Westlife team up with Ed Sheeran to release their first single in EIGHT years!

Back in the late '90s five Irish heartthrobs took the world by storm.

Topping the pop charts with hit ballads like 'Swear It Again', 'If I Let You Go', 'Flying Without Wings', 'World Of Our Own', 'My Love' and 'Uptown Girl'; their faces graced our teenage bedroom walls and their tunes blasted through our Sony Walkmans.

But after parting ways in 2012, the boys are officially BACK!

The now foursome – Kian Egan, Nicky Byrne, Mark Feehily and Shane Filan – have just released their first single in eight years ... and it's written by none other than Ed Sheeran!

Titled 'Hello My Love', the boys think fans will be "taken aback" by the new track, which has an up-tempo beat and a real Ed Sheeran feel about it.

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The redheaded pop star approached the boyband to write their comeback single, as he had always wanted to channel their "vibe".

"[Long-time Westlife collaborator] Steve Mac was writing with Ed Sheeran who turned around to him one day in a songwriting session and said, 'I'd love to write a Westlife style song', and they went off and wrote a Westlife style song," revealed Kian.

Mark said: "It’s quite an honour because Ed is now one of the biggest stars in the world but also when I first met him, he was just doing gigs in bars and he was not very widely known."

"When I met him that time, he was a huge Westlife fan and learnt to play the guitar to one of our greatest hits and he just loved Westlife. I thought that’s really cool, this really talented singer-songwriter loves Westlife."

"We’re all big fans of Ed Sheeran so it’s nice to have great songs [written by him]," Shane added.