21 October 2023 , 16:49
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Louis Tomlinson had been encouraged to show his emotions in a track dedicated to his mum Johannah Deakin who died after a battle with leukaemia.
His single, Two of Us, was released in 2019, and later featured on his debut album, Walls, came three years after Johannah's tragic death. From his early days on The X Factor to touring the globe with One Direction, his beloved mum was never too far away from the hitmaker.
Johannah, who was a favourite amongst Louis' fans treated in London before being transferred to the Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, South Yorks, close to her home in Doncaster. She died just eight months after her diagnosis after several transfusions and different treatments failed to work. The mum-of-seven's death sent shockwaves across Louis' fanbase, with the Doncaster-born star paying tribute to her just days later during his debut X Factor performance as a solo artist.
Louis' mum, Johannah Deakin tragically died in 2016 (mrsjohannahdeakin/Instagram)
Louis' 2019 hit Two of Us documents his journey with grief following Johannah's death (Kate Green/Getty Images)Bryn Christopher who helped write Two of Us alongside Louis has opened up about the process after Tomlinson previously explained he had been wanting to write the track for "a while". Speaking to the Mirror, Birmingham-born Bryn said: "I was in with Andrew Jackson and Duck Blackwell, two of my collaborators, Louis wasn't there, my manager had a meeting with his management and they said 'Louis is looking for songs', the brief was like Oasis and I was like 'I don't think he should do Oasis so let's give him a pop ballad."
Bryn explained that the trio didn't know much about Louis but were aware of Johannah's death and decided to channel that into the song. "It was a little bit weird, we don't know him, we don't know what he went through," he said before adding: "But we did it and we're bringing our own elements, we've all lost people so we were putting our own words into them.
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"We sent it to his team and he was like 'Oh my God, I've been waiting to write this song but I couldn't,' I heard that he'd been encouraged to 'write a song about my mum but I couldn't' he'd heard bits and was like 'This is it. This is what I was feeling. This is all that I wanted to do'. And so then he went, came in and wrote a bit more like the middle eight and yeah, then he released it."
The hitmaker had an extremely close relationship with Johannah who was known as 'Jay' to his fans (GETTY IMAGES)
Bryn Christopher has opened up about writing Two of Us as well as his own music including his latest single, HighSadly just weeks after the release, Louis was dealt another blow when his younger sister Félicité died aged just 19 following an accidental overdose. Bryn added: "Two weeks into his promo, his sister passed. He pulled all promo and stopped singing it, it was so sad. "I was watching the interviews and he was saying 'This song has really helped me, it's saved me, I'm really happy to sing it for my mum' and then that happened. I don't know how you sing that song so fresh, he had time to deal with his mum but losing your sister so early and so young."
But Bryn who has written for the likes of The Saturdays, The Vamps, Melanie C and Louis is now celebrating his own success following the release of his single, High. Discussing his own track, he said: "I'm majorly excited, I haven't had a song that's been mine for so long. I've had loads of features but I've not had one where it's just mine." The musician admits that while he's written hundreds of top songs, he can find it "difficult" when artists do not credit the writers behind the track.
The track reflects on Bryn's struggle with self-acceptance with coming to terms with being gay and sees him reflect on not wanting to be gay. However, he believes that there has been a major shift in the recording industry. "When I first came into the industry, I knew I had to play a kind of game to get signed," he said.
He went on to add: "That game was not talking about my sexuality, I didn't lie, I just didn't talk about it." During the earlier days of his career, Bryn was in a band called I See Monstas and admits that his former bandmates helped him come to terms with being comfortable with his sexuality.
Prior to finding fame, aged just 16, Bryn applied to be on Popstars: The Rivals, the year Girls Aloud won the programme. Despite impressing the judges and host Davina McCall, he found himself being sent home from the boot camp process, having auditioned in Manchester.
"I genuinely thought my life was over," he said. Luckily, this was just the starting point for Bryn who later went on to write for his favourite artist, Melanie C of Spice Girls fame. Discussing their time in the studio, he said: "We wrote two songs and I think on the second day we wrote a song called Who I Am that ended up being the first single from her last album.
"We were talking about her being in the Spice Girls and how she had to be this person 24/7, the music video had all the iconic visuals. I didn't even hear it until it was released because she was being really careful because she didn't want any leaks, I was like 'I can't believe I've written this'. She released her autobiography last year and named it after my song."
High by Bryn Christopher is available to stream on all major platforms.