Louis Walsh is undoubtedly one of Irelands most successful music moguls of all time. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, the Mayo native had an ear for talent and an eye for a story, helping him shape pop music history—one headline at a time. But Walsh was no stranger to bending the rules to get his acts noticed and has come under renewed flack after his appearance on a new docuseries ‘Boyzone: No Matter What’ chronicling the rise of one of Irelands greatest pop exports, and for better or worse, his hand in their success. Just how did a small-town manager build a global sensation, and would it have worked any other way? Copy: From Boyzone, to Westlife, to The X Factor and beyond, Louis Walsh is undoubtedly one of Irelands most successful music moguls of all time. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, the Mayo native had an ear for talent and an eye for a story, helping him shape pop music history—one headline at a time. But Walsh was no stranger to bending the rules to get his acts noticed and has come under renewed flack after his appearance on a new docuseries ‘Boyzone: No Matter What’ chronicling the rise of one of Irelands greatest pop exports, and for better or worse, his hand in their success. In the documentary, he reveals that he used to sell stories about Boyzone to tabloids to keep them in the public eye, including ­rumours, such as one that Baby Spice and Stephen Gately were dating. If they “got the front page”, he said, he was happy. Lynch recently said: “We’ve always known the way Louis Walsh operates. And in fairness to him, Ireland and the name Louis Walsh, he’s a big name and a big fish in the music industry. Was his puppeteering of the press a necessary evil, or can the highs and lows of Boyzone act as a cautionary tale to a music industry still under scrutiny for how it treats its young stars Today on the Indo Daily Fionnán Sheahan is joined by journalist Ann Marie Hourihane and culture writer Louise Bruton, to discuss how a small-town manager built a global sensation, and ask: would it have worked any other way?

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