater in Manila. They returned, 18 years later,
for a one-night only concert (a continuation of the group’s BZ20 Tour, also
known as the 20th Anniversary Tour which began in 2013) at Smart Araneta Coliseum on May 26, 2015. The Irish group is planning to split up for good, but
not before returning, together for the last time, for a stop in Manila, one of
the stops in their world tour. On April 28, 2018, it was announced that the
band would formally disband after their anniversary celebrations.
Formed in 1993 by music mogul Louis
Walsh (who is also known for managing Johnny Logan and Westlife),
Boyzone was originally composed of five young Dublin Northsiders Keith
Duffy, Stephen Gately, Mikey Graham, Ronan
Keating, and Shane Lynch. One of the most successful bands in
Ireland and the United Kingdom, the group had 24 singles in the UK (21 of them in
the top 40 UK Singles Chart with 18 in the top 10 and six of
them No. 1) and 19 top 5 singles in the Irish Singles Chart (nine of them No.1). They
also had five No. 1 albums, with 25 million records sold by 2013 worldwide.
The group initially disbanded
in 1999. Despite the fact they've all been pursuing solo projects from car
dealerships to soap roles to singing for many years, Boyzone have never
permanently split up and they got back together in 2007, originally with the
intention of just touring (the Back Again... No Matter What tour). Following
the death of co-lead singer Stephen Gately on October 10, 2009 of natural
causes from a pulmonary edema resulting from an undiagnosed
heart condition (while on holiday at his flat in Port d'Andratx in
the Spanish island of Majorca), the boys went on as a foursome, releasing 3 more
albums and selling 2 million records, including their fantastic, new final
album "Thank You & Goodnight."
The album, released on November
16, 2018 with 12 new tracks, includes a very special tribute to Stephen in the
shape of a new song, "I Can Dream." Guest songwriters Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran and Gary Barlow
have written some songs for this album). To date, Boyzone have released four
studio albums and seven compilation albums and, based on BPI certifications, have sold
over 13 million records in the UK alone. In 2012, Boyzone was ranked, by the Official Charts Company, as the 29th biggest
selling singles artists in British music chart history and is the second most
successful boy band in Britain, behind Take That.
The Thank You & Goodnight Tour,
which promotes the album, is also to be their last tour. It started on June 29,
2017 in Cartmel, Lancashire; continued to London, York, Edinburgh and, of
course, several gigs in their homeland, Ireland. They next hit Asia before
returning to Europe. The Asian Leg of the Boyzone 25th Anniversary Tour, starting
on the 16th of August in Colombo (Sri Lanka), continues to Prambanan (Yogjakarta, Indonesia) on August 19, to Singapore on August
21 and in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) on August 24 before proceeding to Manila.
Boyzone is best known for
their iconic, most loved and biggest 1990s hits (click on highlighted song to watch it on YouTube) such as “Love Me For A Reason” (an Osmonds' original), “Daydream Believer” (a Monkees' original), “Father and Son” (a Cat Stevens' original),
“Should be Missing You Now,” “Close To You,” “Words” (a Bee Gees' original), the upbeat, brassy “Picture of You” (from the soundtrack of Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie), “Working
My Way Back to You” (A Four Seasons' original), “Baby Can I Hold You” (a Tracy Chapman original), the country ballad “I Love the Way You Love Me” (a John Michael Montgomery original), “You Needed Me” (an Anne Murray original), “What A
Wonderful World” (a Louis Armstrong original), “Everyday I Love You,” and most especially original material such as the mushy ballad “Key to My Life,” “So Good,” “Coming Home Now,” “A Different Beat,” “All That I Need” and “No Matter What” as well as Motown hits
like The Four Tops’ “Reach Out (I’ll BeThere)” Jimmy Ruffin's “What Becomes Of the Broken Hearted”and The Supremes’ “You Can’t Hurry Love” among many others.
Tickets to the concert will
be available at www.smtickets.com and
all SM Tickets outlets starting Thursday, July 5, 2018.
Ticket prices are PhP5,500, PhP5,000, PhP4,000, PhP3,500, PhP2,500, PhP1,000
plus ticketing charges. For info, call telephone number (02) 470-2222 or mobile
number (0917) 149-5959.
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