Talk:Ronan Keating

2004 edit
Erherm - the suggestion that he had a relationship with Brian Kennedy is just tabloid rumour - nothing substantial behind if. If we leave that in, we'd better add the accusations about Eddie Irvine and his missus.... Kiand 20:42, 11 December 2004 (UTC)

British pop singer
I see this page originally had this person down as a "British pop singer". Any chance of reinstating that as a sort of gesture of respect and love between our two peoples? 193.1.172.138 04:13, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

page
aaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm................wheres the page gone?Risteard B 16:46, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

Trivia section
I have just removed the following trivia section which was recently added: ===Trivia===

It is a great deal of completely unsourced information which needs references beforeadding back to the article. Also could do with being placed in some context per WP:TRIVIA. -- Beloved Freak  12:45, 25 October 2007 (UTC)
 * 1) He was thrown out of the choir at school for unruly behaviour.
 * 2) As well as making his mark in Boyzone, he went on to manage Westlife and host Eurovision and Miss World
 * 3) He's also said he'd like to run for the Irish Presidency one day, just like Dana.
 * 4) His fear of flying wasn't improved when his private Cessna jet had a technical malfunction and had to make an emergency landing.
 * 5) Ronan was thrown out of a New York City pub for singing, during his 27th birthday celebrations.
 * 6) After performing in Hyde Park, Ronan was given his own tree as were Shirley Bassey, Rod Stewart and Diana Ross.
 * 7) He also appeared in the star-studded 3000th edition of the Beano, with Geri Halliwell, Brooklyn Beckham and Ken Dodd.
 * 8) Ronan on drink and drugs:"I never took hard drugs at all. Never done cocaine in my life. Drink is an Oirish trait, though. I could stop for three months if I wanted to, but I don't want to."
 * 9) He has been called the 'nicest man in pop'.
 * 10) On his birthday in 2007 Ronan got a new Porsche from his wife, and a stay at a EUR7,000-a-night hotel(Sunday Mirror)
 * 11) Ronan gave out at football bosses in Australia who fined a top team for wearing cancerawareness arm-bands (Sunday Mirror 2006)
 * 12) Ronan on Louis Walsh (his former manager) "He's a shallow little man," "I'm not bothered about him." he told an Australian interviewer.(Sunday Mirror 2006)
 * 13) In 2004 Ronan thought he would die after a horror health scare. He contracted a bug which made his face swell up so much his own family didn't recognise him. The mystery bug was thought to have been caused by an insect bite.
 * 14) He has his chest waxed regulary.
 * 15) Ronan headlined the biggest concert ever held in Armagh Northern Ireland . Thousands of revellers celebrated in the Cathedral City on 22 September 2007 as Ronan played a historic outdoor gig. The concert marked the presentation of the Freedom of Armagh City and District to Lord Robin and Lady Christine Eames, who made history as the first individuals ever to be awarded with the accolade for their role in the Northern Ireland peace process. Reviews of the concert were excellent thus cementing Ronan as Ireland's premier  pop talent and going ahead of Daniel O' Donnell in the popularity stakes
 * 16) Phil Coulter is a great admirer of Ronan. They have played often together and have an excellent version of 'The Town I loved so well'
 * 17) Ronan has stated on numerous occasions of his desire to 'collaborate' with George Michael.
 * 18) Ronan on Bono " If I wasn't me I'd like to be ... Bono. He is a wonderful person. U2 are just such a cool band. Bono had always been an idol of mine and meeting him didn't disappoint. He is just an all-round good guy. He does a lot for other people, which is a very admirable quality."

Covers
Should there be a mention of how most of his hits are covers of top ten American country and western songs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.189.112.51 (talk) 05:49, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Puff piece
This page is one of the worst in Wikipedia...its just a puff piece! Hardly worth having the page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.166.231.199 (talk) 16:20, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Biography
2009 sees Ronan Keating starting his 15th year in the music industry, making him something of an anomaly in the world of pop music.

Boasting a lifetime of impressive professional achievements including; duetting with Elton John at Madison Square Garden, singing for the Pope twice, hosting everything from Miss World and the Eurovision Song Contest to the MTV Awards, recording with Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), writing an autobiography, travelling the world, guiding Westlife to stardom, winning a prestigious BMI European Song Writing Award, winning an Ivor Novello Award, being appointed as a UN Goodwill Ambassador and too many hits, gigs and awards to keep count, Ronan’s prolific, varied and highly successful career shows no sign of slowing.

Ronan’s music career of course, started with Boyzone back in the early nineties. 2008 saw Ronan rejoining his band mates, after nearly a decade apart, for what was to be a spectacular comeback. After a sell-out 29-date tour, a Top 5 comeback single and a Number 1 Greatest Hits album, Boyzone re-affirmed their place in the pop charts and are already looking forward to getting back on the road again later this year for another sell-out tour.

March 2009 will see Ronan take a short break from his busy schedule with 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 is a collection of songs that Ronan remembers 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. Recorded over the space of two days with a live orchestra, the album was produced by Steve Lipson, who has previously worked with the likes of Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox and Will Young.

This being Ronan’s sixth solo studio album, it is clear just how far he has come since his indigent Dublin childhood. The youngest of five children, professional achievements aside, Ronan went on to celebrate a Caribbean wedding to wife Yvonne and has since added to the family with three beautiful children - Jack, Marie and Ali.

Ronan’s first taste of musical success came in November 1994 when he hit the top three for the very first time with Boyzone’s first hit ‘Love Me For A Reason’. Since then he’s not looked back. In those initial five years as part of one the biggest pop bands ever, he enjoyed success with an incredible 16 top five singles, six of which hit the number one spot. In August of 1999 he had his first ever solo number one with ‘When You Say Nothing At All’.

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). It went on to sell a very impressive 4.4 million copies around the world. This album firmly established Ronan in his own right.

Solo album number two, ‘Destination’ (which includes the number one single ‘If Tomorrow Never Comes’), was released on the 20th of May 2002 and went straight to number one. To coincide with the release of ‘Destination’ Ronan kicked off a yearlong world tour in the same month 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 successfully for Ronan as ‘She Believes In Me’ charted at number two in the single charts and ‘Last thing On My Mind’ (a duet with US star Leann Rimes), the last single to be taken from ‘Turn It On’ hit the top five.

In June 2004 Ronan made a trip 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.

“It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The sense of injustice is so strong and yet the people are so patient. I never knew what was going on outside Dublin until I was 16 or 17 and started to travel with Boyzone. I remember going to Bangkok and the poverty made me sick. I felt as if I had a duty to give back, after been given so much. Not just money but opportunities. The difference is that this isn’t about people at home putting their hands in their pockets,” Ronan says. “This is about joining a campaign to get our government to use their position on the IMF, the World Bank and World Trade Organisation to change things”.

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 to record a version of ‘Father and Son’, which charted at number two on Christmas Day 2004 (losing out on the number one spot to Band Aid 20). Ronan had originally enjoyed success with this track in 1995 when Boyzone released it as a single.

In June 2006 came ‘Bring You Home’ which spawned the hit singles ‘All Over Again’ and ‘Iris’ and was Ronan’s last studio album until this year’s ‘Songs For My Mother’.

Outside of music Ronan has always kept himself busy with other projects, with a particular emphasis on charity work, which has always featured largely in his schedule. Following the death of his mother, Ronan and family set up the Marie Keating Foundation which now in partnership with Cancer Research UK, raises huge amounts of money every year towards cancer research, in his mother’s memory. Fundraising for the charity has seen Ronan walk across Ireland twice, put on an Emeralds and Ivy Ball every year which receives tremendous support across the board from a host of Ronan’s celeb pals. He also ran the London Marathon last year and will be doing so again this April. If it wasn’t for the Boyzone tour starting in May, we may have forgiven Ronan for taking a month off, as February will also see him climbing Kilimanjaro with the likes of Gary Barlow and Cheryl Cole in aid of Comic Relief —Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.172.10.191 (talk) 15:38, 30 June 2009 (UTC)

Marriage
Recently read that Ronan and his wife have reconciled! Please add that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.78.5.134 (talk) 03:44, 18 September 2010 (UTC)
 * The article used to state that they split; that info has now been removed. If they split (and reconciled), that should be included. Jim Michael (talk) 01:55, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

Philanthropy?
Really? It says he is a philanthropist in the lede, but nowhere else. He raises money for charity, yes, but that's not philanthropy. Boscaswell  talk  20:47, 30 January 2018 (UTC)

Agreed. Shouldn't this be corrected? LedGrandaddy (talk) 08:37, 26 November 2019 (UTC)


 * I tend to agree. Keating has been active for charity, but he is not specifically known as a philanthropist.SeoR (talk) 11:30, 26 November 2019 (UTC)

As a wikipedia newbie what do we need to make this change? I think a section on charity fundraising is fine but mentioning philanthropy in the lede or the initial sentence describing Keating is not justified in my opinion.LedGrandaddy (talk) 10:08, 27 November 2019 (UTC)