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MARK_MAXWELL/UTV
Hard Times

Westlife singer Shane Filan talks to Pat about how he ended up €23 million in debt

Filan was a high profile casualty of the economic crash.

FORMER WESTLIFE SINGER Shane Filan has spoken about going broke after selling more than 50 million records with one of Ireland’s most successful groups.

Filan will appear on UTV’s ‘Pat Kenny in the Round’ this coming Monday.

Following his success as a singer, Filan, along with his brother Finbar, found himself in financial ruin after their company, Shafin Developments, went into receivership.

When this happened in 2012, they were left with debt of €23 million.

How did it happen? 

Speaking on the show about becoming broke, Filan said that his financial turmoil began before Westlife had come to an end.

“It was really bad. We had just played Croke Park, it is incredible looking back at it. We played to 170,000 people in one weekend and the following week, I had a few hundred quid. I literally had a few hundred quid in my bank account,” he said.

Filan was one of the more high profile casualties of the the bust that followed the last decade’s Celtic Tiger.

Westlife comback

Speaking on the show, Filan also discusses the possibility of a Westlife comeback.

Contributing to the interview, the band’s former manager Louis Walsh, said, “of course. They don’t know it yet, but yeah, of course”.

Reacting to these comments, Filan says, “It’s a question we get asked a lot and it’s something that could happen, but it is four or five people that have to make that decision, so it depends where we all are individually in our own lives at that stage. But yeah, it could happen of course.”

The interview will be broadcast at 9pm on UTV Ireland this coming Monday.

Read: Westlife’s Mark Feehily is now selling crepes from a van at music festivals

Also: Is the new Calvin Harris song weirdly similar to an old Westlife song?

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