Louis Walsh

Michael Louis Vincent Walsh (born 5 August 1952) is an Irish music manager and television personality.

Michael Louis Vincent Walsh was born in Kiltimagh on 5 August 1952, the son of Maureen and Frank Walsh.

He has one older sibling and six younger siblings.

He was raised Roman Catholic.

He has managed Johnny Logan, Boyzone, Jedward and Westlife, four of Ireland's most successful pop acts in the 1990s and 2000s.

Having moved to Dublin to start his music industry career in the 1990s, Walsh decided to create an Irish version of Take That, which the papers picked up on when he advertised the open auditions.

The end result was Boyzone, whom he managed to international success with 16 top three singles, six of which were number ones, as well as four number one albums, selling more than 20 million copies worldwide.

When Ronan Keating announced he wanted to take a break from Boyzone, Walsh continued to manage his career.

Westlife were an Irish boy band, formed in Dublin in July 1998.

They sold over 50 million records worldwide, a total that included studio albums, singles, video releases, and compilation albums.

The group accumulated 14 number-one singles in the United Kingdom.

Keating achieved a number one hit with "When You Say Nothing At All" in 1999 and also "Life Is a Rollercoaster" in 2000, while his album sold 4.4 million copies.

Keating and Walsh later agreed to part company as Keating's solo career reached an all-time high.

Walsh then went back to the boy band formula to create Westlife, which Keating co-managed with Walsh for the first couple of Westlife's number one singles and albums.

He has also served as a judge on television talent competition shows, including Popstars (2001–2002), You're a Star (2003–2004), The X Factor (2004–2014; 2016–2017), and Ireland's Got Talent (2018–2019).

In March 2024, Walsh entered the Celebrity Big Brother house as a housemate on the twenty-third series.

Walsh's first television work was in 2001, in the Irish version of Popstars.

The following year Walsh appeared as a judge on the UK ITV show Popstars: The Rivals with Pete Waterman and Geri Halliwell.

Walsh went head-to-head with Waterman on the show with his girlband Girls Aloud battling it out with Waterman's boy band One True Voice.

Girls Aloud's debut single "Sound of the Underground" reached number one in the UK.

Walsh managed the band to achieve a million singles sales while their debut album went platinum.

Walsh also frequently appears on various talent shows on Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), the most recent being You're a Star.

They achieved a total of 26 UK top ten singles over their 14-year career, and achieved the first number one on the UK Singles Downloads Chart with "Flying Without Wings" in September 2004.

Despite an earlier bitter feud, Walsh had a public reconciliation with Boyzone on the ITV2 programme Ghosthunting With... in which they explored a network of subterranean streets beneath Edinburgh.

Walsh appeared from 2004 as a judge, along with Simon Cowell and Sharon Osbourne, on ITV talent show The X Factor.

In 2004, Walsh found chart success with G4, who went on to have a chart-topping album and completed two tours of the UK.

In 2005, Walsh managed the winner Shayne Ward, whose debut single "That's My Goal" spent four weeks at UK number one.

In November 2005, Walsh quit the show mid-series out of protest regarding his treatment on the show; the most explicit example being Osbourne's drenching him with water during a live recording.

Walsh returned on the Saturday evening's live show, stating that he could not abandon his remaining competitor and eventual winner, Shayne Ward.

Ward went on to win the competition with over 10 million votes in the final.

Walsh then went on to win The X Factor: Battle of the Stars with actress Lucy Benjamin.

ITV announced in March 2007 that Walsh would not return as a judge on The X Factor, but would remain behind the scenes managing some acts from the show.

According to UK tabloid newspaper The Sun, the decision to be replaced with two other judges came as a shock to him.

He was replaced on the panel by American choreographer Brian Friedman.

Osbourne, Cowell, Friedman and new judge Dannii Minogue appeared at the London auditions; however, after the first few days, Cowell decided to re-hire Walsh to the panel and hire Friedman as a choreographic instructor for the live show stages.

He covered for Simon Cowell as a judge on Britain's Got Talent during series four's Birmingham auditions in February 2010, due to Cowell being ill.

He again filled in for David Hasselhoff at the London auditions in the following series when Hasselhoff was unavailable due to appearing in pantomime.

In December 2012, he became Union J's manager.

In January 2012, Walsh appeared on the ITV documentary series The Talent Show Story where he was interviewed about being a judge on The X Factor and Popstars The Rivals.

Fellow Popstars judge Pete Waterman also appeared on the programme as well as past and present X Factor judges, including Dannii Minogue, Simon Cowell, Kelly Rowland and Gary Barlow.