STOCKHOLM, Sweden, April 26, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) - fanglobe.com (XSSE:FAN).
Band members Brian, Shane, Mark, Kian, and Nicky answered questions from their fans before their concert at the Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden on Monday the April 23, 2001. At a custom made micro site, Westlife-fans were able to listen to the band's music, look at their videos, take part in competitions to win exclusive prizes, and finally chat with the band. The chat took place on Monday afternoon only hours before the guys drove thousands of fans crazy at their first live Swedish concert ever. Due to Westlife's enormous popularity, the internet traffic was very heavy resulting in fanglobe.com having to monitor traffic and bring the fans in to the chat room in groups of 2,000 in order to prevent the room from congesting.
Thanks to Westlife's achievements, BMG's full support and fanglobe.com's unique technology and artist relations, the event was a huge success.
"It was amazing to be with the band in the arena during the chat and see the enormous flow of questions come in, and how well the band coped with the situation just minutes before going on stage," said Peter Carnello, Executive Director Artist Relations at fanglobe.com.
Westlife has gone from strength to strength, having sold over 10 million copies of their first two albums and receiving countless awards. In just three years Westlife has grown from pop newcomers to one of the biggest pop acts in the world.
A transcript of the chat will be published for those who might have missed it on the special campaign site. The campaign site will stay up until this coming Sunday with exclusive competitions.
"This was phenomenal, thanks to the band and their enormous popularity and BMG's outstanding support, this event was a major success," said Lars G. Ivarsson, Chairman of the Board of fanglobe.com.
fanglobe.com is the Official Online Home for many of Europe's biggest stars, fans can sign up for official online fan clubs for free at fanglobe.com and get access to exclusive news, videos, games and chats. For more information about Westlife or fanglobe.com, take a look at www.westlife.co.uk, www.fanglobe.com or www.click2music.com
About fanglobe.com
fanglobe.com is a US based Internet player with offices in the US, UK and Scandinavia. Currently representing some 130 artists online, and in negotiations with another 100 international artists, fanglobe.com is one of the larger sites in this space, with the objective of bringing the fans closer to the stars.
Later this spring fanglobe.com will introduce a new technology platform where the artists will reach their fans with all of their content via any wireless device. This will allow the fans to access any content on the site from their mobile phones, and for example have their e-mail prompts read to them by their favorite artist, voice operated services such as listening to interviews, tour diaries, music, video clips or other information available on the site, as well as many other exciting services to follow.
fanglobe.com enjoys two patents pending on this business concept.
fanglobe.com offers fans in-depth information, exclusive sound and vision experiences direct from the artists, and the opportunity to communicate with the artists and other fans with similar interests. The fans can also buy artists' official merchandise, digital music downloads, and soon, subscriptions to music on the site.
Some of the artists presently contracted are AQUA, Antiloop, Emilia, Feven, Hardcore Superstar, Hakan Hellstroem, Jennifer Brown, Jessica Folker, Markoolio, Meja, Petter, Robyn, Sahara Hotnights, Sahlene, The Ark, The Cardigans and The Latin Kings. The London office of Fanglobe.com is currently negotiating with more than 50 internationally famous UK artists.