I approach this next number one nervously, slightly creeped out, as if I’ve come across a talking cat, or a dog that can walk on two legs… A Westlife #1 that… isn’t… a ballad?
World of Our Own, by Westlife (their 10th of fourteen #1s)
1 week, from 24th February – 3rd March 2002
This uncanny feeling is perhaps unjustified, as they had topped the charts with ‘Uptown Girl’ just a year earlier. But that was a cover, for charity. This is an original, with no ulterior motive. You can imagine them looking up at Louis Walsh when he suggested this upbeat song, half hopeful, half terrified that he was playing a nasty trick on them. A sort of musical Ramsey Bolton – Reek scenario.
But lo, it wasn’t a trick. They were allowed to not only record this peppy track, but release it as a single and name their third album after it! It is nothing revolutionary, nothing special even, other than the fact that it is not a ballad. It is still ballad-adjacent, with a chest-thumping chorus, and a crashing key change (of course), but it’s up-tempo and generally likeable.
I find the vocals on this record a little shouty though, but that’s probably just the lads’ excitement at getting to record it, or rustiness from singing tear-jerker after tear-jerker. It has the wide-eyed exuberance of contemporary Christian music, and the shouty sincerity of mid-career Elton John.
And it led to Westlife reaching double figures, in terms of chart-toppers. Alongside Elvis, the Beatles, Cliff (and the Shadows), and Madonna, you’d have to say that Westlife look hopelessly out of place. They benefitted massively from the high chart turnover at the turn of the century, and only three of their ten #1s so far have spent more than a week on top. ‘World of Our Own’ was another case of their management cleverly choosing the right day to release, squeezing its week between Enrique Iglesias’s mega-hit and the biggest-selling song of the decade. At the same time, it did sell over 100k to make number one, so clearly the fanbase remained undiminished.
They have four chart-toppers left to come, spread out over close to five years. Perhaps we should use this post to mark the end of Westlife’s imperial phase (or reign of terror). Or maybe I’m just being snide because the ultimate Westlife non-ballad – the banging ‘When You’re Looking Like That’ – was never released as a single in the UK.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Pretty good, until that key change.
Do you not think this is the one that sounds like a worship song? Very happy clappy.
Yeah, I saw you remark on that after I wrote on the other one. Maybe this one’s more praise, and the other one’s more worship?
Ha maybe. I am no expert on the distinction!
I quite like this one, and Ive been pretty consistently liking their non-ballads ever since, but that 10 number one total is ridiculous and is purely a record company creation of careful timing vs low sales generally – overall sales of tracks during this period is a better reflection of genuine popularity, and if one combines number one totals with number 2 totals (as near-misses) other acts like Kylie suddenly look like contenders and Westlife not quite so impressive as Madonna Elvis Cliff pull away from their total.
Holy crap, haha, I thought you were exaggerating but you’re 1000% right the Westlife Fivesome (the Fab Five I guess?) sound far more into this song than previous ballads. They actually sound alive and happy and excited to sing this. Maybe it’s because of their enthusiasm but I actually really enjoy this. I don’t mind the ballads for these British boy bands, but man, why does it seem every British boy band’s chart-toppers in the UK are the ballads? That’s one thing I’ve noticed you Brits since like the 90s really love your ballads. The Americans love them too but nowhere near as much as you Brits. For a while it seemed every Take That song that topped the charts was a ballad. I know Westlife’s fanbase skewed more towards adult women, but even adult women enjoy uptempo pop. Anyway, this is a good pop song. I actually like more of Westlife’s chart-toppers than I expected.
Boyzone and Westlife, yes, very heavy on the ballads. Other boybands like Take That, or Five, not so much. I think you called it when you mentioned adults, as a ballad is more likely to crossover to a wider audience than a teeny bop song.
Reading this blog has led me to pondering the whole business of hits and recognisability. I’d never intentionally listened to this song before, but when I listened to it just now, I realized I was quite familiar with all of it. And yet, with many previous number ones I’ve encountered here, I have absolutely no recognition of them. Why is this? Is it because this song continued to get airtime after its stint on the top? (I get the impression that it’s Westlife’s signature song, or at least, one of them.) Or is it just because it’s a better song and more likely to lodge in my memory, even when I wasn’t paying any attention?
Anyway, I like it. It has a good few hooks, it’s lively and energetic, and I especially like the pause before “What would I do without you?”
The idea of a relationship being a world of its own is also quite appealing. A lot of the extravagant claims in love songs are kind of silly and far-fetched, but every relationship really IS a world of its own.
Maolsheachlann