WESTLIFE'S

Nicky Byrne has joined Giovanni Trapattoni's critics in suggesting Ireland needs a new manager.

The singer insisted the time for 73-year-old Trapattoni to step down has come.

..........Strictly Come Dancing pro Kristina Rihanoff has said she reckons Nicky Byrne is the celeb to beat.


Talking to Yahoo, the ballroom champ suggested that the Westlife star had the whole of Ireland behind him, and he didn’t even need to worry about dancing.

“The whole of Ireland is behind him. He could go out there, stand on his head and do absolutely nothing for 30 seconds and he’s going to be voted for another five or six weeks,” she said.

Kristina, who is partnered with Hollywood star Colin Salmon, added: “If he just puts left foot in front of the right. He’s a lovely guy, he’s a national treasure for Ireland and I think he’s going to be all right with or without the lift.”

In Westlife it was the four of us. Now it's just me... and I'm terrified

..A week after his savaging on Strictly Come Dancing, Nicky Byrne is bent on redemption. The problem, he claims, is that fans just don’t know the real him

They don’t come much bigger than Nicky Byrne. With Westlife he has sold over 50 million albums, filled Croke Park four times and pocketed a personal fortune believed to be in excess of €10m. He is married to the daughter of one of the country’s most notorious politicians and his sons, Jay and Rocco, are rivalled only by Jedward as Ireland’s most famous twins.
But for all that, for the past decade Nicky has lived in a showbiz bubble, insulated from public scrutiny and acerbic comment – until last weekend. After performing a waltz on Strictly Come Dancing with his American partner, Karen Hauer, Nicky received something that his ego hasn’t experienced in over a decade – an utter bruising.

Smile: Nicky Byrne with lissom dance partner Karen Hauer
‘We had the waltz down to a tee last week in Dublin,’ he says. ‘Then I walked in for a run-through and I forgot it all as soon as I got on the floor. It’s very intimidating being on the Strictly set but Craig [judge Craig Revel Horwood] deemed the routine “poor” and the lift “illegal” and gave us a bit of a savaging.

‘I thought I went into it correctly and I got slated. I took all their comments on board. Obviously, they were very harsh for the first week. And we did an illegal lift and as a result we are right down at the bottom and, I suppose, rightly so. From then on, I decided I wasn’t going to give them a second chance to savage me like that again.’

The problem, Nicky complains, is that the judges and the general public don’t know the real him. To the 10 million BBC viewers, he is just one quarter of an ageing boyband.

‘Not everybody knows the cheeky performer that is Nicky Byrne,’ he laments. ‘The Westlife fans and the people who came to the live shows know that character. And I suppose, when I stepped out of the band and agreed to sign up to a show like Strictly, it was a chance for me to let all these people know who I really am. Because when we did shows, we sat on stools and we sang ballads. And I wasn’t the lead singer and, to the average person who wasn’t a Westlife fan, I was just some guy who was sitting at the end.

‘That never bothered me but mentally I had to make a decision that if I was out on my own, I had to change that perception for a lot of people and that it would take work. As famous as Westlife the brand name is, it only got me into the competition but it doesn’t allow for the personality.’

Nicky hopes last night’s performance of the cha-cha will redeem him. He spent all week in a dance studio in Dublin’s inner city, secretly practising the high-octane routine to LMFAO’s I’m Sexy And I Know It. I meet him just after lunchtime on Thursday and got a sneak preview of his number. Wearing loose-fitting grey tracksuit pants and a sweat-soaked navy and silver T-shirt, he bursts into a routine so fast and complex it would give Michael Flatley a run for his money. Afterwards, gasping for breath, Nicky flashes his trademark smile and asks: ‘What do you think?’


I have to say I’m impressed. After 14 years following Westlife, the most dancing I have ever seen him do is a glorified version of musical chairs with the band’s ever-present four stools.

‘The cha-cha is such a different dance,’ he says. ‘It is full of personality and that really suits me. I need to get that across to the public. If they get to know me, hopefully they will vote for me. It is a fast dance and there are over 100 more things that we have had to incorporate into the set this week. But there is also the chance to smile and be funny and sexy and hopefully, I can nail it on the night.’

Nailing it on the night was never a problem for Nicky the team player. Now, he admits he is consumed with fear.

‘The biggest fear I get is at the start, just before I go on, when I hear Tess and Bruce introduce us,’ he says. ‘That is the moment when I get that awful knot in my stomach. They play the opening video sequence and then that realisation that you have to go out on your own and perform hits you.

‘It’s like what I imagine it is like just before you go into a boxing match. You can’t show that fear when you go out on stage because you have to put on a show. My biggest fear now is that I will go completely blank and forget everything I have prepared. For the first time, I understand the sort of stress and pressure that Louis is under week in, week out – to be constantly told you are great or you are s***, to be scrutinised for every little thing you do or say. In Westlife, all four of us dealt with it. Now it is just me. It’s tough.’

For Nicky’s partner, 30-year-old Karen, the battle is merging the pop star with the dancer.

‘He is naturally a great performer and I want to keep the Westlife spirit that he has,’ she says. ‘But I need to mix that with the ballroom steps. The most difficult thing was to get him to smile. He has this Westlife pout, this look where he squints his eyes and looks longingly at the camera. That doesn’t work with dancing. It is this smooth criminal kind of look. We need to get him out of that and into the smiling ballroom dancer. If he can nail that, it will really help him.’

He has had plenty of support from home. It was his 34th birthday this week and all of Westlife wished him luck. Shane Filan will take his family to the studio next weekend to offer moral support. Kian and Mark are holding out in case Nicky makes it to the final. But the cornerstone for the former professional footballer is, as always, his family. Georgina is always at his side, scrutinising videos of the day’s rehearsals at home and cheering him on at weekends. It was she who convinced him to take part.

How does Georgina feel about him sweating and grinding with Karen?

‘She has been fine. She was the first person to push me towards it,’ he says smiling. ‘If you can do that show and that dancing and be half decent at it, the exposure can only be a good thing. She has been great. I go home and show her some of the moves on the phone and she gives me her feedback. She comes over every weekend to support me. Jay and Rocco are delighted. I am home every week and then they fly in after school on the Friday.


‘They are glued to the show – when I made the illegal lift, they called me on it. Jay said, “Why did you lift her when you weren’t allowed lift her?”

‘Don’t get me wrong, I was happy in Westlife. I was probably the one who didn’t want it to end – it just became inevitable. But I am very happy at the moment, waking up at home and being able to rehearse in Dublin. My head is in the right place and I am busy and I still have a buzz from the TV side of things. The pressure of live television has replaced the adrenaline rush of the concerts. I’ve yet to meet anyone who has done Strictly and said they regretted it.’

The aspect of the show he is least comfortable with is the wardrobe. Having been dubbed Glitterballs by Georgina on Twitter, Nicky has railed against the frippery – and told the producers he won’t wear spray tan.

‘I really have trouble with the fake tan, the heels and the sequins,’ he said. ‘I keep putting this block up about being dressed within an inch of my life. I have managed to ward them off with the fake tan and I have managed to keep the sequins to a minimum.

‘But as soon as you do the dress rehearsal on the Friday, you go back into the stylist’s room and take off your kit. Then an hour later, the wardrobe girls knock on the dressing room door to let you know that the powers that be want more sequins. You don’t want to go out there looking like a panto dame and I am doing my best to resist but it is Strictly and you have to look the part to a point.’

Nicky, still sweating profusely, breaks off to take a sip of water. He has been off alcohol for six weeks and has taken up kick-boxing for aerobic fitness. He is trimmer than I have ever seen him. Georgina, a fitness trainer by profession, looks after his diet.
He says: ‘Food and fitness Georgina knows really well, so she helps me with all that. But I also have my own trainer, Pádraig Murphy at Involve fitness in Blackrock. He is a former Irish kickboxing champion so I do the pads with him. I will only spar with him because anyone else would kick the s*** out of me.

‘I have never trained as hard for anything in my life. I had to because it is so intense. I knocked the drink on the head as well. I wasn’t a big drinker anyway but I gave it up while I was training. I had a few beers after the show last Saturday but I really needed them after those comments. If you work hard you can play hard. I gave it up for about six weeks coming into the show and I feel now that I am in the best shape of my life.’

Karen returns with a fresh towel and leads Nicky back to the dance studio. Before he disappears, he again flashes his trademark smile and thanks me for making the effort to interview him. If the British public see only half of his natural charm, then he is in with a shot of waltzing away with the title.

'I've never known fear like I've felt on Strictly': Nicky Byrne says singing to millions in Westlife was a cinch compared to dancing on TV



..When Nicky Byrne was feeling miserable as sin following a verbal kicking from the BBC1 Strictly Come Dancing judges for an illegal lift during a waltz in his very first dance of the competition, dear old Sir Bruce Forsyth ? bless him ? went to seek him out backstage.

?He was so encouraging,? says Nicky, who?s more used to rapturous applause as one quarter of Westlife, one of the most successful boy bands in pop history. ?He said: ?Don?t let it get you down. It?s a journey. It?ll be fine ? just work hard.? ?

Which Nicky did, practising all the hours God sends with Venezuelan partner Karen Hauer to perfect his cha cha cha for the following week?s show. ?Nobody understands how nervous you are, going into that first night in front of ten or 11 million people,? he says. ?You?re being judged and you?re trying to remember steps in your head.

Having a ball:
?When we finished the waltz, I thought we did OK. I didn?t fall over or forget the routine. Then we stood there and got absolutely hammered.?

Craig Revel Horwood made such a fuss of the illegal lift you?d have thought they?d vandalised Strictly?s spray-tanning booth. They received a disappointing 17 points.


?There was a part of me that thought: ?This is week one. The judges are going to go hard.? OK, we did put an illegal lift in there and had we known it was as bad as it was going to be we wouldn?t have.

?Anyway, I was raring to go with the cha cha cha to show what I could do. It?s a bit more me. There?s a lot of hip movement involved and a chance to have fun. The final rehearsal went great. I thought: ?If I do that tonight I?m happy.? We were all set to go.?

But his cha cha cha was a disaster. Nicky and Karen hadn?t taken account of the noise of the applause. ?The song starts with eight beats, during which I was supposed to do three big moves. But the crowd started clapping and I couldn?t hear the beats of the music. Not only that, but I was waiting for the clapping to stop.



?I missed six of the eight beats, which is equivalent to missing the opening verse of a song and didn?t get to do the big moves at the start. The judges don?t see the rehearsals so they didn?t know they had been there and the people at home didn?t either.

?To everyone bar me it looked like I?d fluffed it. I was chasing my tail after that. I managed to get in a few moves but my heart was pounding. When we got to the judges, I didn?t mind being criticised. I couldn?t even say I was saddened. I was really, really p***ed off.

?I was just thinking, ?How could that have happened?? It was nobody?s fault. Inside you feel like you?ve let yourself down. That really stung me.?


Putting the right foot forward: Nicky Byrne and Karen Hauer practice their dance routine for several hours a day between Monday and Thursday
Thankfully, last Saturday?s quickstep went off without a hitch. The theme for the week was Hollywood and Nicky impressed the judges with his fancy footwork dressed as Jim Carrey from Nineties movie The Mask. When they received 27 points, Nicky was cock-a-hoop.




?I had a good week. I wasn?t so nervous,? he says. ?Maybe it?s because I was playing a character and had a mask on. I was somebody else.?

Nicky, you see, is not entirely comfortable in the spotlight. For 14 years, he was ?the bloke on the stool at the end? (his words) in Westlife.

Fifteen months ago, he and fellow band members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily and Kian Egan took the decision to call it a day after selling more than 45 million records with 14 No 1 hits and 26 top ten singles. They performed their last concert in Dublin in June.

?Outside the Westlife family, nobody really knows who you are,? he says. ?You?re one of four guys who sing ballads and wear black shirts. I saw Strictly as a chance for people to get to know the real me.?

In turn, he has been enjoying the chance to get to know the other competitors in what?s been called the best Strictly line-up ever. ?I feel for Jerry,? he says of model Jerry Hall, who was voted off last week.

?We saw a side of her lots of people don?t see. She?s so funny. Her one-liners are priceless. The camaraderie backstage is really good. Everybody gets on, everybody buzzes, everybody?s nervous as hell and everybody?s tired.?

He adds: ?Some people get good marks and some don?t. I?ve been near the bottom of the scoreboard for two weeks, so I know how disheartening it is when everybody else is being clapped and getting high scores.


?Richard Arnold [the ITV Breakfast presenter who ended up in the first dance-off of the series] said to me: ?When you?re in that dance-off, it?s just horrible.? But we?re all going to have to face it. Thankfully, last week I had a good week. I knew I had more in me, which last Saturday showed. I can build on that. But it was a relief.? He chuckles. ?So, I?m still in it, but I?ve got an awful lot of work to do.?

Goodbye Mrs Robinson: Jerry Hall is the latest celebrity to be voted off Strictly Come Dancing
He says the biggest thing about leaving Westlife is he feels out there on his own and exposed. ?That goes for sitting on the couch and being interviewed. In Westlife, there?s four of you. Four different views.

?Someone may be grumpy that day. Someone may be jokey. You support each other. When you?re on your own, you?ve got to be funny, interesting, intriguing. It?s not easy. It?s certainly taking me time to be the real Nicky Byrne.?

The real Nicky Byrne is actually thoroughly nice. During his ?bloke on the stool? days, he was always the warm, funny one with an easy line in banter.

Enjoying an early career as a professional footballer with Leeds United, Nicky was only 19 when The X Factor?s Louis Walsh approached him to join his new boy band, Westlife.

Nobody could have guessed how huge the band would become. Nor that Nicky would be a man with children of his own by the time Westlife decided their boy band days were over.

Today, Nicky is 34 and married to his childhood sweetheart Georgina, the daughter of former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern. They have five-year-old twins, Jay and Rocco. He says of Westlife?s split: ?There was no major row that forced our hand so we could have done more years, but you have to know when the fire inside the band has burned a little bit.

Foursome: Nicky Byrne with wife Georgina and twin sons Rocco and Jay
?The line you always give is: ?We?ll know when the time is right, when the fans don?t want us any more and the market has gone.? Funnily enough, the fans did still want us.?

So why call it a day? ?The only times I was still really enjoying were the live shows,? he says.

?The discussions with the record company, decisions about the videos, the songs, were all becoming fraught. All of us knew the machine was starting to falter.

?You can only put yourself through that for so long. There?d been plenty of discussions about whether it was time to leave or not. Some people felt yes, some weren?t sure and some felt no.?

What about him? ?I knew it was time to move on and throw myself into something new. At that time, we were out of contract so everyone was a free agent. The label was banging on the door to offer us a new deal ? with good money.

?We?d been offered these before but we just couldn?t see ourselves signing another three or five-year deal and completing it. It had got to the point where we felt: ?Oh, it?s another album, another tour, another X-Factor performance.? It was too easy. We needed to go away.?

Tough decision, though?

?Yeah, I can remember the exact moment. My heart was sinking and I was thinking, ?This is it.? You?re scared in a way, but we knew it was the right thing to knock it on the head. So we took a deep breath and said: ?Let?s do it.?


?Louis was crushed. One of his biggest strengths was always keeping us together. There was no big fallout. There were arguments, but that?s life.

?We felt the quality of our singles was slipping. Our problem was that there was no Gary Barlow figure in the band and, towards the end, we weren?t necessarily the priority for other songwriters any more. That just happens.

?Louis assured us we?d be fine and were just going through a phase. When he knew how we were feeling wasn?t going away, he said: ?Let?s take a break for a year.? But we knew it was time to call it a day.?

The decision was made in summer 2011 when Westlife were part-way through their 11th major tour. Nicky had arranged to fly from Switzerland to meet his family for a holiday in Portugal. ?I was on my own, and when you?re alone there?s a lot of time to think about it. I knew the timing was right for all of us.?

When they broke the news to Simon Cowell, who had steered them with Louis through their 14 years, he shook their hands.

?He told us it had been a great time and for us to hold our heads high. He said: ?If there?s anything I can do for you, let me know.?



?It?s no more than you?d expect from Simon. If I did need guidance or advice, he?s at the end of a phone call.?

Westlife promised fans a farewell album and tour, which ended in an emotional concert in Dublin in June. Nicky says: ?We all cried ? us, our wives, the crew. It was a lifestyle for us all. My fear was waking up the next morning and thinking: ?Oh no, it?s over.? But I never got down. It had been a fantastic ride and it was time to get into something else. I?d given everything I had to the band.?

Now he has ambitions to be a TV or radio presenter. ?I?m the sort of person who has to get up in the morning and work. We all enjoy family time, but you still need to have a function.

?I look at Dermot O?Leary and think: ?That?s where I see myself going.? But, for now I?m knee-deep in Strictly.?

When producers approached Nicky to take part, he says he was encouraged by Georgina. There was, though, one proviso: the twins were starting school in Dublin so Nicky, a devoted father, wanted to share this precious time.

So he rehearses in a studio in Dublin from Monday to Thursday, then travels to London for the show on a Friday, where his wife and sons join him after school. Last week, they watched him on TV sporting Jim Carrey?s Mask make-up. ?They were very excited my scores were higher,? he says.

I wonder what they made of his first-week hammering? ?Jay said: ?Why did you lift her when you weren?t allowed to lift her, Daddy?

........Strictly Come Dancing 2012: Nicky Byrne wants to show fans who he really is!


Westlife star Nicky Byrne has said he hopes Strictly Come Dancing 2012 will let people get to know who he really is.


The singer hasn’t got off to the best of starts in the ballroom, but is more concerned about showcasing his personality than his footwork.

Speaking to the Daily Mail today, Nicky said: “Outside the Westlife family, nobody really knows who you are.

“You’re one of four guys who sing ballads and wear black shirts. I saw Strictly as a chance for people to get to know the real me.”

Nicky really has been struggling so far, and admitted he’s felt like he’s let himself down.

“I missed six of the eight beats, which is equivalent to missing the opening verse of a song and didn’t get to do the big moves at the start,” said Nicky about his disastrous cha cha two week’s ago. “The judges don’t see the rehearsals so they didn’t know they had been there and the people at home didn’t either.

“To everyone bar me it looked like I’d fluffed it. I was chasing my tail after that. I managed to get in a few moves but my heart was pounding. When we got to the judges, I didn’t mind being criticised. I couldn’t even say I was saddened. I was really, really p***ed off.”

He added: “I was just thinking, “How could that have happened?” It was nobody’s fault. Inside you feel like you’ve let yourself down. That really stung me.”
....Westlife's Nicky Byrne has been one of the main eye candy sources on this year's Strictly Come Dancing.

.............Karen’s not sorry for illegal lift


STRICTLY dancer Karen Hauer isn’t sorry about the illegal lift in her first routine with Westlife singer Nicky Byrne.
The Venezuelan pro was slammed by judge Craig Revel Horwood after she chose to incorporate the risky move into the pair’s waltz.

But last night she hit back and said: “I don’t think it was a mistake. We take risks as performers and artists and it was a learning experience.

“I am new to this so I had to learn the ropes. It was just a shame Nicky did a great waltz and all of the focus was on those two seconds where my feet left the floor.”

Nicky backed up his partner: “It’s better to be talked about than not be talked about – not that we did it on purpose.

“In the aftermath we did think, ‘Well, that was a disaster’. But then it was one of the highlights of the weekend because everyone was talking about it.

“In that respect it was good and we survived it. It was week one and no one had to leave the show, so we were quite lucky.”

..........Nicky Byrne has confessed he'd love to get into acting, and is eyeing a role in the West End.

The Westlife star and Strictly Come Dancing contestant revealed he has even considered a career in Hollywood.

Nicky said: "Acting is definitely something I'd consider. I did an acting course in New York about five years ago and I made a decision that one day I'd go to the States and try to get an agent. But times change. Now I'm married, with twin boys..."

But he added he's be interested in starring in a musical.

"Probably something like Grease, that'd be pretty cool. The songs and characters are so well known."

Westlife have decided to call it a day after 14 years, but Nicky insists he, Shane Filan, Mark Feehily and Kian Egan will always be friends.

He said: "There are many reasons [why we split], but 14 years is a long, long time. You've got to remember that we started when we were kids, did everything we were told, and then what happens when you grow up is you develop your own opinions, and that changes things.

"I share a serious bond with the lads, and we'll never lose that bond. I like to think we'll be able to keep in touch and pick up the phone at any point."

Strictly viewers last night saw Nicky going through to next week after coming joint second on the leader board this week and getting three nine points from the judges, who said it was jus best performance yet.

Press Association

...........Nicky Byrne thinks his Strictly Come Dancing chum Michael Vaughan is just like David Beckham

The Westlife star and cricketing pro have struck up a real bromance during their time on the hit BBC1 show and Nicky has nothing but good things to say about his new pal.

He told Metro: ‘Michael Vaughan is the David Beckham of cricket. He’s got everything. He’s got talent, he’s got personality.

‘All he needs now is an underwear range and his poster on the side of buses.

‘He’s got everything. He’s great fun, he really is.’

.................Nicky: “It was brilliant. It took us time coming but it just goes to show what hard work does you know. We were that close to going home last week and then this week I just thought ‘we have to go for this’. This dance has so much character that you just really have to embrace it, smile and go for it. I was so delighted that I could do it justice basically.”

Karen do you think that being in the bottom two last week gave you and Nicky the motivation and drive to fight this week?

Karen: “Definitely. I mean being in the bottom two was the worst thing that could have ever happened but it really was the best thing for us because it gave us even more oomph and more fire and so when we went into that studio it really was ‘work, work, work’ with not that many breaks.”

..............Karen Hauer is the newest member of the Strictly Come Dancing professionals as she partners Westlife singer Nicky Byrne.
However, the Venezuelan pro certainly stood out from her peers on Saturday night's show as she raised temperatures in a very risque dress.
The 30-year-old dancer left little to the imagination as she performed the Argentine Tango in a tiny lace dress.

...........At one point she wrapped her legs around Nicky, nearly flashing her derriere to the cameras as they performed to Adele's James Bond theme song Skyfall, ending up with a score of 30.
...........