3 April 2015
Here’s our final number one from an Irish boyband. I’d never have envisaged it back in the ’90s and ’00s when Boyzone and Westlife roamed the top of our charts like buffalo, and sounded like buffalo too. But it’s true: as I write this in 2025 Ireland’s number one spot has been a full decade Irish-boyband-free. And since the end of 2015, once we’ve seen a UK-based group with one Irish member, we’ve had no number ones from boybands at all. That’s astonishing, especially for Ireland.
Yes, the spark was ignited by NKOTB in the States and Take That in Britain, and other countries caught fire too, but somehow Ireland became the keeper of the boyband flame – and a distinct variant of boyband at that: maudlin, shirt-rending ballads with a weapons-grade climactic key change. Why was this? Were we, despite ourselves, just a nation of dreamy boys with golden voices and killer dance moves that the world couldn’t help but love? Or was there something in boybanditry that called to the hapless but happy-go-lucky chancer gene in Ireland’s DNA? I guess we’ll never know.
Back in 2015, HomeTown’s second chart-topping single sees out the age of the Irish boyband in a manner befitting the reign of Louis Walsh: by latching on to every current proven formula going, baby! Essentially, ‘Cry For Help’ gives you Ed Sheeran verses and a Westlife chorus in a One Direction serving suggestion. To reinforce this branding, its video (below) showcases an acoustic guitar in the verses, windswept cruciform posing in the chorus, and 1D styling on the six HomeTowners throughout. (Brendan Murray goes on to represent Ireland at Eurovision but I couldn’t name any of the other five. Still, I wish them well.) The track is harmless, the chorus is alright, and I only wish Boyzone’s nine and Westlife’s thirteen Irish number ones had been this inoffensively competent.
Will we ever have an Irish boyband at number one again? Well, just prior to 2025 we thought the world had seen the last of fascism and polio, so never say never.
