After 17 years in the limelight, Ronan Keating - who is performing in Malta next month - has lost none of his musical talent, charm and good looks, as Kristina Chetcuti found out when she spoke to him in London.

We are waiting in one of several dressing rooms at London's Royal Albert Hall. Our room is bleak and bare, but the surroundings are buzzing with activity, in preparation for the evening's concert by Irish singer Ronan Keating.

Outside, some fans are already queuing up, all starry-eyed, waiting to hear songs that have occupied hours of radio time - like Love Me For A Reason, which topped the charts when he was still with boy band Boyzone; and When You Say Nothing At All, the theme song to the film Notting Hill and his first number one solo single.

A knock at the door and in he strides. The stark room promptly comes to life. Keating looks me straight in the eye with his very blue eyes. His handshake is pleasantly firm. His blonde hair is deliberately roughed up in a teasingly rakish way. His stubble is attractively rugged. His manner is very boy-next-door warm. "Hiya guys. How are ya?"

He has an unmistakeable Irish accent, which is surprising as there is hardly a trace of it in his or Boyzone's songs which for the past week have been on a loop on my iPod.

What happens to the accent when he's singing?

"Well yeah," he frowns, "I guess I spent my whole life listening to American artists and singing to Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra and all these different bands. So when I sing, that just feels like the natural place to go. There are certain Irish songs I sing in my Irish tone. You'll hear one tonight called Wild Mountain Thyme, during which I tend to slip into more of my Irish tone. It's just the way I sing."

There and then, this Mountain Thyme song shoots straight up to number one of my all-time favourite songs - without ever having heard it.

I comment on the wrist beads he's absentmindedly fingering. "Are they lucky charms?" His eyes give out a cheeky - but not flirty - twinkle: "Um, I'll tell you after the concert."

He won't be getting first-time jitters for sure. He has been in the pop world limelight for 17 years. Keating was just 16 when he joined Boyzone after turning up to open auditions at his home city of Dublin.

He and his fellow band members - Stephen Gately, Shane Lynch, Mikey Graham and Keith Duffy - spent 10 months travelling around Ireland in a van, playing gigs in pubs, till they were signed up by Polygram in 1994 and in the same year their cover version of the Osmonds' Love Me For A Reason reached number two in the charts.

The band split in 2000 and for seven years the five of them pursued their own interests. Keating launched a successful solo career. He is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for being the only artist ever to have 30 consecutive top 10 singles in the UK chart.

In less than an hour, he'll be on stage again for the umpteenth time, performing most of those hit singles.

How is he feeling?

"I feel fine, I'm relaxed. I go into my room now and I'll take my guitar and sing a few songs to warm up my voice. I have a special tea that I drink for my throat. I just sing, hum, say a few prayers, call the wife before I go on stage, and off I go. That's my ritual before I go out," he says.

Is he superstitious?

"I guess I have a few things that I have to do. You know, if I don't call my wife, if I don't say a prayer, then I feel I'll have bad luck, which is silly really, but I mean, that's Catholicism for you," he laughs. It's a hearty kind of laugh. You can't help joining in.

He is openly religious, but not in a hands-and-eyes-raised-to-ceiling kind of way.

"I don't go to Sunday Mass. But I believe in God and I pray. I like to go to church and sit on my own. I don't sit and listen to Mass really. But I am a believer."

And it's not every day that you get celebrities mentioning the wife at every opportunity. She is clearly a major influence in his life. He married Yvonne, a former model, when he was only 20. How could he have known that she was the one?

"I was young. I guess you just know. When it feels right it feels right. That was the choice I made and it was the right choice, and I was lucky enough to find the right one," he says with disarming frankness.

Outside the concert hall, fans - whom he describes accurately as being "a mixed bag ranging from eight to 80" - have been queuing early, some with autograph books in hand, other with flowers in their hair.

He does not mind that he appeals to the softer, ballad-loving kind of audience; that is, mainly girls: "Yeah. That's OK, I'm alright with that," he says, followed by another husky laugh.

One would not describe his fans as the 'screaming' type; 'besotted fans' would perhaps be a more precise term. During the concert, they hold up home-drawn posters saying 'Ronan we love you'. But they wouldn't be the same kind of wonder-bra wearing fans that say, Robbie Williams, would attract.

Keating is the kind of pop star grandmothers approve of. He is very obliging, and throughout the concert manoeuvres his way through the crowds and shakes hands and gets lots of kisses.

His wife is not jealous that he is constantly mobbed by girls: "Not in the least. No way. I'm the jealous one in the family," he admits. Does he sing to his wife, I wonder?

"Well, I sing around the house and I'm always playing the guitar and singing, but I don't sing to my wife really. I think she'd laugh at me if I started singing at her - she'd be 'What ye doin' ye eejit ye!'"

His wife keeps him grounded. And it's clear he does not live for his ambitions, but for the meaningful relationships in his life. Which is, I think, a key reason why he radiates a serene and infectious joie de vivre; a Lovin' Each Day - as one of his songs goes - kind of attitude in life.

And his concert performance is a reflection of this. His is not an act - he is clearly having fun. He fools around with his band mates and constantly jokes about as he interacts with the audience. At one point, the background screen beams a bare-chested Keating lying in bed - and the crowd goes hysterical.

Tongue-in-cheek, he says: "Every time I sing this I'm like, wow they really like this song, then I remember the video." Totally unpretentious.

There are lots of things he still dreams of doing: "I want to go to the North Pole. I want to climb Mount Everest. Some things you can dream about and they happen. Some things may never happen. But for me, health and happiness for my family is everything."

His priorities in life stem from what he has been through. Boyzone reunited two years ago and last October the five of them were working on their first album in 12 years, when band mate Stephen Gately died suddenly.

He suffered a pulmonary oedema - an accumulation of fluid on the lungs - and passed away in his sleep. He was only 33. Five months on from this untimely death how is he coping?

A shadow clouds his face and his forehead creases, but he is forthcoming: "It's still very raw. You put one foot in front of the other and try to move forward. We stick together, look after each other as a family, you know, the boys in the band. He's still very much part of the band, and when the four of us are together, we feel he's in the room."

During the concert he talks to his fans about 'Steo', as he affectionately calls him, a number of times. He hopes that by the end of the year Boyzone will be touring to promote their new album Brother which features some of the last vocals Gately ever recorded:

"We're doing a special night tomorrow here at the Albert Hall. I'm doing my show and the three guys are going to join me on stage for a few songs. It's going to be the first time we've performed since Steo passed away. It will be an emotional night. We don't know how it's going feel. We're going to try, and if that works, we're going to tour at the end of the year," he says.

Work and interviews have helped. "It's almost like therapy talking about Steo. Rather than bottling it up, it's probably good to talk about it."

How does he feel about having to grieve in public?

"It's the second time it's happened to me. I lost my mother 11 years ago. But I've never known anything like this sudden, this suddenness of Steo's death. That feeling... it's devastating, just absolutely devastating..."

Keating lost his mother to breast cancer, when she was only 51. As a result, he and his four siblings have set up the Marie Keating Foundation, which funds two mobile cancer awareness units in Ireland.

Their work has helped achieve a six per cent increase in cancer survival rates. Songs For My Mother, the album he is promoting on this tour, is a collection of his mother's favourites, "but some relate to the period just after she passed away but are still as important".

As he talks it is very easy to see he has lost the boyish looks that had made him an international heartthrob. The Keating of today looks much more mature. What has weathered him?

"I was 16 when I started this, so I've been in the public eye for 17 years now. I'm 33 years of age. I'm not a kid anymore and I've seen a lot in my life," he says.

It is not just the pain of death close to home. It is also what he has come across in his travels:

"I've been lucky enough to travel the world and witness amazing cultures and people, and see devastating acts. I've been to Africa, climbed Kilimanjaro. I've been to northern Thailand with Unicef on an Aids campaign. I've been to Africa on a Christian Aid campaign.

"I've seen how devastating life can be for people. And on the other hand, I've seen amazing wealth. I've seen two extremes and it's incredible, so I guess that weathers you. That has an effect on you whether you like it or not," he says.

His life has truly been a rollercoaster. Does he feel 33? "I feel 43 some days. Right now I feel 53," he laughs heartily. "No, I'm doing ok. I'm going backwards now, next year I'll be 32..."

The sober mood lifts as he discusses parenthood. He says he is very hands-on at home: "You have no choice. With three children (Jack, 10, Missy, eight and Ali, four) and two big dogs (Stitch and Scratch), you have to be."

Does he find it difficult not to spoil his children? "Yes," he mulls, "But I think kids should be spoilt though." He believes in trying to find a balance.

"You don't have to buy them gifts all the time, bang, bang, bang. But it's important to spoil them. Like I went home the other night and I'd been on the road for quite some time, we had a lovely day and I said to Yvonne, let's give them a day off school tomorrow so we could spend the day together.

"You know, you spoil them in other ways. A little gesture sometimes that I really feel they're going to remember for the rest of their lives. And we had an amazing time. It was a lovely day off. The sun was shining. We walked the dogs. It was just perfect," he says.

What do his children say when they're asked what their father does?

"Hmm. A singer, daddy's a singer." Does he ever wish he had a normal day-job? He tucks his hands in his pockets and drawls: "Absolutely not! Why would I want a normal day-job? I have the best job in the world. This is great. No way!"

Malta will be the last date on the tour which has taken him to Australia, New Zealand and across Europe. "So it's the last show, and I'm looking forward to it. There's going to be a really big party. You guys have to organise a really big party for us OK?"

I nod eagerly. You can't say no to that piercing gaze. So, what shall we welcome him with: Guinness, Jameson or wine? "Red wine please. Some nice Spanish wine," he replies.

How about Maltese wine, I say, going all patriotic.

"Maltese wine? Is there Maltese wine? Never tried it - even better. Great. Bring it on," he pauses, then says, "Can't wait."

Neither can I.

Ronan Keating will be performing live in Malta at the MFCC in Ta' Qali on April 3. Tickets are available from Vodafone, Agenda and Exotique outlets or online on www.nngpromotions.com.

Watch excerpts of the interview on www.timesofmalta.com.