Stephen Gately

Stephen Patrick David Gately was an Irish pop singer-songwriter, actor, children’s writer, and dancer. He was co-lead singer of the pop group Boyzone. Gately died of a congenital heart defect in a flat that he and Andrew Cowles owned in Mallorca, Spain in 2009.

About Stephen Gately in brief

Summary Stephen GatelyStephen Patrick David Gately was an Irish pop singer-songwriter, actor, children’s writer, and dancer. He was co-lead singer of the pop group Boyzone. Gately died of a congenital heart defect in a flat that he and Andrew Cowles owned in Mallorca, Spain in 2009. All of Boyzone’s studio albums during Gately’s lifetime hit number one in the United Kingdom. He also voiced one of the characters in the series, Blackavar, which was created to look like him. He made his sexuality known in 1999 and came out to publicity in 2006. He married Cowles, first in a commitment ceremony in Las Vegas in 2003 and more formally in a civil partnership ceremony in London in 2006, and the couple had a son in 2007. He appeared in stage productions and on television programmes as well as contributing songs to various projects. In 2008, he rejoined his colleagues as Boyzone reformed for a series of concerts and recordings. He featured as part of the first gay couple in a boyband music video for \”Better\”, in what was to be his last with the band. After his death, manager Louis Walsh described Gately as \”the glue in Boyzone, he kept them all together\”. Gately grew up in relative poverty in the working-class Sheriff Street area of Dublin. He attended primary school at St Laurence O’Toole’s and secondary school at North Strand Technical College. As a teenager he appeared in various musicals and theatre performances at school, such as Juno and the Paycock.

His siblings are Michelle, Tony, Alan and Mark. He was particularly close to sister Michelle throughout his life. His father had an accident as a result of which he had to be hospitalised for three months from September 2004, and has not returned to work. His mother then took over as full-time carer. He had nicknames for all of his family: ‘Rosaleen, Michaela, Kitty, Shanice, Stephanie and Stephanie’ Gately joined Boyzone upon their formation in 1993. The group became known in Ireland after an infamous appearance on The Late Late Show that year, which presenter Gay Byrne dismissed. They were considered a major pop band of the 1990s and had a much publicised rivalry with UK boy band Take That, even selling more singles than them. By the time Boyzone originally rested the band, they had achieved six number ones on the UK Singles Chart. The band split suddenly following a string of performances in Dublin’s Point Theatre in 2000. In 2000, Gately decided on to move on to solo projects, with his debut single, ‘New Beginning’, released on May 29 May 2000. The single reached number three in the UK charts. The album included a version of ‘Bright Eyes’, which he recorded for the soundtrack to the TV version of Billy Elliot. The song also featured on the film Billy Elliot: Down Down Down. The second single taken from the album was ‘I Believe’, which was released on October 2, 2000.