Tony Mortimer on East 17's 'Stay Another Day'

I Wrote That: Tony Mortimer on East 17's 'Stay Another Day'

The singer and songwriter considers the legacy of his smash hit, which became Christmas number one in 1994.

By Bekki Bemrose
5 Dec 2019
min read

‘I’ve been alive longer with it than without it, but I don’t take it for granted,' Tony Mortimer tells M about Stay Another Day. 'It’s weird. Who’d have thought?’

This year, East 17's bona fide — if unlikely — Christmas classic turns 25, and it now has the additional honour of officially ranking among the UK’s favourite festive tunes. Research carried out by PRS for Music has revealed that the boy band’s 1994 Christmas number one is the country’s 12^th favourite song for the season.

While the track has gone on to connect with a wide and cross-generational audience, its origins lie in personal tragedy; the death of Tony’s brother. He was at first reticent to release the track as a single and more than a little bemused at the suggestion of additional bells and a push towards the Christmas market. Nevertheless, he conceded, and Stay Another Day has now become a staple of the festive period.

This year Tony has come full circle to mark the anniversary by collaborating with Waltham Forest Youth Choir to record a new version in support of suicide prevention charity CALM. Although he didn’t initially believe the track was ‘anything special’ and describes its early success as ‘a big awkward moment’ the songwriter is now more open to embracing its wider value.

Watch below to hear Tony’s thoughts on mental health, how he’s still a little baffled by his biggest hit’s festive success and what tunes will be filling the Mortimer household this Christmas…

Stay Another Day (25th Anniversary) is released 13 December via London Records.

stayanotherday.info

Features

I Wrote A Song: The story behind Mae Muller's UK Eurovision entry

After Sam Ryder’s Space Man turned the page on two decades of Eurovision misery for the UK in 2022, this year’s representative Mae Muller is bidding to go one better this time around with her electropop gem I Wrote A Song. Here, M Magazine catches up with Muller and co-writers Karen Poole and Lewis Thompson to find out how the magic happened.