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Westlife band members Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan and Shane Filan have shared a sweet tribute to fellow member Mark Feehily following his ongoing “turbulent time with his health”. The pop trio were performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Monday 27 October as part of their ongoing 25th Anniversary World Tour, from which Feehily has been absent. In 2024, Feehily, the only gay member of the Irish group, announced that he would be stepping back from Westlife touring duties due to ongoing health issues resulting from surgery he had back in 2020. Appearing on stage at Monday’s gig, Filan took a minute to share love for his bandmate and friend, telling the crowd that he couldn’t wait to have Feehily back with them soon. “I want to take a minute to talk about Mark, who unfortunately is not with us tonight. But we love him, we miss him, and we cannot wait to have him back on this stage with us,” he said. “The good news is he’s obviously on the new music, which you’ve heard already, ‘Chariot’. And the next album as well, we have a new album coming out in February.” Westlife released their new song “Chariot” earlier this month, and recently announced that their fourth compilation album, 25 – The Ultimate Collection, would be released in 2026. Filan then dedicated their number one smash “Flying Without Wings” to Feehily, which the group performed alongside the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and star of both The Voice UK and Clean Bandit, Kirsten Joy. “So this next song, I want to dedicate it to Mark because it’s Mark’s favorite song. That might give you a hint. It’s a beautiful song. So tonight we’d like to dedicate it to him and I’d like to invite Kirsten Joy down to sing it with us,” he shared, adding: “This song is probably the song that changed our whole career.” “Flying Without Wings”, released in 1999, hit number one in the UK and quickly became one of the band’s biggest ever songs. It has received more than 125 million streams on Spotify, and has been certified platinum in the UK. Mark Feehily detailed his health battles in a lengthy statement published on his Instagram account back in February 2024. After getting surgery in August 2020, he was taken to A&E with “severe pain” and spent time in intensive care. He was told he had developed sepsis and spent months in hospital. Yet after being discharged in December that year, his health woes persisted and in 2021, he was sent back to A&E with pneumonia. He was later told he required further surgery, and would have to miss the bulk of Westlife’s previous tour, The Wild Dreams Tour, in 2022. “Three months after that surgery, I tried my best to soldier on for you guys and to go back on tour but unfortunately the physical demands of the concerts and extensive travel were proving too much for me,” he shared. “I developed a very large ‘incisional hernia’ and I was told that I needed further surgery to fix it. This would be my fourth major surgery since the start of it all, but I had no option.” As a result, Feehily said he would have to “temporarily stand down from all Westlife touring” as he had to “make the right decision for my health and wellbeing, for my family, and for myself as a person”. Feehily got engaged to Cailean O’Neill in early 2019, and had a daughter via surrogacy in October that year. While Feehily has stepped away from Westlife touring duties, Shane Filan has shot down insinuation that he would be leaving the band completely. “He’s unable to join the tour unfortunately as he’s mentioned already but being on the new song is very important,” he told RTE recently. “He’s still a member of this band obviously and he’s sounding great on the new a turbulent time with his health.” Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
