In an earlier post, I noted the late-nineties phenomenon in which pop acts seemed to be contractually obliged to release a ballad for winter. East 17 were the original and best, but Peter Andre, the Spice Girls, B*Witched, S Club and more have all had a go since. And it seems like this phenomenon now peaks in November 2001… Are you ready for three wintery ballads in a row?
Queen of My Heart, by Westlife (their 9th of fourteen #1s)
1 week, from 11th – 18th November 2001
Starting with the daddies of pop balladry, Westlife. It’s actually been a whole year since we endured a Westlife ballad, and this is only their second #1 of the year. Their days of complete and utter chart domination are behind them, but the lead single from their new album is always a good bet for top spot.
Again, like so many of their ballads, I’m getting strong hints of ‘Mull of Kintyre’. Is it possible that their songwriting team started every session by trying to recreate ‘Mull of Kintyre’? If so, I’d say this is as close as they got. Same pace, same-sounding chord progressions. No bagpipes, thank God, but there are accordions for that authentic Irish pub touch. And, naturally, a key change complete with festive bells: a moment that even Paul McCartney would have found too cheesy.
I will admit to having actually enjoyed one (or two) of Westlife’s earlier chart-toppers. I’ve certainly made the best of the previous eight. But I’d say this is the moment where I finally lose patience. This one is dull, and plodding: a complete drag. Every note is cynically sentimental, sucking a tear out of granny’s eye with a vacuum cleaner. My heart sinks to think that we still have five more #1s to come from them…
I’d say that the one slightly interesting thing to note here is that for their third album, Westlife have matured their sound slightly to something a little more Adult Contemporary, with fewer poppy flourishes. But I think that seriousness is what makes this such a slog. That, and the fact that there’s not an original bone in this song’s body. Even their note for note cover of ‘Uptown Girl’ had more originality. By the time the aforementioned key change comes along, it is so signposted, so obviously on its way, that it crashes upon us like an elephant barging into our living room.
So, first ballad down, two more to come. They must be better than this, right…?
The UK Number Ones Blog 
It’s so interesting seeing how popular one band is in one area of the world, and in another part, they’re either one-hit wonders or didn’t even chart at all. In the US, the only time Westlife ever charted was Swear It Again, which hit #20. So they’re one-hit wonders here.
Their other songs, including this one, never touched the Hot 100.
You’d think with all the boy bands that were popular at this time that they would’ve hit here, but nope, they never did. I remember vaguely hearing about Westlife when they were popular, but none of my friends were into them.
Incidentally, one of Westlife’s previous number one hits, Flying Without Wings, was the American Idol winner song for Ruben Studdard when he won season 2 in 2003-2004. Why they chose that one? I don’t know lol! Had no idea til later that it was originally sung by someone else!
Listening to songs like this, I am jealous of you and your Westlife-less childhood…
Interesting that Flying Without Wings was an American Idol winner’s song, as in the UK the reverse happened with lesser known songs from Kelly Clarkson and Miley Cyrus as X Factor winners tunes, and number ones.
Not a radio staple oldie this one, so I havent heard it since it left the charts. This, incredibly, was the first Westlife track to make my top 10 – I think it was the Mull Of Kintyre similarity (unrepentant I love Mull Of Kintyre’s folk classic vibes) and lack of any showyness about it. Playing it now, I find it still pleasant. It’s a little ploddy, but around Christmas-time ploddy seems a time of year you can get away with it. Maybe if they’d had sleigh bells on it they might have grabbed a seasonal perennial out of it – and I have to say I’d rather hear this a couple of times a year at Xmas instead of those charting and radio regulars each year, if only for a change 🙂 In fact, can we have a new chart rule to permaban any record from the charts once it hits 52 weeks in the top 75? I think we can all get behind that! 🙂
I’d be behind that rule… I wonder if the charts co. are happy that Wham will be Xmas number one from here to eternity, or if they’re planning on doing something about it?
With this song, if it had been Westlife’s second or third single I might have been kinder. But after 9 number ones, 8 of them ballads, its the straw that breaks this camel’s back. And I quite like Mull of Kintyre too (though in all honesty I can’t remember what I said about it when writing about it as a #1…)
Man, this song is just absolutely…mid. I didn’t hate it. Didn’t love it either. It’s just average. I think I’ve realised that the reason I’m not minding these teen pop ballads is because I wasn’t really aware of music (I was a baby when this song came out) so I didn’t really grow up in a time when these type of overly sentimental ballads were clogging up the airwaves. If I was a teenager or young adult during this time, I would hate it, just as much I hated trap music’s domination in the late-2010s (and am starting to soften on that even). You don’t hear these type of ballads anymore at all in pop music. Too overly earnest and sentimental for how jaded and ironic everything is. I can’t remember the last orchestral sugary pop ballad like this that was a big hit single.
Man, Westlife, how the hell do they have 14 No. 1s? Even more than Take That, who are actually a good boy band? I will say, I will easily take Westlife over Boyzone.
Westlife have 14 number ones thanks to a dedicated fanbase, to the fact that they got the mums and grannies on board as well as the teenage girls, to releasing music at a time when the charts were at their fastest (their 14 number ones only add up to 20 weeks in total), and to cleverly spotting quiet weeks in which there wasn’t much competition to stop them making number one… It is still crazy that only the Beatles and Elvis have more chart-toppers than them, though.
I can’t bring myself to listen to this song, but the whole business of Westlife’s fourteen number ones reminds me of an ongoing discussion about the movie Avatar…the most commercially successful film of all time (not adjusted for inflation), but practically no pop cultural footprint.
Maolsheachlann
Didn’t Avatar benefit from being the first big 3D movie, which presumably everyone went along to see out of curiosity? I remember going, but not much about the film other than blue people and a rainforest… I’d say that Westlife’s patented stand-up-from-stools-for-the-key-change signature move has already had more of a cultural impact!