Nevertheless, it’s interesting that despite all the hype, the single’s first-week sales of 102,000 copies were still relatively modest by 1999’s standards the ninth-lowest of the year, in fact. Quite when the group crossed over into the realm of fanbase-driven #1 singles is unclear, although it was probably a bit too soon to tar them with that brush here. In the UK, it gave Westlife their first chart-topper. Thus, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Swear It Again was a huge hit. Not everyone gets a turn in the spotlight here, but there’s equally nothing to suggest that they weren’t all capable of doing so.īoth videos approach their subject matter differently while being entirely appropriate for the markets they were trying to court. The most notable point of difference the song establishes is that it does sound as if it’s being performed by a group – rather than two lead singers and three backing vocalists – when all five members sing together. The song is never overcooked yes, it’s performed with doe-eyed sincerity, but everything is kept in check even the presence of a key-change is debatable (the first and last choruses really aren’t that different at all). His voice feels steady and safe, while Mark Feehily comes in on the middle-eight with a slight urgency and drama that ably lifts Swear It Again towards its finale: “ The more I know of you is the more I know I love you, and the more that I’m sure I want you forever and ever more and the more that you love me, the more that I know, oh that I’m never gonna let you go, gotta let you know that I …”. Shane Filan is immediately established as the lead singer with a tone that has a similar – albeit softened – twang to that of Ronan Keating. But in hindsight, it’s terrific and perfectly sets out their stall. Of course, because Swear It Again was so readily emulated, it’s easy to overlook it as just one of many, many songs that sound alike within Westlife’s oeuvre.
Setting up Steve Mac and Wayne Hector to nurture and refine their talent through Westlife allowed the pair to craft a musical identity that, for a long while, was moulded almost exclusively to the group.
But that sound would never be ‘theirs’ it would always be shared with acts like the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. Arguably it would’ve been the easier thing to do. Of course, thanks to their alignment with Cheiron, the group could still dip their toe into more contemporaneous waters. But it doesn’t wed itself intensely to a specific era of the charts Swear It Again would sound as at home on Westlife’s third album as it did their first. Make no mistake, the track is still unrelentingly slushy: “ I’m never gonna treat you bad, ‘cos I never wanna see you sad, I swore to share your joy and your pain, and I swear it all over again”. It rejected the growing trend in boyband balladry towards heightened, (gloriously) gloopy production values. Buoyed by gentle piano riffs and a swirling orchestral accompaniment, Swear It Again was a bold statement as the group’s debut single. While it is their fifth most streamed song of all time from their home country, the Republic of Ireland as of 2 April 2019.The approach here was almost to take pop music back down a notch or two. It is the band's ninth most streamed song, fifth best selling single in combined sales category and seventh best selling single in paid-for sales category in the United Kingdom as of January 2019. The single has sold over 600,000 copies to date in the UK and the US and also achieved gold status there. The song was performed live on Miss Teen USA 2000. To date, "Swear It Again" is Westlife's only single to have charted in the US, peaking at number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ranking number 75 on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end charts, in 2000. This made it the first of fourteen UK number-one singles. It moved to 182,000 units in the first two weeks of its release, and spent 13 weeks on the charts.
It peaked at number one in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in May 1999. This is the best-selling debut single of all-time from an Irish citizen. It was released on 19 April 1999 in the United Kingdom, and on 25 February 2000 in the United States as the first and only single from their self-titled debut album Westlife (1999). "Swear It Again" (Alternate title: "Swear It All Over Again") is a song by Irish boy band Westlife.