The farewell concert of Irish boy band Westlife
is to be screened live to cinemas in the UK, Ireland and Europe on June 23.
The four remaining members who announced their split last October - after 14 years and more than 44 million record sales - are playing their last gig at Dublin's Croke Park on June 23.
The event will be screened at more than 200 cinemas in nine countries including Belgium, Denmark, Estonia and Norway.
There are also plans to screen the gig in Australia and South Africa.
Organisers said tickets for the June 23 concert sold out in minutes and the band scheduled another date at the Dublin venue on June 22.
"It is bound to be a hugely emotional night and we expect to have tears in our eyes for nearly every song," the group said in a statement.
"The fact that the show will be beamed to our fans in cinemas around the world only adds to our excitement."
Westlifes
final performance hits the big screen
200 cinemas across the country to take partPosted 29 May 2012 3:58 pm
AURAL ASSASSINS Westlife have announced that their last ever live performance will be broadcast to cinemas across Europe next month. Jubilation that they will never perform again has been tempered somewhat by news of the satellite link-up, which will make the farewell gig harder to avoid, as well as by the fact that never is a euphemism for until the money is right for a comeback.
The terminally bland Irish lads appealed to girls of a certain age during the late 1990s and early 2000s, but have been selling steadily fewer records as their demographic has grown up and realised with dismay how utterly shit they are. Other fans simply ended their lives or were committed.
The chillingly titled Greatest Hits tour
will grind to a halt in Croke Park, Dublin, on 23 June the date to put in your diary for not being anywhere near Ireland or in any of 200 cinemas in nine European countries that will be screening the gig. Australia and South Africa may also be in the firing line.
The simul-cast will allow fans the chance to see their idols stand up from their stools for the very last time (see above). Non-fans might want to attend just to check theyre really gone and wont spring up again like some atonal Hollywood zombie with a grudge against music.
It is bound to be a hugely emotional night and we expect to have tears in our eyes for nearly every song, the band said in a statement, neatly summing up what the rest of us will be feeling too.
The show will be beamed to our fans will only add to the excitement
Its going to be an amazing night, an unmissable show, so make sure you join us!
In a career spanning 14 years and 14 number ones, their biggest hit Flying Without Wings has become a popular choice for deluded talent-show wannabes (hey, if Westlife can do it
). It also a feat that most music-lovers would be delighted to see the band accomplish, perhaps with a leap from a plane at 30,000ft. Now that would be a finale.
Westlife
will perform for the last time next month
Westlife's farewell concert is to be screened live to cinemas in the UK and Ireland, allowing fans to view their final moments.
The four-piece will bow out with a concert from Dublin's Croke Park next month after a career in which they amassed 14 UK number one singles.
Tickets for the cinema screenings, which will also seen in other European countries, go on sale at 9am.
The June 23 concert itself sold out in five minutes, leaving thousands of fans disappointed.
BBC Worldwide, the BBC's commercial arm, and content provider By Experience have agreed a deal with music giant Sony and Westlife to co-produce a live film of the event to be screened in more than 200 cinemas.
The group said: "It is bound to be a hugely emotional night and we expect to have tears in our eyes for nearly every song. The fact that the show will be beamed to our fans in cinemas around the world only adds to our excitement."
Details will be at westlifecinema.com.
.
Boy band Westlife
is ending its farewell tour by screening its last ever concert live to cinemas across the UK and Ireland and selected European countries.
Westlife will end the tour at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland on June 23rd 2012. Tickets for the final concert originally sold out in five minutes. But fans in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Malta, the Netherlands and Norway will all be able to watch the show live in one of over two hundred cinemas after BBC Worldwide, concluded a deal with Sony Music and Westlife to co-produce a live film of the event.
BBC Worldwide also recruited alternative content provider BY Experience to deliver the event to cinema.
The concert will be available in cinemas in Australia, Estonia, Hong Kong and South Africa later in June and July.
Westlife said, On June 23rd 2012 we will wrap our musical career as a band with one amazing final show in Croke Park Dublin, Ireland. We're working hard to make it everything we had ever dreamed of from our final concert - a farewell and a homecoming in front of 85,000 fans.
It is bound to be a hugely emotional night and we expect to have tears in our eyes for nearly every song. The fact that the show will be beamed to our fans in cinemas around the world only adds to our excitement. We're delighted to be working with BBC Worldwide to make this a reality.
Salim Mukaddam, director of Music at BBC Worldwide, said, Only 85,000 fans can be present in the stadium, but were delighted to be able to extend the event to their millions of fans across the UK, Ireland and further afield who can now be part of this incredible event at their local cinema. We worked hard with Westlife and Sony Music to strike an innovative deal and we hope this is the first of a number of these kinds of events that youll see from BBC Worldwide.
The Westlife Farewell event follows BBC Worldwides international theatrical release of Robbie Williams at the Electric Proms and the BBCs Last Night of the Proms to cinema audiences. BBC Worldwide will be partnering again with BY Experience to bring this event to audiences worldwide.
Robbie Williams previously kicked off his comeback with a live performance at the Electric Proms in 2009. BBC Worldwide licensed the live show to over 250 screens in 23 countries. The show was also shown latterly in cinemas in South Africa and Australia. Last Night of the Proms has also been screened in cinemas in Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand every year since 2009.
