| Since I was 5 years old, I've have always loved to sing. I'd sing in the shower, in the bath, in the car, underwater, anywhere it was possible. In primary school, I was always in the musicals, taking on smaller parts usually, but always the ones that had solo or duet singing parts. I loved to look out in the crowd and see everyone watching me and listening to me sing. When I was 10 years old, after the annual school musical was finished, the uncle of one of my class-mates approached my parents and wanted to know if I wanted to do a demo tape to see if I could break into the music business. My parents, although flattered that someone else recognized my talents, felt I was too young and that was the end of that dream. Or so I thought! 17 years later, there I was at age 27, still dreaming of one day becoming a singer. I know what you're thinking "there's no way at 27 years old that she's ever gonna make it as a singer, she's too old now". And you know what? That's exactly what I thought too. But I was at the point where I wasn't even looking to make a career of it anymore, all I wanted to do was sing just once in front of a large crowd with my favourite group. Westlife came into existence sometime in 1999 when they released their first self-titled album. I had seen their videos, heard their songs on the radio and thought they were really great. Not to mention, they weren't too shabby-looking either (especially Kian, he has these beautiful blue eyes that will just make you melt). I didn't buy their "Westlife" album right away; in fact, I waited until their next album entitled "Coast to Coast" was released in 2000 and I bought the two together. I listened to the CD's non-stop and as I have an ability to do, I learned every single one of the songs on both albums by heart in no time at all. Although it may seem silly, I've always played around at home with my tape deck by recording myself singing along with my favourite songs. But this time, as I was singing along with Westlife, it felt different, I felt different. I suddenly had this urge to take a chance and pursue my dream. When I mentioned my thoughts about taking it one step further to Jie, she was in complete support of me and told me I had to go for it. She was right. What did I have to lose? The worst that could happen is that whoever I sent the tape to thinks I suck. But, that's really bad - what if they really think I DO suck? Ah, what the hell. To quote one of Westlife's songs: "So impossible as they may seem, You've got to fight for every dream. Cause who's to know which one you let you go would have made you complete" And those words became my motivation, to fight for my dream. At this point, I had modified my dream just a little. As it was Westlife who indirectly inspired me to do it, my dream went from wanting to be a famous singer to just wanting a once-in-a-lifetime chance to sing with Westlife. In less than 2 weeks, I was well on my way to realizing my dream having experienced very few bumps in the road. Jie and I thought that the perfect person to send my tape to would be Louie Walsh, manager of Westlife. At first we had no luck at all finding information, but I happened to notice on the "Westlife" CD sleeve that the group had thanked a Dublin radio station, 102fm. So I decided to take a chance and contact them. This chance seemed so minimal compared to the chance I was taking by letting Louie Walsh hear me sing. I emailed the station asking them if they had any information on how to get in touch with Louie Walsh and/or the group. 2 days later, I opened my email and my heart was beating faster than ever before with anticipation, hoping there would be an email waiting with the information I needed to fulfil my dream. And there it was - an email from David Byrne from 102fm. I was practically shaking when I clicked on the title of the email to open it. He had done it, he'd provided me with a phone number to get in touch with Louie Walsh. I couldn't believe it. I picked up the phone and called Jie right away. I was like a little schoolgirl, giggling throughout the whole phone call. Was that phone number really on the screen in front of me? Somebody pinch me please. Later that day, after I'd calmed down a little, I called the number that David Byrne had given me. A lady by the name of Carol Hannah answered the phone and I explained the situation to her and asked her if she could provide me with a mailing address for Louie Walsh. Without hesitation she not only gave me his address, but also his office phone number. Now it was time for me to actual record a professional-sounding tape of my singing along with Westlife songs. I wasn't gonna spend hundreds of dollars to get into a recording studio for the "real thing", so I decided on the next best thing - a karaoke machine. I rented one, which gave me the ability to play my Westlife CD's and use the microphone to sing along. This way I was able to record myself singing "with Westlife". When I was finished, I called Jie right away and played the 5 songs I recorded for her. The first one was "If I let you go". After the song, Jie was almost in tears because in the all the years we've known each other, she's never heard me sing before. I played the remaining songs for her (Open your heart, Somebody needs you, My Love and I lay my love on you) and she was really impressed. She said that there was no way that Louie Walsh could say no to my request to sing with Westlife. I just prayed that she was right. Well, Jie must be psychic or just really confident in my singing, because after what seemed to be a very long 6 weeks after I sent Louie Walsh my tape, THE phone call finally came. It was pretty early in the morning because of the 7-hour time difference between Calgary and Dublin, but I was already awake. It was almost like I knew the phone was gonna ring. At first I couldn't believe my ears when the voice on the other end said (after asking to speak to Aisling O'Hagan), "this is Louie Walsh calling". I wanted to scream for joy, but I didn't think that would go over well, considering I'd probably deafen Louie in the process. With a little shake in my voice, I talked to Louie as if I knew him personally. He apologized for taking so long to get back to me, that he'd received my tape a few weeks back, but had been out of the country on business. "Well, duh" I thought to myself, that's nothing to apologize for, but I wasn't gonna say that. Louie continued to talk about my tape and how he really liked the fact that I had blended my voice in with those of Westlife. Although it gave him an idea of what I sound like on my own, it also let him know that my voice went well with the lads voices. And considering that my request was to sing with Westlife, it was perfect. "So, you mention that you're gonna be in Ireland in October. Do you know when exactly?" Louie asked me. "I'm not 100% sure yet, but I was looking at around October 4th for arrival and then flying home around the 15th or 16th. I haven't booked my flight yet as I was hoping this phone call would come before I confirmed anything" I replied nervously. Louie then asked if the second week in October worked into my plans as that's when Westlife would be home on a break. He had asked the lads if they would be willing to meet with me and they were quite keen on the idea. In fact, Louie mentioned that Shane said after hearing my tape "if she's as beautiful as her voice is, I definitely want to meet her". Wow! Imagine, Shane Filan of Westlife wanting to meet me. Let's just hope I meet his expectations and those of the others. Of course, it's Kian's attention I wanted to catch anyway, but if the others are impressed, I guess Kian would follow suit. The phone conversation lasted about 45 minutes, sorting out the details like date, time, place, etc. Before ending the call, Louie Walsh then re-iterated the point about me having a great voice and that we'd definitely work out some time for me to sing with the lads. I thanked him for getting back to me and told him that I looked forward to meeting him and Westlife in person in just a few months. He replied by saying the same about meeting me. It was only 6:30a.m. when the call ended and I knew I would wake Jie up if I phoned her right then, but I didn't care. She'd kill me if I waited even a minute longer to tell her what just happened. She answered the call, trying to sound like I had not woken her. "Jie", I said with the happiest tone to my voice, "you'll never guess who just called me?". "He didn't?" Jie said. "Oh yes he did. I just spent the last 45 minutes talking to THE Louie Walsh. Oh my Gawd, Jie, I can't believe I just spoke to Louie Walsh". "Did you get to talk to any of the guys?", she asked. "No, I don't think they were there, but you'll never guess what Louie told me Shane said when he heard my tape". I told her, word for word what Shane had said and I could hear Jie sighing in the background. She was probably thinking that she was that much closer to Shane knowing that he had talked about me, which indirectly means he talked about her (because Jie and I are practically inseparable). It was the longest 5 months of my life, but October 2001 finally arrived and I was on my way to Ireland. I'd managed to convince Jie during this time that she HAD to come to Ireland with me, that I'd make a total fool of myself if I met Kian, Shane and the others by myself. I knew she wouldn't be able to pass up the opportunity once the meeting was confirmed. Who, in their right mind, would pass up a chance to meet Westlife? Nobody, unless they were crazy and I knew Jie wasn't crazy. Well, about Shane she is, but that's another story. We arrived in Dublin fairly early in the morning. As we stepped off the plane and into the airport, we both turned to each other with this look of "Can you believe this is really happening?" I said to Jie "you've got to pinch me, because I just cannot believe that I'm actually going to meet Kian tomorrow". Then, I felt this slight pain on my arm. "Hey, what the hell are ya doing?" I said. "Well, ya told me to pinch ya to make sure you knew this was real, so I'm just doing what ya asked", Jie replied with a big smirk on her face. "Ha ha very funny" I giggled, "it's just an expression, I didn't want ya to actually pinch me". We picked up our luggage and headed outside to get a taxi to the Jury's hotel, somewhere I had stayed many times before with my parents when we lived in Ireland and were in Dublin visiting relatives or for swim-meets. By the time we got to the hotel, had unpacked and taken a shower to freshen up for the day, it was already lunchtime. We decided we would just eat in the restaurant downstairs and then head out to check out the city. I hadn't been there in years and it had changed so much. By 6 p.m. we were both exhausted suffering from jet lag because of the 7-hour time difference. "Let's just order pizza or something and hang out in the room tonight" Jie suggested. That sounded good to me. Besides, we were meeting Westlife the next day and the last thing we needed was to be yawning all day and have bags under our eyes. That would really impress Kian and Shane wouldn't it. We sat on our beds and talked about all the possibilities of how we would react when we saw the lads for the first time, what we would say, what we'd wear. "Oh my Gawd. What am I gonna wear?" I yelled, "I've got nothing to wear". Now, obviously that was a total exaggeration, I just knew I wasn't gonna be happy with whatever I chose. No sooner had I said that, Jie was in her closet pulling out clothes, trying to put an outfit together. "Nope, that's no good, don't like that, not that, not that" she mumbled to herself. "Ash, I've got nothing either". "Ok Jie, we can do this" I said trying to remain calm, even though I was freaking out inside. "What's your favourite outfit that you brought which is also the most comfortable?" I asked. Jie pulled out her black dressy-but-not-to-dressy pants and a red top. "Ya, that's what you should wear, I think that looks great on you" I reassured her. She was happy with that decision and then it was my turn. This was going to be much harder. I never think I look good in anything, so we were in for quite the challenge. But after an hour of throwing clothes around and mixing and matching, we finally settled on my short black skirt, baby blue "Vodka Cruiser" tee and my black thick-heeled boots. After that, we were completely knackered and decided it was time to get some "beauty sleep". The way we were feeling, we definitely needed it. But, surprise surprise we were way to excited to sleep. We must have talked for at least another 2 hours about the fact that in less than 12 hours we were gonna be hanging out with Kian, Shane, Nicky, Mark and Bryan. It was almost too much for us to handle. The alarm went off at 8 a.m. and I was up and in the shower in a matter of seconds. We weren't being picked up for our "date" with the lads until 2 p.m., but I wasn't gonna waste any more time sleeping. I needed to make myself look perfect for a certain Kian Egan. Jie was up not long after me and by 10 a.m. we were both totally ready to go. Now we just had to kill the next 4 hours without getting our hair, make-up and clothes messed up. The next 4 hours seemed to drag on longer than the 5 months between talking to Louie Walsh on the phone and actually flying to Ireland. Jie and I both had butterflies in our stomachs, wondering how the day would turn out, what the lads would be like in person. We both wondered "would we impress them, would they impress us?" Finally 2 p.m. arrived and the front desk rang our room to let us know that the car that had been sent for us had arrived. We clinched each other's hand and with confidence, walked out the door and headed downstairs to experience the greatest day of our lives. We arrived at the restaurant Louie had suggested for the initial meeting and the hostess seated us. The lads hadn't arrived yet, so it gave us time to freshen up a little. We were sitting at the table, laughing when all of a sudden I spotted Shane walking through the door. He was followed closely by Nicky, Bryan and Mark. I was so excited, that I didn't even notice that Kian wasn't with them. The hostess brought them over to the table and I nervously stood up and extended my hand to Nicky. "Hi Nicky, I'm Aisling. It's very nice to meet you". "Same here", Nicky replied. Jie, at this point, had wasted no time introducing herself to Shane. After we'd finished the introductions, I thought to myself "Um, hello? Kian isn't here". "Do you mind if I ask whether or not Kian is coming?" I asked Shane. "Oh ya, he's really sorry but he couldn't make it due to a family commitment" Shane explained. "That's too bad" Jie said, "Aisling was dying to meet him". "Don't worry, we'll tell him all about you and that he missed out on getting a chance to chat ya up" Bryan joked. Well, this sucks, the one Westlife member I wanted to meet the most can't make it. But what the hell am I complaining about, the other four are here. We sat and talked and laughed for almost 4 hours before Mark suggested that we go to a club nearby and have a drink. "That's a great idea" Jie said, "Aisling loves to dance". "Good" Shane said "cause so do we". We went to this really awesome dance club and we were barely in the door when Shane grabbed Jie's hand and dragged her out on the dance floor. "I hope you love to dance as much as Aisling does" Shane asked her. "Probably not as much as Aisling. I don't know anyone who loves to dance or sing as much as her, but I can hold my own" Jie assured Shane. Bryan, Nicky and Mark led me to a quiet table in the corner and we just sat and talked for a bit. "We got to listen to the tape you sent to Louie and we think you have a really great voice", Mark said. "We're looking forward to singing some songs with ya. I think Louie has arranged some time in his studio for us to record a few numbers, so you can take home a tape of it". "That's awesome. Thanks" I said with excitement. Jie and Shane finally joined us at the table after about 30 minutes of non-stop dancing. They seemed to be quite comfortable with each other, as I did with the others. I still was disappointed that Kian wasn't here, but I suppose family does come first. Then, I noticed Shane nudging Jie in the arm, and pointing in the direction of the door. I figured he was just pointing out someone he knew and I was right. Someone he knew had just walked in to the club, but I didn't realize who it was until he was standing right next to me, tapping me on the shoulder and saying "would you like to dance?". It was Kian. He'd managed to finish up his family commitment early and decided that he would come and hang out with us. I stood up and briefly introduced myself before he took my hand and led me out on the floor. "I'm sorry I missed lunch and getting to know you earlier" Kian said as he attempted to talk over the music. "That's ok. I understand that you had another commitment and that's more important. Family is very important" I said, still not coming to the realization that there I was dancing in Kian Egan's arms. After a few slow songs, Kian and I decided to go get another drink. We grabbed a couple of stools at the bar and just sat there and talked. "I got the letter you sent me a few months back", he said. "My mum read it first and thought it was one I had to read. She even put it on my desk, off to the side, separate from all the other fan mail". "I'm glad you got it. I know how long it takes for mail to get from Canada to Ireland and I was worried it wouldn't arrive at all." Kian smiled and said "I was going to reply to your letter, but we were so busy with the new album that I never got a chance. Then when Louie told us about this girl named Aisling from Canada who wanted to meet us and sing with us, I told him that I thought you were the same Aisling that I'd received this letter from. So, then I knew I didn't need to write or email you. I was gonna have the opportunity to meet you. Oh and by the way, this drink is on you. I have it in writing, remember?". I laughed, "oh ya, I forgot about that. Well, I guess I promised, didn't I". Before we knew it was 2 a.m. and the club was getting ready to close. Shane approached the DJ and asked him for a favour. The next thing Jie and I knew, we were out on the dance floor again, her with Shane and me with Kian, dancing to the last slow song of the night. And how fitting, it was a Westlife song, "Moments". That moment could have lasted forever and I would not have cared. It was the perfect end to the perfect night. Since our hotel was not far from the club, Kian and Shane offered to walk us back to the hotel while the others headed home for the night. Of course, we agreed. We'd be stupid to say "no" to that offer. Kian and I walked ahead of Jie and Shane who were laughing and talking the whole way back to the hotel. It wasn't quite like that for Kian and I. There seemed to be a few lulls in the conversation, but we did alright. When we reached the hotel lobby, Kian leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "Aisling" he said, "would you like to have breakfast with me before we go to the studio tomorrow morning?". "I would love to, thanks for asking" I said. "Great, I'll pick you up at 9a.m.". "Ok, see ya then. And hey Kian, thanks for such an awesome night". "I had a great time getting to know you Aisling, I think this one's for a lifetime". Shane and Jie by this time had already made it over to the elevator and were also exchanging "goodnights". As Jie and I got on the elevator, we waved goodbye to the guys and then headed to our room. "I don't think that night could have been anymore perfect, Jie. You certainly spent a lot of time with Shane, didn't you", I smiled. "Yup, we talked practically all night. I almost felt sorry for Nicky, Bryan and Mark" she said. "And what about you and Kian?". "We're going for breakfast tomorrow morning, he's picking me up at 9am". "Ooooh, Aisling. How'd ya manage that". "I don't know. He told me that he thought this was gonna be one for a lifetime, but I know he's only talking friendship, nothing more" I told her. That was alright with me though. This way, Kian and I would be friends forever and not worry about breaking up and never talking to each other again. 9 a.m. the next morning came very quickly and there I was sitting alone with Kian in this little restaurant down the street. We spent the time just getting to know each other and talking about our lives. We didn't talk too much about him being in Westlife, I wanted to know about his life in general, before he was in the group. I wanted to get to know him as a regular person, not as someone who is famous. We exchanged email address and phone numbers and promised that we would keep in touch after all of this was over with and I was back in Canada. By 11:30 a.m. we were on our way over to the recording studio. Jie was already there after the other four lads had picked her up on their way over. I was really nervous, cause this was the biggest part of the trip, getting to sing with Westlife. I finally got to meet Louie and thank him personally for allowing me to live my dream. We did a few soundchecks and then we were off. We sang 6 songs and I was even allowed to sing the lead along with Shane, Mark or Bryan, depending on what song or verse we were doing. Kian knew I was really nervous about singing, so he held my hand throughout the whole thing. Somehow, even though I kept thinking to myself "Oh my Gawd, I'm holding hands with Kian Egan", I actually felt more calm and secure. We had to do some songs a few times, cause the guys or I would laugh every now and then and ruin the recording. It was so much fun. Even Jie sang on one song after a lot of coaxing from Shane. I knew she'd never be able to say "no" to him, so I told him to ask her. The day seemed to fly by and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the hotel to pack up and get ready to go visit my relatives in Northern Ireland. Again, Shane and Kian took us back to the hotel and hung out with us for a bit before they had to leave. Kian and I and Shane and Jie had already exchanged contact information, but Shane made sure he had mine as well and Kian got Jie's. It was just like Jie and I had always talked about. It was an instant connection for the four of us and that's how it was gonna stay. Kian, Aisling, Shane & Jie - Friends for Life. Just as Kian said "this is one for a lifetime". I would have to say the same for this trip - it was definitely one that Jie and I will never ever forget; it's one that could never be matched; it's one for a lifetime. |
| Dreaming, Wishing, Hoping |
| By �isl�ng |