ronan-keating.com

Name: Ronan Patrick John Keating
Born: March 3, 1977
Place: Dublin
Country: Ireland
Parents: Marie and Gerard.
Brothers: Ciaran, Gerard and Gary
Sister: Linda
Relationship: Married to Yvonne Connolly on April 30th 1998 at the Island Nevis.
Children: Jack 15 March 1999, Marie (Missy) 18 February 2001 and Ali 7 September 2004.

Ronan was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland as the youngest son of the family. He has three older brothers and one older sister. Before he joined Boyzone he worked in Korky's in Dublin. There he saw the advertisement for the Irish answer to Take That. When he was 16 he did an audition for Boyzone. Boyzone's debut was in 1993.They were one of the biggest (UK and European) pop acts at that time. In 2007 Ronan rejoined Boyzone for a one off Children In Need performance. After that Boyzone brought out a greatest hits album, a few singles and they went on tour together.

After being a singer in Boyzone Ronan started a succesfull solo career (2000).
It all started when Ronan was asked to do the song When You Say Nothing At All for the movie Nothing Hill.
Ronan had lots of UK top ten singles which made him listed in the Guinness Book of Records for being the only artist to have 30 top 10 singles in the UK chart. Till now he brought out 6 albums from which 4 went to number 1 in the UK charts.
Ronans solo career was not only limited to the UK but also to continental Europe, scoring huge success in Germany, Scandinavia and even in France, and the rest of the world.

For his album Ronan (2000) he worked with Greg Alexander and Bryan Adams. Life Is A Rollercoaster, sold more than 400,000 copies in one week in 2000.
For the album destination (2002) Ronan co-wrote a song with Garth Brooks and one with Paul Brady.
For Turn it on (2003) he worked with Wayne Hector and Steve Mac. He also worked with Calum MacColl and James McNally from his band.
After being a decade in the music business it was time for 10 years of hits (2004). The album went straight to number one in the UK and to date has sold nearly two and a half million copies worldwide.
For Bring you home (2006) Ronan worked with Richard Marx and Paul Berry.

Ronan is always on the lookout for new styles and fresh approaches to his work. He brought out Songs For My Mother in March 2009. This album, which was dedicated to his mother, was a huge worldwide success. Most of the songs were his mother’s favourites or were related to the period just after her death.
He has a new album planned for the end of 2009 and a UK and Ireland tour planned in 2010.

Ronan won lots of music awards, like the World Music Award for the best selling Irish artist and an Ivor Novello for Picture Of You.
In 2003, Ronan was awarded with a prestigious 'BMI European song-writing award' for his song "The Long Goodbye", which enjoyed success in the United States as a number one single on the US country charts when it was covered by Brooks & Dunn.
Ronan sung with lots of people like Pavarotti at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Zucchero also at the Royal Albert hall and Elton John at Madison Square Gardens in New York. He also performed twice in front of the Pope. He performed for Prince Charles at The Prince's Trust 30th Birthday which took place at the Tower of London, and has also apeared in several Royal Command Performance shows. He performed on stage for the Swedish Royal family at the Crown Princess Victoria's Birthday Celebrations, and he was at the Opening Cermony of 19th European Athletics Championships in Gottenburg. Ronan sung at the World Cup opening party at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin Germany (2006) in front of an audience of nearly 250,000 people.
Last July he performed at the special tribute to the Beegees.
Of course he also worked on duets for his own music, like for example with Lulu, Leann Rimes and Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens).

Besides his singing Ronan is into a lot of things. Charity work is very important to him.
Ronan's mother Marie died of Breast Cancer on the 2nd of February in 1998. The family set up the Marie Keating foundation in her honour. They brought mobile units on the road to make people aware of Breast Cancer.
To raise money for the foundation he walked two times the length of Ireland.
Every year there is a charity ball for the foundation. Next to that there are various other events to raise funds to keep their mobile units on the road.
By now the Marie Keating foundation is linked to Cancer Research UK. To raise money for them Ronan ran the London marathon in 2008 and 2009.
In June 2009 Ronan got a Special Achievement Award from Cancer Research UK. He got it because of his work for them since 2006. The Marie Keating Charity and Ronan have helped to rise over £1.7 million for Cancer Research UK.

In 2004 Ronan made a trip to Ghana for the Trade Justice campaign for Christian Aid. Because of this he went to Rome where he was appointed as a UN Goodwill Ambassador via the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). (2005)

In 2009 Ronan climbed the Kilimanjaro mountain to raise money for Comic Relief. He did the climb together with other celebrities.

Ronan also writes for other artist. For example in 2009 he co wrote the song Believe Again. The song was sung by Niels Brinck and represented Denmark in the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2009. It became 13th with 74 points.

Ronan has presented some shows as the Eurovision Song Contest (1997), the MTV Europe (1997 and 1999) and MTV Asia (2002) Awards and the Miss World contest.
In 2009 he co-hosted The Morning Show in Australia when the show's regular host was on holiday.

Updated September 2009.