"Beautiful in White" is a song recorded by Irish singer-songwriter

Shane Filan Shane Steven Filan (born 5 July 1979) is an Irish singer best known as a member of the pop vocal group Westlife, which was formed in 1998, disbanded in 2012, and regrouped in 2018. Westlife has released thirteen albums, embarked on twelve wor ...

from his third studio album, '' Love Always'' (2017). The track was originally written by

Savan Kotecha Savan Harish Kotecha (born August 28, 1978) is an American songwriter and record producer from Austin, Texas. Kotecha is of Indian ( Gujarati) descent. He was also the executive music producer of the 2020 film '' Eurovision Song Contest: The S ...

and

Arnthor Birgisson Arnthor Birgisson (Icelandic: Arnþór Birgisson; born 12 February 1976) is an Icelandic naturalized Swedish songwriter and producer. He moved to Sweden in 1978 (aged two) and has lived in Stockholm since. Information As young Arnþór att ...

for a then-upcoming album of Filan's band,

Westlife Westlife are an Irish pop group formed in Dublin in 1998. The group consists of members Nicky Byrne, Shane Filan, Kian Egan and Mark Feehily. Brian McFadden was a member before leaving in March 2004. The group disbanded in 2012 and later reun ...

. After it was rejected, Filan's 2006 demo of the track surfaced online in 2010 and gained much success in Asia where it was a popular wedding song and making it as one of their

sleeper hit In the entertainment industry, a sleeper hit refers to a film, television series, music release, video game or other entertainment product that was initially unsuccessful on release, but eventually became a surprise success. A sleeper hit may have ...

s. The singer eventually acknowledged the song's popularity four years later, and in 2017, he re-recorded the song for ''Love Always''. In addition to including it on the Love Always Tour (2017–18) setlist, Filan also performed "Beautiful in White" on two television series, '' Rising Star Indonesia'' and '' Immortal Songs: Singing the Legend''. Its music video was later released in July 2018.

Background and composition

"Beautiful in White" is a song written by

and

. At Kotecha's request, Filan recorded a demo of the song sometime around 2006. The session took place at the

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of ...

, and "Beautiful in White" was his only track recorded there. When the demo was leaked in 2010, it quickly received positive reaction from Westlife's fan base and its Asian audience. Due to the great reception whenever he performed the song live, Filan later re-recorded "Beautiful in White" for his third studio album '' Love Always'' (2017), with a new

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

handled by Rawling Meehan. The album contained both original material and

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of famous love songs; "Beautiful in White" was among the original ones. According to the news website VnExpress, the track was written based on

Johann Pachelbel Johann Pachelbel (also Bachelbel; baptised – buried 9 March 1706) was a German composer, organist, and teacher who brought the south German organ schools to their peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secularity, secular music, and ...

's "

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

", which has also been a popular wedding song. It was composed in the traditional

verse–chorus form Verse–chorus form is a musical form going back to the 1840s, in such songs as "Oh! Susanna", " The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", and many others. It became passé in the early 1900s, with advent of the AABA (with verse) form in the T ...

C major C major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel min ...

, with Filan's vocal ranging from the chords of E₄ to B₅. The track's lyrics describes the speaker's feelings when he first met his bride wearing a wedding dress. Prior to this release, the demo was often incorrectly credited as being recorded by

Shayne Ward Shayne Thomas Ward (born 16 October 1984) is an English singer and actor. He rose to fame as the winner of the second series of ''The X Factor''. His debut single, "That's My Goal", was released in the United Kingdom on 21 December 2005 a ...

instead of Filan.

Live performances and music video

On 13 March 2017, Filan performed " My Love" and "Beautiful in White" while appearing on an

episode An episode is a narrative unit within a larger dramatic work or documentary production, such as a serial (radio and television), series intended for radio, television or Streaming media, streaming consumption. Etymology The noun ''episode'' is ...

of '' Rising Star Indonesia''

season 2 Season 2 may refer to: * ''Season 2'' (Infinite album), 2014 * ''2econd Season'', an album by Unk, 2008 * "Season 2", a song by Phoenix from ''Alpha Zulu ''Alpha Zulu'' is the seventh studio album by French indie pop band Phoenix, released on 4 ...

. On 19 May 2018, the singer performed "Beautiful in White" on the Korean competition show '' Immortal Songs: Singing the Legend''. The theme of that week's episode had its contestants performing his and Westlife's music; Filan was invited to appear as a guest judge. Later on 8 July of that same year, he sang the song during the private wedding ceremony of Chryseis Tan and Faliq Nasimuddin, who are the heirs to two top Malaysian companies,

Berjaya Corporation Berjaya Corporation Berhad (; formerly known as Berjaya Group Berhad, Inter-Pacific Industrial Group Berhad and Raleigh Berhad) is a Malaysian-based corporation which controls a wide array of businesses, including consumer marketing, Real estate ...

and

Naza The Naza Group of Companies is a Malaysian business conglomerate involved in many types of businesses, ranging from motoring to education. The group began operations in 1975 as a motor trading company. The motoring sector remains the most i ...

, respectively. Members of the English band

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

was another act that performed at the event. "Beautiful in White" was also included on the setlist for Filan's Love Always Tour (2017–18). Jonathan Lambert, who had previously directed Filan's music video for "Unbreakable", also directed "Beautiful in White". The video was released on the Filan's 39th birthday, 5 July 2018, via his

Vevo Vevo LLC ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized in all caps until 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available ...

account. On the day before, he

tweeted A tweet (officially known as a post since 2023) is a short status update on the social networking site Twitter (officially known as X since 2023) which can include images, videos, GIFs, straw polls, hashtags, mentions, and hyperlinks. Around ...

about its release and posted a behind the scenes clip from the shoot on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

. Shot entirely in black and white, the video features a young couple (the male lead portrayed by Filan's nephew and godson, Killian Filan) getting married. Interspersed with the narrative are scenes of Filan performing the song at the D-Light Studios in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, Ireland. The singer wanted to create "something classy and timeless," so as a result, the final product was a "performance-based" video. " tis very simple and elegant," he added.

Credits

Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Love Always''. *

– writing *

– writing * Rawling Meehan –

* Paul Meehan – mixing, keyboards,

programming Program (American English; also Commonwealth English in terms of computer programming and related activities) or programme (Commonwealth English in all other meanings), programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program m ...

* Adam Phillips – guitar * Brian Rawling – drums

Charts

References

{{authority control 2006 songs 2017 singles 2010s ballads Shane Filan songs Pop ballads Wedding songs Songs written by Savan Kotecha Songs written by Arnthor Birgisson Popular songs based on classical music