Shane Steven Filan (born 5 July 1979) is an Irish singer and songwriter. He was one of the lead singers and frontman of boy band Westlife until the group disbanded in 2012. After the group disbanded, Filan released his debut solo album, You and Me, in 2013.
Filan was born on 5 July 1979 to Peter and Mae Filan and grew up in Sligo, a busy commercial town in the northwest of Ireland. The youngest of seven children, he has three brothers and three sisters: Finbarr, Peter Jr, Yvonne, Liam, Denise and Mairead. His parents owned a diner in Sligo named Carlton Café located on Castle Street and Shane used to work there as a waiter from a very early age.
Filan attended Summerhill College, a Catholic school, with Kian Egan and Mark Feehily. All three of them participated in a school production of Grease when they were about 12. The Hawkswell Theatre became a significant part of their careers. Filan was a fan of Michael Jackson as a child, and claimed the singer inspired him to pursue a career in music.
Before Westlife, Egan and Feehily were with Filan in a band known as I.O.U. with other Sligonians Derrick Lacey, Graham Keighron and Michael "Miggles" Garrett. He partly wrote the IOYOU's song "Together Girl Forever". For 6 months, Shane's mother, Mae Filan, tried to phone Louis Walsh (who is also the manager of Boyzone). Eventually, she was able to speak to him and talked about her son's band. 3 of them were dropped and the other 3, Shane, Kian and Mark, joined ventures to finding 2 more slots for the band. Then they were joined by Nicky Byrne and Brian McFadden to form Westside. The name of the band then changed to Westlife as there were already a number of bands with the name Westside.
Filan, along with Feehily, was the lead singer in Westlife. Their first album was released in November 1999, titled Westlife. With Westlife, Filan has received twenty-eight platinum discs and sold 40 million records worldwide.
On 20 October 2011, Westlife announced and decided to split and go separate ways until the end of their 2012 Farewell Tour. Filan showed interest of being a solo music artist as his daily living. In December 2011, press said Filan is close to sealing a solo deal as several UK record labels are battling it out to sign the singer. Shane and his manager Louis Walsh, have been in talks with several record companies in London that month. "There's four, possibly five labels so far who have made it clear that they want to sign Shane", said a music source, to showbiz writer Paul Martin. "He's an incredible singer and he already has a very good idea of the kind of album he wants to make. He and Louis have been in meeting after meeting this week and are looking at their options.
Filan married his childhood sweetheart, Gillian Walsh on 28 December 2003 at Ballintubber Abbey, followed by a reception at Ashford Castle, Ireland. Gillian is the cousin of fellow band member, Kian Egan, making Filan and Egan cousins-in-law. They have three children: daughter Nicole Rose (born on 23 July 2005 in Sligo, Ireland) and sons Patrick Michael, (born on 15 September 2008 in Sligo, Ireland) and Shane Peter (born 22 January 2010), named after his father.
He and his eldest brother, Finbar, run Shafin Developments – a property development company. The company was placed in receivership in May 2012 and Filan was declared bankrupt a little over a month later after suffering losses in Ireland's property crash.