Ronan Keating

Top Hits Song Highlights Intro

At 29 Ronan Keating is something of an elder statesman of pop, with a lifetime of impressive professional memories; duetting with Elton John at Madison Square Garden, interviewing David Bowie on the web, 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, being appointed as a UN Goodwill Ambassador and too many hits, gigs and awards to keep count. In 2004 Guinness World Records presented Ronan with the world record for Longest Complete Run Of Top 10 Singles (30 in total) beating the likes of Madonna and Elvis.

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 has gone 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 year-long 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 Ronanwas 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 two and a half 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.

Since the release of the greatest hits album the end of 2004 saw Ronan start work on his new album but it wasn’t just music keeping him busy. Away from the studio and recording schedules 2005 was another hectic year for Ronan. He walked across Ireland for the second time to raise awareness for The Marie Keating Foundation, the charity he and his family set up after the untimely death of his mother from cancer in 1998. In October 2005 Ronan went to Rome where he was appointed as a UN Goodwill Ambassador via the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). This came out of his work started in 2004 with Christian Aid and the Trade Justice Campaign.

In April of this year Ronan teamed up with Cancer Research UK to launch a cancer awareness drive. Ronan launched the first of three mobile units in the UK that will target the general public with cancer prevention information highlighting how to reduce your cancer risk. These mobile units are based on the ones launched in Ireland by the Marie Keating Foundation.

Ronan spent much of 2005 and early 2006 recording and writing for the new album ‘Bring You Home’. Ronan says, “It’s taken a year to make, which is the longest I’ve ever taken on an album. I have a studio at home and went there whenever I felt like writing a song. It was inspirational to work like that and I have written about 50 per cent of the songs on this album. I know people would expect me to say this, but it’s the best record I’ve ever made. The album is very rounded and I still enjoy listening to it.”

With the release of a new album, 2006 is going to be another big year for Ronan. He has a number of live dates lined up and is also set to take part in the All Star Cup golf tournament hosted by Ant and Dec.

Ronan has enjoyed chart success for over 10 years now, which is far more than most artists ever achieve. He has notched up an impressive chart history having had 13 consecutive Top 10 hits (28 if you include the 16 he notched up with Boyzone)…which is a world record! He has sold in excess of 21million albums across the globe… and all this by the age of 29!