Irish group in tune with their fans

Boy band Westlife performs their classic hits and domestic favorite in virtual concert, Chen Nan reports.

Popular Irish boy band Westlife held their first virtual concert through a Chinese social media platform, WeChat, on Dec 17, and attracted 27.9 million viewers.

During the concert, which took place in London and lasted for more than two hours, Westlife performed their hits, including Seasons in the Sun, You Raise Me Up and My Love.

They also amazed their Chinese fans by performing a popular Chinese song, The Ordinary Road, which was originally written and performed by Chinese singer-songwriter Pu Shu. The song had been viewed more than 72 million times by Dec 19.

In an interview Westlife did with China Daily after their virtual concert, the group said that they have been discussing the idea of a livestreaming concert for their Chinese fans for a long time and they were "completely blown away by the amount of people who watched the virtual concert, which exceeded all of our expectations and we couldn't be happier".

"It was great to see the comments in real time and to see how fans were reacting. We can't wait for what's next and also to come back to China to tour.

"We loved re-imagining some of our biggest hits. We wanted to create a more acoustic, intimate feeling and preparing the songs in this way was really special. We also performed Seasons in the Sun which we haven't performed in a long time. We really enjoyed it and now we'll definitely think about performing it more often," the group says.

During the virtual concert, Westlife member Kian Egan said: "When we performed old songs, memories came back. To sing these songs 20 years later, it still feels special and fresh."