ronan-keating.com

Interview: Ronan Keating!
By: Anneke

Ronan Keating did climb the Kilimanjaro. He also worked very hard on the album ‘Songs for my Mother’ which is dedicated to his mother who has died. Ze.nl had an interview with the sympathetic singer.

Ode to his mum.
After the death of his mother in 1998 Ronan Keating had a very difficult period. He couldn’t deal with the loss of his young mother Marie who died of cancer. “I hide it for myself at that time and worked for 100% at my career. I was only busy and lived from performance to performance. But at some point you have to pay the price. You have to deal with such a loss. For some time I was walking around with the idea with an album which was an ode to my mum. Eleven years after her death it is finally there: Songs for my Mother and I am really happy with it. I could have done it earlier maybe, but I wasn’t ready for it. If I had done it directly it maybe wouldn’t have felt so good. They are songs who were important in my mother’s life, but most of all these are songs which made her happy.
Net to nine covers there is also an own written song: This is your song. I wrote that four weeks after her death.

Difficult to choose.
For the songs of this album Ronan got help from his dad, brothers and sister. “I had about 35 songs in my head, but that is too much for one album. Together with my family we made a selection of the songs which reminded us the most of mum.
We choose at the end for songs which my mum was a big fan off, like Time after Time from Cyndi Lauper. She was always dancing and singing along to her songs. I remember the 21st birthday of my brother Gary and how she was dancing through the living room.
Another favourite song of my mum is I believe I can fly. My mum was somebody who believed everything was possible, even when the end was near. She always stimulated me with my career. Luckily she was there when we had the big success with the band.

The future.
In the near future there is enough to do for the charismatic singer. He is telling about it with proud and passion. I am going to walk the Marathon to get money for various good causes. Giving them support is a huge part of my life. When you are famous, you can make a difference for people. I use that. Also we have a foundation against breast cancer with our family.
The year 2009 also means lots of Music for Ronan Keating. Boyzone has always been special to me. It was the beginning of my career at the age of sixteen, something which is not happening to everybody. I still enjoy my music very much. But of course it is always nice that other people also like it. My album Songs for my Mother is on number one of the British charts. Now it is time for the other countries in Europe!

Translation by Cindy.

From: ze
31 march 2009

Faq You.

Ronan Keating (32) started his career with Boyzone, but also as a solo artist he has had great successes. This year he made the perfect mothers day gift: Songs For My Mother, the CD which Keating made in memory of his mother.

Why did you choose for an album with almost only covers?
These were my mother's favourite songs. And these songs tell in a way a story about my mother and me. I think that is a lovely starting point.

What do you do for a better environment?
I join Earth Day kind of campaigns. When it is world earth day, I put off all the lights. Actually I do that throughout the whole year. My children put the lights on everywhere and I run after them to put them out again. I also keep an eye on the heating. That isn’t on in the rooms we aren’t in. I used to have lots of cars, but now I have only one. Driving a car is unfortunately a must and I travel a lot, unfortunately always by plane.

What is the most delicious thing you ever ate?
Oh dear. Sushi is my favourite. In Tokyo, I ate the best sushi ever, but that is logical. I was raised as a true Irishman, with potatoes and meat. Oh yes on a Friday sometimes we had fish, but well baked!

Who do you put on a pedestal?
My mother. Because she was always there for us. Next to that I am a big fan of Obama. If it was up to me, he'd be on a big pedestal, because he works very hard for a better world. Just like Nelson Mandela.

Is sex underrated or overrated?
I think it is good that there isn’t a taboo on sex any more. Not that children have to see everything, but I am happy with the frankness. In past times, more teenagers became pregnant than now.

What did your parents hope you would become?
They would have liked me to go to university. But I left school at a young age, to get on the road with Boyzone. My mother made me promise I would study at a later time, but that never happened.

Drink or drugs?
Drink. I never used drugs. I swear on the bible nobody ever offered me that, what is strange in showbiz. I like red wine or Mojito.

If you were allowed to step on a plane tomorrow, where do you go?
Cuba. I have never been there. I'd like to see the country before Castro is gone and everything changes there. I would smoke big cigars there with a couple of friends and I would read 'The old man and the sea' by Ernest Hemingway.

If you could bring somebody back to life, who would it be?
My mother. Definitely. I would ask her how she thinks I am doing. She was always the one with the best advice for me, when I didn’t know what to do anymore.

Which car would you never ever drive?
I love cars, but I don’t drive them that often anymore. I like working with technique and with my hands. I actually can’t name an ugly car.

How many TV’s are in your home?
Oh, you don’t want to know, I love TV, I also like to watch TV in bed, like 24, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy. I have 8 TV’s in total. But I don’t want them in my children's rooms.

Madonna or Mariah?
Madonna. I am not a fan of Mariah, but she does have a good voice. But Madonna is the one who dares everything. She is a performer and I like that.

Translation by Cindy.

 
From: Veronica Magazine number 19

10 hot stories: This week in the news.

From Ronan for mother.

Just on time for mother’s day Ronan Keating brings out the CD songs for my mother.

Marie Keating died eleven years ago because of breast cancer. Not that long after her death Ronan knew he would pay tribute to her with an album. The very emotional Songs for my mother have mostly covers on it.
I asked my brothers and sister which favourite songs of my mum they had the dearest memories of. In total I got 30 songs this way. Those with the best stories and the dearest memories I covered. There are also songs on it, which helped me deal with her lost.
The album came in at number 1 in England and Ireland. I never expected that, it is a very personal project. The song this is your song is an own written song I wrote for her. Ronan and his mum were very close. She was the most important person in my life.
On songs for my mother are songs from Cyndi Lauper, Elvis Presley and Joni Mitchell. My favourite is both sides now from Joni Mitchell – I love that record!
Marie Keating died on breast cancer, because it was discovered to late. When we as a family would have known more about cancer, we would have discovered the symptoms and she would be still alive. After the death of Marie, Ronan and his family started the Marie Keating foundation. The foundation gives information about breast cancer in Ireland.

Translation: Cindy
From: Grazia
March 2009

Ronan Keating doesn’t ever have to go to school anymore.
By Guido Verburg

11 years ago Ronan Keating lost his mother Marie because of breast cancer. In between the Boyzone reunion tours he finally found time to do something with a dream he had for some time to make a musical homage: Songs for my mother. '"She didn’t even know what a boyband was, she thought I was joining a cult."

"I owe this to her. She was the first person to sing songs for me, she introduced me to the songs of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra", says Ronan about his mother Marie.

The homage Songs for my mother has 8 songs she liked to sing and two songs which helped the singer to get through the loss after her passing away. Ronan had the idea for the album for some time, but only got time for it at the end of last year. "Before that I wasn’t ready for it, it was very difficult especially in the beginning to handle with the loss of my mother.

It had to be an honest and sincere album. We were already busy with the new Boyzone album and I could do this as a side project. That brought down the pressure, I didn’t have any expectations of it."

Especially not that it would come in at 1 in the album charts in England and Ireland. Marie Keating died of breast cancer in 1998. Since then Ronan is doing marathons, climbs mountains en plays golf, to get money for his own Marie Keating foundation.

"Education is the keyword. There are driving three busses through Ireland in which people learn how to check themselves and what to do when they found something. It works, in Ireland the women who are cured of breast cancer increased with 6%.

For my mother this was to late, her death was in the middle of the big success with Boyzone. I am happy she knew about that, she was so proud of the band," he tells us.

Five years before he had reacted on an advertisement for the Irish answer to Take That. Despite that at that time he was singing in a rock band, he did go for the change to sing in a boyband.

"I wanted to sing, nothing else than that and I got the opportunity. When I was sixteen I asked my mother if I could leave school and go further with the band. She didn’t know what a boyband was, she thought I was joining some cult. But different than other parents she agreed, but with the condition that I would go back to school if the band didn’t work out. Fortunately that didn’t happen."

Keating now at the age of 32 is in the show business for more than half his life with as successful career. A different way of life he can’t imagine. "No, but I can’t do anything else. I don’t see myself to be a carpenter or plumber. That would be something, me as a plumber: ‘Hello darling, do I have to unplug your pipes?’, hahaha!

But the fact that I can’t do anything else is not the reason I am still going on, I still get a kick of doing it."

Translation by Cindy.
Interview in Sp!ts (NL)
March 2009