Louis Walsh

Louis Walsh is best known for his 13 years as a judge on hit ITV show The X Factor and manager of Boyzone, Westlife and Girls Aloud. Available to hire for personal appearances Louis is a great after-dinner speaker with stories from his time on one of the UK’s biggest TV shows and dealing with some of music’s biggest names. His experience on the X Factor and other leading shows also make him a popular award show host and competition judge.

After a brief stint of the Irish version of Popstars, Louis became a judge on the ITV show ‘Popstars: The Rivals’. Walsh managed Girls Aloud on the show who would claim Christmas number one and go on to have international success. His major success on TV would come as a judge on ITV’s The X Factor alongside Simon Cowell and other names from the world of music. He had chart success with G4 who appeared on the first series of the show before he won the second series with Shane Ward. He then won spin-off show The X Factor: Battle of the Stars with actress Lucy Benjamin. In series five he was the mentor of JLS who finished as runners up. Other notable acts that Louis worked with on the show include Jedward, Luke Friend, and series 10 runner up Nicholas McDonald. After leaving The X Factor he returned to spin-off The X Factor: Celebrity in 2019 and won with Megan McKenna. He has also appeared on Britain’s Got Talent, Ireland’s Got Talent and The X Factor USA among other TV appearances on BBC and ITV shows.

Away from TV appearances, Louis is one of the UK’s best talent managers. His first success came when he convinced Johnny Logan to sing at the 1980 Eurovision song contest. Logan won Eurovision and achieved a number one spot in 11 countries, selling over half a million copies of his debut album. He then founded Boyzone, who went on to achieve six UK number one songs and four number one albums. Louis managed the solo career of Ronan Keating after he left Boyzone and helped him sell over 4 million copies of his debut album. Westlife was by far Louis’ biggest success though. He managed Westlife to six number one albums and 14 number one hits, making them the joint third most successful act in UK chart history. He also had success as manager of G4, Shane Ward, Girls Aloud, Jedward, Samantha Mumba and Union J.

Personable, a well-known face and with plenty of humour, Louis has a tale to tell as an after-dinner speaker, while also being the perfect choice for a competition judge or event host.