Musicians - Stephen Gately

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	Musicians - Stephen Gately

Stephen Patrick David Gately, born on 17th March 1976 in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, is an Irish pop singer who was in the boy band Boyzone until 2000, who has since gone on to a solo career and acting roles.

Music Career (Boyzone)

As one fifth of Boyzone, Stephen Gately is a household name. Boyzone were one of the most successful boybands in history, who over seven years notched up no less than six number one singles, four number one albums and played to millions of fans the world over.

In his own right, Stephen's incredible popularity was personified in two great honours. Firstly, Stephen was named, Irish Personality Of The Year and then he followed this up with the accolade "Hero of 1999" at The Smash Hits Poll Winners Party. Stephen dedicated the awards to his fans saying "It's been one hell of a year to say the least, but it's all been worth it." High acclaim for a young lad hailing from a normal family, the second youngest of five kids, from a suburban house in Sheriff Street, one of the toughest areas of Dublin. As a child, like most kids, Stephen dreamed of being famous, Stephen got his first break with a small part in the film The Commitments' beating 10,000 other young hopefuls to the part, then was catapulted into the pop world when he secured his place in Boyzone.

Stephen has achieved more than most thanks to seven amazing years with one of the biggest boybands of all time, "A lot of people didn't think we would make it out of Ireland back then. We knew we were going to be successful, but I don't think you can ever imagine to what degree. We were overwhelmed when Boyzone began to take off, it was incredible." Boyzone's debut single Love Me For A Reason' flew into the charts at no. 2 in 1994 ensuring that Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch and Mikey Graham became the most promising and exciting Irish export of all time.

They followed this success with the singles Key To My Life' (No. 3), So Good' (No. 3) and then their cover of the Cat Stevens classic Father and Son' which hit the number two spot. Hit after Hit after hit ensued, from Baby Can I Hold You', Isn't It A Wonder' to I Love the Way You Love Me' Boyzone's string of number one singles and albums is a guide book and bible to all future boybands. Boyzone have picked up virtually every award known to man, from their Ivor Novello Award for the single Picture of You' to the innumerable Smash Hits Awards for everything from the best band in the world to the best haircut. They recorded their version of When The Going Gets Tough' for Comic Relief which sold over 700,000 copies in the UK. It wasn't until Boyzone began scoring number one hits and sales continued to soar that Stephen realised just how well and how far Boyzone had come. Since their first release Boyzone have become the first act in chart history to reach the top three with their first 14 singles and the first act since The Beatles to debut at number one with their first four albums.

The continuing popularity of Boyzone was shown when an album called Boyzone Ballads - The Love Songs Collection was released in the UK and Europe in March 2003 and reached No6 in the UK charts without any promotional work

Having achieved so much with Boyzone, the band decided that in 2000 they would spend some time on solo projects. Stephen was the first of the boys to strike with his debut solo single titled New Beginning' and then his debut solo album, also named New Beginning'.

The album ‘New Beginning' is a testament to where Stephen has come from, both personally and professionally. The album included 12 brand new tracks including Stephen's version of the classic track Bright Eyes' which he recorded for the soundtrack to the new TV version of the classic Watership Down'. They also asked him to do a voice-over for one of the characters ‘Blackavar' which was created to look like him. Other standout tracks on the album include ‘Stay' and the hit single ‘I Believe' (taken from the Billy Elliot' soundtrack). New Beginning' really showed how Stephen had grown as an artist and performer and produced a debut album of real quality.

On May 29 2000, ‘New Beginning' was released. Stephen's first bold step into the solo world reached number 3 in the UK charts. Two weeks later the album was released which also entered the charts in Stephen's familiar top chart territory

The second single to be taken from the album was the beautiful ‘I Believe' which was released on 2nd October 2001. Taken from the soundtrack to the smash hit film "Billy Elliot", this song became another hit to add to Stephen's collection. Stephen was inspired to record this track after he had seen the film. Much like his own story it chronicles a young boy achieving success in the face of adversity. Stephen attended the premieres of the film both at the Edinburgh Film Festival and in Empire, Leicester Square, London along with the actors from the film including Julie Walters and Jamie Bell. In April 2001, Stephen's third single, taken from New Beginning', entitled ‘Stay' was released and reached No 11 in the UK chart.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Stephen Gately ]

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