Whether you view East 17's 'Stay Another Day' as a Christmas song or not, the fact is that it was number one when it was released in December 1994, and it undoubtedly remains one of the more memorable Christmas songs of the modern era.

However, those of you who may have thought that the Tony Mortimer-penned song was simply about a lost love, prepare to have your emotions toyed with. And the song possibly ruined for you forever.

Mortimer has actually revealed that the song was actually written about his late brother, who sadly took his own life. "It was based on my brother's suicide and losing someone," he told Song Writing Magazine. "What would you do if you had one more day with a loved one? Over time I started to put together the story and I wrote it in a different way to any song I'd written before. It was all based on conversations I'd had with my brother and I was trying to change it into a love song about the end of a relationship."

He went on to explain how he took some convincing to release it as a single as it was so personal, and was suprised when it gave the boyband their first No. 1.

However, he admitted that he still finds it difficult to listen to the track. "I wish I could enjoy it a bit more but I always find it very emotional," he said. "Sometimes it comes on the radio and I've got to turn it off. I get emotional when I sing it and the crowd sings it back, that's always really tough. I'll tell myself that's the last time I'm ever going to perform it, but I always seem to do one more.

"I've done a lot of things in my life but that's the one thing I'm most famous for and that's fine."

Via Digital Spy

 

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