Louis' rocky path to his first album
..and how it might have been the reason/one of the reasons why Louis shared Always You with us the way that he did.
I don't want to saddle this amazing post about the Always You snippet and little scavenger hunt Louis took us on on 24 Aug 2017 with a too-long derail, so i'm gonna make this separate post. But please definitely read that post, too, it's so good! It'll make you shake your fist and go "LOUIS!!" (affectionately) 💙💚
‼️ I heavily edited this post on 5 Oct, 2025
This is for possible context re: him sharing the snippet in August 2017 and what long breath Louis had to have in order to finally get to release his debut solo album.
Disclaimer and pre-face: obviously there was much more going on in Louis' life during those 3 years - lots of bearding-shit that left Louis looking dead behind the eyes in 2017 and most importantly, were him and his family (incl. Harry) obviously still heavily grieving Jay. Louis, only 24 then, now took care (financially, too, probably) of all of his siblings who were also struggling with the devastating loss of their Mum. Louis is the oldest sibling and they now also two 2-year old children in the family, as well (and Dan, Jay's widow, let's say was.... not behaving in a great way)
Robin, Harry's beloved stepfather, was also battling cancer during that time and sadly passed away in the middle of 2017 :( So, even more grief on top of grief and trying to manage it all + taking care of all of his siblings who probably needed a lot of stability and strength, but were (as was later described in Lottie's book in 2024) sadly heavily struggling with how to cope, and obviously Louis was grieving himself, plus also supporting his grieving husband (you know how I mean that word).
And all in that same year, Harry had a lot of professional responsibilities lined up. He released his first album, starred in his first Hollywood film, and went on his first solo world tour. (All something that was long-planned, obviously, pre-2017.)
Louis was not able to accompany him publicly to anywhere, but their bond was strong, Harry had a couple of songs on that album that were obviously written about Louis. When asked about it, Harry turned into a horse on live radio despite being able to yell "NO!" when he wanted to, and Louis absolutely beamed with pride every single time he was asked about his Harry.
In late 2017 we got a very sweet (and subsequently imo very credible) receipt of things which were told the anon in April 2017, which stated re-tellings of a dinner party that H and Lou hosted. In the receipt, among other things, it was said that we "shouldn't expect much from Louis this year" (2017), that he had "an ad hoc team in place, but his focus is on family & Harry" and "Louis was going to be around for him (Harry), including touring with him, but 'don't worry, darling (their friend), his (Louis') time will come.'.", that "he (Louis) will amaze when he is ready." [which ended up happening for sure 💖]
In 2018, albeit it being fantastic exposure for Louis and made him very beloved with the british TV audience, the fact that he became a judge on The X Factor also meant that he had to have weekly appearances with the giant asshole who iron-closeted him & his spider mouse ever since they were teenagers. And then there also were a few public slip ups/outings from within their work circles..
Harry was touring heavily that year, as well as working on his second album. Taking into account the themes of the album, it seems like him (and with that Louis, too) had taken quite an explorative journey into his gender identity and everything surrounding it and as a trans person myself, and having a lot of trans people as friends, that journey can be quite a difficult one at times. I have zero doubt that Louis 100% supported Harry in that, as well. 💖
The next year, after months of deep worry about her, one of Louis' sisters also sadly passed away in an incredibly tragic way in March 2019, which led to another massive wave of grief.
And this is just a fraction of everything that was going on. There was a lot happening in their lives. Their lives are complex and busy and we only see about 10% of it.
So, in this post I'm only able to shine a light on a couple of key things:
Despite what it said in the receipt, about Louis focussing on family and Harry, Louis did also tweet again and again about working on and releasing his first album. (Additionally, a plan for a 2018 album release + tour for 'a managed artist' was mentioned in a strategic report of the 1D company One Mode Productions Ltd., but by that point it was directed purely by 3 big players from Modest! Mgmt and that plan could've been bullshit from the start and could have still been an old remnant of the original plans Modest! had for 1D after their hiatus; it never happened and the company was acquired by Universal Music in July 2020. Exact details about that will be/are in my H&L companies masterpost)
In June 2017 Louis was supposed to be signed with a new label under Sony, RSA...
...but then an exec from Epic Records campaigned to get Louis to them instead, because she "had loved Just Hold On", so he signed with Epic in July 2017.
It needs to be said that the reason for Epic wanting to sign Louis based on that collab with Steve Aoki potentially meant they were hoping he was going to make more of that kind of music. -- which he never did, so he possibly also never wanted to in the first place (quite the recipe for disaster).
To the public eye, Louis was lagging behind; he was the only member of 1D who hadn't released more than 1 single since the start of the hiatus.
Zayn and Harry had already released an album by that point, Liam had had 2 pretty successful singles, and Niall had his first album set to be released in October 2017. Louis being at a disadvantage was barely to not at all within his control, though. As mentioned in the pre-face, I'm sure you can imagine he had a lot of other things that he needed and wanted to take care of.
And then Syco and Sony were also faffing about with the record deals. That is certainly not something a double-grieving (and still closeted & stunt-riddled) first-time solo musician needs! During that time, when you're trying to work on your first solo album, it's especially essential to have a management team and record label on board which helps with, understands, and shares the vision of the album, so concepts can be discussed, demos be recorded, sent and given feedback on, PR and marketing coordinated, release dates planned, etc etc etc.
Within the same month, on 21 July 2017, Louis did release Back To You on via his own label, 78 Productions. (78 Productions Ltd. is also one of his companies) and Epic Records. Syco helped with promo in the UK. Back To You wasn't a first single of the album, though.
Like with Just Hold On, Back To You's genre was vastly different from the albums Louis would later come to release, so it leads me to believe it was a filler project for him to work on with Bebe Rexha and Digital Farm Animals and vice versa; for him to flex his creative muscles; to finally put out some music that year and also do a few live performances to remind the GP that he's still an active musician.
A month later, he tweeted this:
4 days later, Louis got pissed off "about some music industry shit" and a day later, he tweeted:
(tweet) - and this is when he dropped the snippet of Always You right at the part with the "I went to Amsterdam without you, all I could do was think about you". part and he kept dropping hint after hint and we figured it out 💙💚 - and he ended up putting that song on his debut album.
1 month later, Harry left to start his first ever solo world tour in San Francisco, USA on 25 Sep 2017. Louis was supposedly spotted at least twice at his shows. If we believe the receipt from that time, Louis travelled with Harry for his tour. Fittingly, Louis didn't mention anything about working on the album on Twitter for 2 months after posting Always You snippet and instead--
On 11 Oct 2017, Louis announced his next single would be postponed, but also dropped Just Like You out of the blue (while he was possibly still on tour with Harry):
(tweet) / (tweet) - although Louis said the song is "from the album", Just Like You never ended up on an album. (at least up until today, Oct 2025)
Months pass again. The single he said would come "later this year" turned out to be Miss You, released on 1 Dec 2017. The song didn't end up on the regular album, either, but instead only appeared as a bonus track on the Japanese Edition.
And on 8 Dec 2017, Harry finishes his world tour in Tokyo, Japan.
The year turns into 2018... and Louis seemed to become increasingly more frustrated:
Harry left to start his 2nd solo world tour in Basel, Switzerland on 11 March 2018.
3 months later, and as a first step into a hopefully better direction, on 19 July 2018, it was announced that Louis has switched management and was now with Matt Vines from 7 Seven Management.
In the same month, it was announced that Louis would appear on The X Factor as a judge that year.
Coincidentally, Harry finished his world tour on 22 July 2018 in New York City, USA.
Louis' The X Factor filming took place (with breaks in between) from 28 July 2018 until 2 Dec 2018. (together with Simon Cowbell, so that must have been quite unpleasant at times, but Louis' contestant won! HA!)
Most importantly: no music at all got released for Louis in all 2018.
Harry left to start a very short tour in Singapore on 23 Nov 2018 and already finished on 7 Dec 2018 in Tokyo, Japan. Almost right when Louis was done with The X Factor.
The year turned into 2019...
And then finally, in Feb 2019, it was announced that Louis had signed with Arista, who also belong to Sony. Louis could finally really start working on the album now!
On 7 March 2019, he released Two Of Us - the first proper single of the upcoming album and a beautiful song he wrote for his Mum.
But that joy sadly didn't last long -- only 1 week later, on 13 March 2019, Louis' sister Félicité unexpectedly passed away and this surely completely threw their lives off its hinges again :( 🖤
Harry played only 2 shows on 28 + 29 March 2019 in New York City, USA, because he inducted beloved Stevie Nicks into the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, something that's a once-in-a-life-time thing (but then he didn't tour again until October 2019; while he was also in the process of finishing his 2nd album, Fine Line).
4 months later, on 7 July 2019, Louis tweeted this:
Things finally went according to (an obviously existing) plan now and it's clear that there's a proper release schedule at work. The single and music video releases were firing on all cylinders. Starting from September, there was basically a new Louis release every month.
There were concepts for all music videos, as they all told a multiple-part continuous story.
Kill My Mind was released on 5 Sep 2019
We Made It followed up on 24 Oct 2019
Don't Let It Break Your Heart on 23 Nov 2019
then there was the usual Christmas break.
Harry's 2nd album, Fine Line, was released on 13 Dec 2019.
Walls, Louis' album title single, was released on 17 Jan 2020.
When asked what's his favorite song on the album, Louis replied with this:
(tweet)
And on 31 Jan 2020, Louis' finally got to release his debut solo album Walls! 🙌🏼
3 years in the active making and 2 years later than he probably hoped for.
Personal thoughts:
From my own professional experience of 15 years as an artist & tour manager, it is not surprising to me that Louis wasn’t able to establish any consistency within his career for the first 4 years. (And we probably don't even know a third of the contractual shit Louis had to deal with.) You'd usually need at least good management that you trust, that's ready to take the brunt of forces, but also makes sure you don't make certain mistakes (again), and that's ready to work with & for you in this. Record labels come second, especially since it's become easier nowadays to release shit indie and it's not like Louis' (and Harry's) household didn't have some funds-- but proper management is key. They're the junction where everything leads together. James Grant Group was definitely doing weak sauce when it comes to Louis, but at the same time -- there were a lot of out-of-anyone's-control factors at play in 2017, 2018, and 2019 for Louis, mainly. Contracts that we don't have insight in.. it's always very speculative without proper insight, so I'll leave it at that.
Although I'm not always a fan of Matt Vines, Chris Frewin, and 7 Seven Management, they were definitely a huge improvement and most importantly, Louis seems very comfortable and happy with them and it seems like he fully trusts them -- and that is the KEY for a good client-management partnership. And a management that's also ready to grow with the artist and that constantly gets re-inspired to step up their game when needed.
I 100% understand why Louis seems to be preferring to work with a management team he's become close with and who he knows he can fully trust, rather than take the risk and choose someone new - especially given Louis' very awful and traumatic prior experiences with management.
[After watching everything that's been going on since September 2025, I'm positively impressed and hope that we're going to see more of what we've already seen in the past 2 weeks in terms of opportunities for Louis' career.]
Anyway, short cut-back to (fuckass) Syco -- I think nobody was surprised that Louis had enough of it 1.5 years after Walls was released and finally ended things with Syco on 11 July 2020.
Now I want to end on saying that i'm only speculating something about his own record label / album delaying situation could've been the reason for him being pissed off. It also could've been something to do with the music industry in itself, something to do with Harry and him, something closeting- or stunt-related. I mean he did release a snippet of a song that's obviously about Harry and him. But he also released a snippet of a song that was supposed to be on his album. So yeah, the reason could've been a mix of both.
But even though we can't say that for sure, it was valid as hell that he was pissed. And he got to share the Always You snippet with us for it, such an incredibly special song; so clearly about Harry & him and he didn't give a fuck that night. And I think that's beautiful.
(Plus, the incredibly LOUD music video to Just Like You, because whoa!)
