Brian Nicholas McFadden (born 12 April 1980) is an Irish pop singer and television presenter who rose to fame in 1998 as a member of the Irish boy band Westlife. Following his departure from the group in 2004, McFadden released his debut solo album, Irish Son. He has since released four studio albums: Set in Stone, Wall of Soundz, The Irish Connection, and Otis. Early life McFadden was born in Dublin and was raised Catholic. Throughout his younger years, he always had an interest in singing, dancing and football. Along with his sister Susan, McFadden attended the Billie Barry Stage School in Dublin, which led him to doing stage and TV roles, including a role in the Irish TV show Finbar's Class, a comedy revolving around a group of student-swingers. In early 1998, he formed a pop-R&B group with his friends Tim and Darragh, called Cartel, and performed live gigs in Dublin pubs. When the band passed their credentials to prominent Irish music manager Louis Walsh, McFadden was asked to come to the audition for the formation of a new band that would later be called Westlife. Music career 1998–2004: Westlife In June 1998, McFadden auditioned for Irish boy band Westlife and was against another blonde Nicky Byrne and eventually both joined the group alongside Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, and Shane Filan. After joining, he changed the spelling of his name from Brian to Bryan to make it easier to sign autographs. With McFadden as part of the group, Westlife were under the music mogul Simon Cowell and released their first single, Swear It Again, which was the group's first and only single to have charted in the US in 2000, four Irish No. 1 studio albums, and a No. 1 greatest hits album. They also released seventeen Irish top 5 singles including the hit single "Uptown Girl," which peaked within the top 10 in seven European countries and also in Australia and New Zealand. In March 2004, McFadden left the group to spend more time with his family and work on solo projects. He subsequently began a solo career and decided to revert the spelling of his first name back to its original, "Brian." Before launching his solo career, he co-wrote the song "If My World Stopped Turning," which was sung by Ireland's entry Chris Doran in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. 2004–2006: Going solo and Irish Son Following