Have at you!

I was in first year high school when I first learned about Westlife. They were the only boy band which I found to be really, really good and have admired throughout their entire career. When they decided to disband, I, of course, were one of those who felt really sad. Nevertheless, when I learned that some of them would be embarking on their solo careers, I was very happy. I knew that I would still be a fan of their (individual) music.

When I heard that Shane Filan, who used to be Westlife‘s main vocalist, was coming to Manila for a promotional tour, I was psyched! It was admittedly pretty late when my friend and I learned about the event and I’m so thankful we were still able to reserve our VIP tickets.  The event that was held at the SM SkyDome in SM North EDSA last September 28. If it wasn’t sold out, we probably would’ve purchased the VVIP tickets that they had for sale. Unfortunately for us, there were only 100 VVIP tickets available and they were all gone during the early part of the selling period. Better to have a VIP ticket than nothing!

The VIP ticket that we were able to purchase was part of a bundle. It came with a copy of Shane Filan’s Everything To Me EP, a 20 x 30 poster and a chance to get an autograph from the artist himself.

Those who were able to get the VVIP passes were ushered into the SkyDome at around 4pm for an exclusive meet & greet session with Shane Filan. The VIP and Gold ticket holders were allowed entry at around 5pm. Once we were already seated, I was able to snap a photo of this before a lot of the other fans started to have their pictures taken with the stage as their background.

The program was hosted by Magic 89.9′s Every Friday Madness DJ, Tina Ryan. I found her to be really entertaining!

The opening act for Shane Filan‘s promo tour was Sabrina, a local acoustic artist who has been in the industry for several years now. She performed covers of Titanium (David Guetta featuring Sia) and Just Give Me A Reason (Pink), and also some of her original songs.

After Sabrina’s performance, Shane Filan was introduced to the waiting crowd. He entered the stage full of energy and proceeded to serenade the crowd with five songs. Most of them were from his upcoming CD, while one or two were from his time as part of Westlife.

It was really nice to watch him perform live in such a small place. I’ve been to a couple of Westlife concerts, but this was the first time that I was able to see him up close. He did look like he was really having a great time during his performance. A lot, if not all, of the attendees were singing along with him. It was amusing!

I took a number of photos for the blog and this, definitely, is my favorite shot from that evening. 🙂

At the end of the show, we were ushered onstage to have our CD inlays signed by Shane Filan himself. It was a bit disappointing that we weren’t allowed to use any of our personal cameras to take photos during that time and that some of the people who were ushering the line were a little too “authoritative” to the people who were waiting for their turn. I guess it’s to ensure that no one would get hurt in case someone went hysterical, but I wished they were a bit more lenient. I think most of the fans only managed to say a quick “thank you” before they were led away from the table.

Anyway, the EP contains just four tracks, but we don’t have to wait too long since his first solo debut album will be released on November 4, 2013. Still curious? You may learn more about Shane Filan by visiting his official website here or his Facebook page here.

The Everything To Me EP contains the following tracks:

– Everything To Me

– Everytime

– Once

– Today’s Not Yesterday

**This is not a sponsored post.