Louis Walsh: ‘Radio stations are not playing enough music by Irish artists’

He also called on local radio stations to support Irish acts as the music industry fights to emerge from under the cloud of Covid-19.

The Westlife manager held auditions in November for new singers as he turns his attention to creating the next music hit.

Speaking as restrictions lift on the music industry, Walsh predicts this year will be a “huge one” for music and live events.

He said they were “spoilt for choice” when it came to the auditions, which saw more than 1,000 singers trying to impress. He has enlisted the help of Girls Aloud producer Brian Higgins to help him choose the best performers.

“I’m not going to rush into it,” he told the Irish Independent. “I’m going to take my time in deciding who to pick. We got some amazing people at the auditions.”

But he said Irish radio stations needed to get behind his new act and said they “need to support their own more”.

“The biggest problem I have here is radio in Ireland,” he said.

“Irish radio will not play enough Irish records and I just don’t understand it. How can we break a new act if our own radio stations won’t play our own acts? That’s the problem I find.

“They always play UK music – all the Irish stations are guilty of this. Why don’t we stand up to this, why don’t record companies do something? They just get away with it, it’s crazy.

“There’s so many young talented people here and the only way we’re going to hear them grow is on the radio.”

He said this was even the case for chart-toppers Westlife.

“I had to fight to get radio play, even for Westlife,” he said. “It’s like the stations feel like they’re doing you a favour. And yet on BBC, we’re getting ‘Records of the Week’ we’re getting A-listed, it’s so much easier over there.”