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Sunday, August 23, 2015 7:13am ET by  
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Shane Filan on Westlife: 'We were the One Direction of our day'

Hitmaker Shane Filan, of former Westlife fame, has revealed that he knows what the One Direction lads are going through because his boyband was just as popular back in the day.

Speaking to Britain's Daily Star newspaper, Filan explained that when Westlife were trying to raise their profile, they didn't have social media and such easy access to international music markets:

"Obviously we [Westlife] didn't have America and we didn't have as much controversy. We didn't have social media so if we'd had social media, then Westlife would've been bigger, maybe on an American scale. We were the One Direction of the day and it was the hysteria. When kids saw us, they got very star struck, especially when we went to Asia."

Referring to his experiences with fans in Westlife, the singer added: "People would try to take rings off your fingers and rip earrings off and pull out necklaces and rip out hair out of your head. There would be thousands of kids just at the side of the studio or at an airport."

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Watch Filan's music video for 'Me and the Moon' here:

 

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