19-year old Christian Burrows shared a song written for his late brother The X Factor UK and the judges, as well as Christian, were left in tears after he was done. The Mancunian lad did not come to the auditions planning to sing the acoustic ballad, and only his mother had heard the song up to that point.
However after prompting from Simon Cowell to share his original songwriting, Christian said “I feel like I’m ready” and the audience were in for a real treat. When Christian performed “Two Again”, he showed off a delicate indie-pop vocal and accompanied himself on guitar. The lyrics addressed his childhood antics with his brother Nathan, and as Christian sang, someone must have been cutting onions in the studio because everyone’s eyes started watering.
Judges Nicole Scherzinger and Sharon Osbourne were seen looking teary eyed after hearing the song. After collecting herself for a moment, Scherzinger said to the young singer “Christian on the first song I didn’t know if I got you. But then you wrote that second song and I was right there all the way, and you got me, so thank you for that.”
Louis Walsh was also a fan of Christian’s performance, calling it “a very honest audition” while Osbourne said “it was a very beautiful song. I like you a lot. You’re very pure in what you do – it has a great charm to it… The lyrics were so relatable and endearing.” Christian went from strength to strength throughout the season and in the following round he sang a powerhouse version of “Feeling Good” by Michael Bublé.
After his audition, Cowell gave props to Christian for putting himself on the line, saying “It was very brave to share that song with us because it was so personal. I don’t know how you did that, but I think it was important that you did do it actually because it told us who you are as an artist and as a person.”
Cowell also praised Christian’s lyrics and then judges took a vote on the audition. All four judges gave the young singer yes votes and Christian’s family then ran into the room and mobbed him with a group hug. Later in the series he made it into the judges’ houses round but was eliminated before the live shows.
Christian continued to develop his original music career after his exit from The X Factor. The singer released his audition song “Two Again” in 2017. He wrote the song for his baby brother Nathan, who passed away from cot death when he was three months old. The song took off on streaming platforms and has remained his most popular song to this day, with 11.8 million streams on Spotify. The Manchester talent’s most recent release is his song “London Eyes”, which was the latest of four singles he released in 2021. If you would like to see more from Christian Burrows, you can follow him on Facebook or Instagram.