Boyzone’s last tour touching down in PHL
IRISH POP vocal group Boyzone is coming back to Manila which is one stop in its their 25th Anniversary and Farewell Tour.
The concert is on Aug. 26 at the Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena in Pasay City.
The last time that the band performed in the Philippines was in 2015 in celebration of its 20th anniversary.
Boyzone was put together in 1993 by Louis Walsh, who is also known for managing another well- known Irish pop vocal group, Westlife. Boyzone — composed of Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating, and Shane Lynch ( Stephen Gately died in 2009) — currently has six UK No. 1 singles and nine No. 1 singles in Ireland, with 12 of their 24 singles in the UK making it to the UK Top 2.
Considered one of the most successful bands in Ireland and the United Kingdom, Boyzone sold 25 million records by 2013.
“We’ve had 25 amazing years, we’ve had breaks, we’ve had good and bad times, and we can’t do this like this forever. So we made a decision as a band to give our all in this album. Say farewell in a tour and then see where the roads take us from there,” said Mr. Keating in a video posted on the band’s official YouTube page on June 17.
Their debut album, Said and Done (1995), went triple Platinum in the UK and spent 58 weeks on the top of the UK Top 75 Albums chart. The album contained singles such as “Love Me For A Reason” and “Coming Home Now.”
Two years later, their second album, A Different Beat, likewise went triple Platinum in the UK. It featured singles such their version of Bee Gees’ “Words” and “Picture of You.”
The band split in 1999 but reunited in 2007, originally with the intention of just touring. The band’s last album, Thank You & Goodnight, was released in 2018 and is unlike any of the others which contain the ballads the band is known for, instead featuring an “urban” influence according to an interview with The Sun in 2017.
Mr. Lynch has said in a separate interview for OK! that the album will be similar in style to that of American singer Charlie Puth.
The album features all original songs such as “Because” and “I Can Dream” and no covers.
The 25th anniversary tour will take them to the UK and Ireland as well as Singapore, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines, among other countries.
“We’re going to do [the tour] with the best of our abilities. This is it, we’re signing off the 25 years of Boyzone,” said Mr. Lynch in the same video.
The Boyzone 25th Anniversary & Farewell Tour concert will be on Aug. 26, 8 p.m., at the SM MOA Arena in Pasay City. Tickets are now available at SM Tickets and online through www.smtickets. com, and range in price from P1,000 to P5,500 plus ticketing charges. For more information call 470-2222 or 0917-149-5959. —
(NOTE: Link to their farewell tour interview: https://www.youtube. com/ watch? v= RSVBoHmE2Z4. From Left to Right: Mikey Graham, Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy and Shane Lynch.)