What Makes a Man


"What Makes a Man" is a song by Irish boy band Westlife. It was released on 18 December 2000 as the third single from their second studio album, Coast to Coast. The song peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart and was their first single not to peak at number one on the chart, being beaten to the Christmas number one by "Can We Fix It?", the theme to the cartoon series, Bob the Builder. It also debuted and peaked at number two in Ireland, held off the top spot by Eminem's song "Stan".
The song was the 39th best selling single of 2000 in the UK, and received a gold sales certification in the UK for over 400,000 copies sold. It is the band's twentieth most streamed song, fifth best selling single in paid-for sales category and seventh best selling single combined sales category in the United Kingdom as of January 2019.

Background

It was composed in the traditional verse–chorus form in B major, with Filan and Feehily's vocal ranging from the chords of E4 to Bb5.

Reception

of Westlife had little faith in the release. Speaking in an interview with Worldpop.com, he remarked: "It's a weak song, and we didn't do much promotional work. Bob deserved it."

Tours performed at

; UK CD1
  1. "What Makes a Man" - 3:52
  2. "I'll Be There" - 3:55
  3. "My Girl" - 2:46
; UK CD2
  1. "What Makes a Man" - 3:52
  2. "I'll Be There" - 3:55
  3. "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" - 3:30

    Charts

Weekly charts

Chart Peak
position
Ireland 2

Charts Peak
position
UK Singles 109

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales