RONAN KEATING HAS RELEASED EIGHT SOLO ALBUMS, FOUR OF WHICH WENT STRAIGHT TO NUMBER ONE. RONAN WAS LISTED IN THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS FOR BEING THE ONLY ARTIST EVER TO HAVE 30 CONSECUTIVE TOP 10 SINGLES IN THE UK CHART, HAVING BEATEN THE LIKE OF ELVIS AND THE BEATLES.
With sell out world tours under his belt, an Ivor Novello and BMI songwriting awards, an autobiography, guiding Westlife to fame, a role as an ambassador for Christian Aid, sales in excess of 22 million albums across the globe and huge success as a judge on the Australian X Factor, Ronan’s lengthy and triumphant career shows no signs of slowing down.
Back in August of 2000 Ronan released his debut, self titled, album. It shot straight to number one in the UK Album Charts. It contained the two number one singles ‘When You Say Nothing At All’ (August 1999) and ‘Life Is A Rollercoaster’ (July 2000) and went on to sell a very impressive 4.4 million copies around the world, firmly establishing Ronan as an artist in his own right.
Solo album number two, ‘Destination’ (which includes the number one single ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’), was released in May 2002 and went straight to number one. To coincide with the release of ‘Destination’ Ronan kicked off a yearlong world tour starting with a sell-out Arena tour in the UK. Between May 2002 and May 2003 Ronan toured the UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the Gulf, India and South East Asia.
In May 2003 the ‘Destination’ world tour came to an end and Ronan began writing and recording for his third studio album ‘Turn It On’ (released September 2003). In the same year Ronan was awarded with a prestigious BMI European song-writing award for his song ‘The Long Goodbye’, which enjoyed success in the US as a number one single in the Billboard country chart where it was covered by US country duo Brookes and Dunn.
2004 began for Ronan with ‘She Believes In Me’ charting at number two in the single charts and ‘Last thing On My Mind’ (a duet with US star Leann Rimes), hitting the top five. However 2004 wasn’t just about music, in June that year Ronan made a visit that was to change his life – he visited Ghana on his first trip as a Fair Trade ambassador for Christian Aid. Ronan spent a week visiting farmers and families across central Ghana to see first hand how unfair trade laws are destroying livelihoods.
In August 2004 Polydor Records announced that they would release ‘Ronan Keating – 10 Years Of Hits’ to celebrate Ronan’s first decade in the music industry. The album went straight to number one and to date has sold nearly 2:5 million copies worldwide. This hits album saw Ronan get together with Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) to record a version of ‘Father and Son’. In June 2006 came ‘Bring You Home’ which spawned the hit singles ‘All Over Again’ and ‘Iris’.
March 2009 had seen Ronan take a short break from his busy schedule with the reunited Boyzone, for the release of his special album to celebrate Mother’s Day, ‘Songs For My Mother’. A project especially close to Ronan’s heart, the album was a collection of songs that Ronan remembered his mother listening to when he was growing up; Mother’s Day being an especially poignant day for Ronan since the death of his mother Marie, in 1998. The album was a huge success both critically and commercially, giving Ronan his eighth Number 1 album in the UK, topping the charts for two consecutive weeks. The album also reached the top spot in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
Ronan followed this up later that year with his 7th studio album, the critically acclaimed, ‘Winter Songs’. Released in November 2009, it again saw him teaming up with Steve Lipson to record 11 songs that evoke Christmas and Winter for Ronan. Then in December 2010 Ronan received a call at home .. ‘Hello this is Burt’, that call was the start of what was to become his 8th studio album ‘When Ronan Met Burt’, which reached No 3 in the UK album chart. Recorded at the legendary Capitol Studios in early 2011 with a full 40 piece orchestra, with only 90 minutes to record each song, using Frank Sinatra’s old microphone and with Burt Bacharach himself producing! Ronan and Burt had together worked through Burt’s amazing catalogue of songs and finally decided on 10 beautiful tracks that Ronan was able to make his own.
A dedicated fundraiser for the Marie Keating Foundation and Cancer Research UK, Ronan has achieved many things whilst raising money for charity – running marathons, climbing Kilimanjaro for Comic Relief, swimming the Irish Sea and was presented with a special achievement award by Cancer Research UK.
In 2012 Ronan added a new string to his bow when he took on the lead role in the Australian music comedy ‘Goddess’, in 2014 Ronan took to the stage for the first time when he took over the role of Guy in the West End show ‘Once’ – garnering rave reviews. The acting though had to take a back seat in 2015, Ronan signed a new solo deal with Decca and went back to the studio.
There will be a new album before the end of 2015.