50 Fun Facts About Louis Tomlinson

How does Louis Tomlinson, born in South Yorkshire in 1991, pronounce his first name?

Loo-ee is how he says it, though the surname came later: he was born Louis Troy Austin and only later took the name Tomlinson.

Which DJ teamed up with Louis Tomlinson on Just Hold On, his debut solo single in December 2016?

Steve Aoki got the request over Twitter after Tomlinson watched him play Las Vegas, and the single became the DJ's highest-charting song in both Britain and America.

Which singer joins Louis Tomlinson on Back to You, his 2017 single that reached the UK top ten?

Bebe Rexha joined him for a video filmed around his Yorkshire home town, with scenes shot inside its football stadium.

Which football club, where Louis Tomlinson once waited tables, signed him as a player in 2013?

Doncaster Rovers, the club he had supported all his life, took him on non-contract terms after he impressed in a charity game, and he turned out for the reserves.

Which Louis Tomlinson song, the lead single from his debut album, is a tribute to his late mother?

Two of Us honours Johannah Deakin, who died of leukaemia in 2016. He put off writing it, wanting a few more years of experience as a songwriter before he tried.

Which guest judge at Louis Tomlinson's X Factor audition later claimed the idea of forming One Direction?

Nicole Scherzinger was filling in for an absent regular judge, and footage released in 2022 showed she played a significant part in putting the five of them together.

On which festive date was Louis Tomlinson born in 1991, under the birth name Louis Troy Austin?

Christmas Eve was the day, and his mother Johannah was only 18 when he arrived.

Which outdoor venue lost a 2023 Louis Tomlinson concert when hail injured more than 90 fans?

Red Rocks, the Colorado amphitheatre, was battered by apple-sized hail before he was due on stage, and the show could never be rescheduled.

Which actor did Louis Tomlinson befriend as a child extra on the ITV drama Fat Friends?

James Corden played Jamie in the slimming-club drama and stayed a friend, later hosting the first TV performance of Tomlinson's single We Made It on his American chat show.

Playing the lead in which school musical spurred Louis Tomlinson to audition for The X Factor?

Grease cast him as Danny Zuko, the leather-jacketed T-Bird, and the taste of a lead role gave him the nerve to try out for television.

In a 2019 Louis Tomlinson video, a widower's bucket list includes giving the singer what?

A tattoo was on the list drawn up by Richard, who also flew a helicopter, drove a race car and sang to a live audience, and the film urges viewers to donate to three charities.

Which 2023 documentary follows Louis Tomlinson from One Direction's hiatus into his solo career?

All of Those Voices is narrated by Tomlinson himself, and it mixes archive footage with interviews with members of his family.

Which One Direction bandmate was Louis Tomlinson's main songwriting partner, second to him in credits?

Liam Payne worked with him on most of the album Four, though Tomlinson ended up with more credits than anyone else in the band, on 38 of its songs.

Which song co-written by Louis Tomlinson was One Direction's final single before their hiatus?

History came from Made in the A.M., the only album the group recorded as a four-piece after Zayn Malik left.

Louis Tomlinson voiced a cartoon version of himself in a 2016 episode of which animated sitcom?

Family Guy drew him into the episode Run, Chris, Run, in which Simon Cowell also turned up to voice himself.

Which X Factor category did Louis Tomlinson mentor as a judge in 2018, producing that year's winner?

The Boys were his charges in his only series on the panel, and he took them to Ibiza for the judges' houses round.

Which acoustic 2000s hit earned Louis Tomlinson three yeses at his 2010 X Factor audition?

Hey There Delilah, the Plain White T's ballad, was his second attempt of the day, sung after Simon Cowell stopped his first song and asked for another.

From which relative did Louis Tomlinson, born Louis Troy Austin, take his famous surname?

His stepfather Mark Tomlinson supplied the name, which the singer went on to make legal, after his birth father left when he was a baby.

Louis Tomlinson played in Soccer Aid, the celebrity football match that funds which organisation?

UNICEF benefits from every Soccer Aid, and in 2016 Tomlinson found himself up against a bandmate who was playing for the Rest of the World.

Which squad number from Louis Tomlinson's football days is also the name of his streetwear brand?

28 was on his back for the 2013–14 season, and the clothing line also works the White Rose of York into its branding as a nod to his home county.

Which One Direction song co-written by Louis Tomlinson did fans push as their own unofficial single in 2015?

No Control became a fan-run campaign to back Tomlinson after his Twitter feud with the producer Naughty Boy, and it topped Billboard's Twitter Real-Time chart.

Which indie music festival did Louis Tomlinson found with a free show at Crystal Palace Bowl?

Away From Home began as a free gig to celebrate the return of live music after lockdown, then went abroad, with the next two editions held in Spain and Italy.

Which band's song 505 did Louis Tomlinson cover on tour, having named them an influence on his debut?

Arctic Monkeys also shaped his single Out of My System, which he said drew on their songs Teddy Picker and Dancing Shoes.

Louis Tomlinson was once a teenage extra in which BBC school drama?

Waterloo Road was one of a few screen jobs he picked up as a teenager, along with a small part in the ITV drama film If I Had You and a spell at an acting school in Barnsley.

Which singer, a childhood idol of Louis Tomlinson, later judged The X Factor alongside him?

Robbie Williams was the hero he once praised as cheeky enough to get away with anything, and the pair judged alongside Ayda Field, who is married to Williams.

Louis Tomlinson wanders a desert in the video for Walls, filmed in which North African country?

Morocco supplied the dunes for a surreal film in which he steps through a mysterious door and ends up among masked strangers in a ballroom.

Which Britpop songwriter has a credit on Louis Tomlinson's Walls because it borrowed from his band's songs?

Noel Gallagher earned the credit because Tomlinson admitted lifting parts of three Oasis songs, among them Cast No Shadow and Acquiesce.

Which Louis Tomlinson single opens his debut album and led MTV to call him a born Britpop star?

Kill My Mind was the song on which he said he had finally found his lane, and he wanted its video to look like the Oasis performance clips he loved.

Which lead single from Louis Tomlinson's third album was trailed by cryptic posters in cities worldwide?

Lemonade has a dreamlike video in which a sock puppet opens a drinks stand, before Tomlinson dives fully clothed into a swimming pool.

In which position did One Direction, with Louis Tomlinson, finish in the 2010 final of The X Factor?

Third place went to the band in a series won by Matt Cardle, yet Simon Cowell still signed them to a reported £2 million record deal.

Which lead single from Louis Tomlinson's second album was named after what his shows mean to fans?

Bigger Than Me arrived with a video in which he gathers stray wood across a sunset landscape and throws it onto a bonfire.

Which 2017 Louis Tomlinson single was written about a time he was out partying every night?

Miss You looks back on a period he described as numb, when he was going through the motions and thinking of the person he loved.

A trip to Santa Teresa in which country inspired Louis Tomlinson's album How Did I Get Here?

Costa Rica shaped a record he called sunny and lighter in theme than its predecessor, with other parts recorded in Los Angeles and England.

Louis Tomlinson's own festival first left Europe for a fourth edition in Mérida, in which country?

Mexico hosted the event in the Yucatán city of Mérida, where the bill included Kevin Kaarl and the Australian band DMA's.

Louis Tomlinson's first solo tour opened in which Spanish city, two shows before the pandemic halted it?

Barcelona saw the opening night in March 2020, and the tour then sat idle for almost two years before it finally resumed in Dallas.

Which One Direction single co-written by Louis Tomlinson peaked at number two on the UK chart in 2013?

Story of My Life came from Midnight Memories, the album on which he became a leading writer, with credits on nine of its fourteen standard tracks.

Louis Tomlinson has a co-writing credit on Love Shot, a 2018 hit for which K-pop boy band?

Exo topped Billboard's World Digital Songs chart for three weeks with it, one of a handful of songs he has written for acts outside his own band.

Louis Tomlinson was a guest judge during the eleventh season of which US television contest?

America's Got Talent came a year after he had helped Simon Cowell choose acts at the judges' houses stage of the British X Factor.

Louis Tomlinson opened his 2010 X Factor audition with Elvis Ain't Dead, a hit for which British band?

Scouting for Girls did not carry him through: Simon Cowell asked for something else, and it was the second song that won over the panel.

Why was Louis Tomlinson thrown out of The Rogue, his school band, at the age of 14?

The guitarist wanted to sing, so the frontman of two years was out, and Tomlinson has called the snub one more reason he tried out for television.

How did Louis Tomlinson reveal the track list of his debut album in January 2020?

A London street mural did the job, painted on Hanbury Street, a fitting stunt for an album called Walls.

What role does Louis Tomlinson play in the heist-themed video for Don't Let It Break Your Heart?

A getaway driver is his part, in a film that completes a crime story about two lovers on the run begun in his two previous videos.

At a charity ball, Louis Tomlinson bid £10,000 for a One Direction bandmate to have what done?

His face painted was the prize of a bidding war between the pair, who co-hosted the ball for a charity that supported terminally ill children.

Which Jamaican singer won The X Factor in 2018 with Louis Tomlinson as his mentor?

Dalton Harris had won the Jamaican contest Digicel Rising Stars eight years earlier, and a Jamaican channel bought the rights to show his British run live.

Which label, once the home of Whitney Houston, signed Louis Tomlinson in 2019 for his debut album?

Arista Records scored its first new top-ten album on the Billboard 200 in almost nine years when his debut entered the American chart at number nine.

A Gabriel Agbonlahor tackle injured Louis Tomlinson in a 2013 charity match for which Scottish club?

Celtic fielded him in a fundraiser for Stiliyan Petrov's cancer foundation, and the injury forced him to put back his debut for his hometown club's reserves.

Which tour support act had his debut album, Waiting for the Rain, co-funded by Louis Tomlinson's company?

Andrew Cushin, a Newcastle songwriter, was the support act on 36 dates of the tour and filmed one of his own music videos on the road with Tomlinson.

Which American band's concert film inspired Louis Tomlinson during lockdown to write for the stage?

Red Hot Chili Peppers set the tone for his second album, built to be played live, with further inspiration from the two concerts he squeezed in before the pandemic.

At which stage did Louis Tomlinson's first X Factor attempt end, a year before One Direction formed?

The producers' audition was as far as he got in 2009, and he resolved to come back and try again twelve months later.

Louis Tomlinson has been a patron of Bluebell Wood, near Rotherham, which is what kind of charity?

A children's hospice serving South Yorkshire, it was the cause behind the charity match that led to his football signing and a beneficiary of his 2020 livestream.