Dean Lewis’ Be Alright the perfect breakup song, but it was almost lost forever

DEAN Lewis’ ‘Be Alright’ has provoked floods of tears and soothed broken hearts across the world. But the singer-songwriter, who has exploded onto the charts worldwide, crafted it from a joke.

IT is the song which has generated more “I’m not crying” excuses than any other hit for the past six weeks.

Dean Lewis has provoked floods of tears and soothed broken hearts all over the world with Be Alright and its wise slice of life advice in the chorus.

“I know you love her, but it’s over, mate/It doesn’t matter, put the phone away/It’s never easy to walk away, let her go/It’ll be okay.”

The song, which details the betrayal of a girlfriend cheating with a mate, has already clocked up more than 23 million Spotify streams.

But it was almost lost forever.

Dean Lewis almost lost his latest hit Be Alright when his phone smashed. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Be Alright began as a joke, with Lewis trying to entertain his girlfriend of the time over the phone one night after a writing session in Melbourne about three years ago.

The 28-year-old singer and songwriter, who exploded onto the charts worldwide with debut single Waves last year, likes clowning around, as evidenced by his wacky Instagram posts for fans.

“I was on the phone to my girlfriend at the time and I would do this thing where I would play dumb, silly characters to make her laugh,” Lewis says.

“This night I was pretending to be an English rapper and playing my guitar and she thought part of it was actually really good and I should record it.

“So I hung up the phone and when I finished recording it, I sent it to her, here’s the idea, good night.

“I went to sleep and during the night, my phone fell off the bedside table and smashed on this marble floor. The idea was gone.

“It was the one idea I wanted to work on that day with this producer but we were on this farm in the middle of nowhere so I couldn’t just go and get the phone fixed.

“Then I remembered I had sent the voice memo to my girlfriend, the start of the melody of Be Alright. That was the gem of the song which allowed me to finish it.

“I can’t remember stuff, I have to record it so if I hadn’t sent that voice memo to my girlfriend, there’s no way I would have Be Alright.”

Lewis had a packed tent singing Be Alright back to him at Splendour In The Grass. Picture: Supplied.

The mate’s mantra which forms the emotional chorus comes from his brother Rhys. While Lewis is at pains to insist the song reflects an amalgam of relationships — his and those of his mates — the chorus is exactly what his sibling confidant said to him one night when he landed on his doorstep in the middle of a breakup.

Rhys offered him a whiskey, asked for his phone and delivered his now-immortal advice.

Lewis said his brother has been hassling him about when the song would be released since the day he finished it. But it would take four recorded versions and 26 mixes with producers around the world before the Sydney singer and songwriter was satisfied he had nailed the emotional anthem.

“This song was different to every other song I’d written … It’s fully about the lyric and the emotion in my voice. My other songs have bigger production,” he says.

“It took three years to get that song right, to keep going back and working on it. And you’re so inside of it at that time, you’ve got no idea if it is even any good. You get so over it.

“So I was pretty nervous when I put it out. The other thing was Waves did so well for me, you have this bravado. I’ve got songs! As you get closer to release date all you can think is ‘what if it’s not any good?’”

Lewis started out writing songs for other artists but didn’t like “giving good ideas away.” Picture: Justin Lloyd.

Lewis started writing songs “relatively late” at about 17. His parents had sent him to guitar lessons when he was about 12 but he didn’t enjoy them.

When his father Grant gifted him a guitar for his birthday several years later, he decided to teach himself how to play it and figure out how to write by watching Oasis videos.

A naturally anxious person, he uploaded a demo to YouTube, sent the link to about 20 managers and when no one responded he figured he would just keep writing songs as a hobby.

But when a close friend played the clip to Leonie Conley, who worked with Savage Garden and runs a music publishing company, she heard the potential in his writing.

She signed him, found him a manager and he was put to work composing songs for other artists. That didn’t last too long; Lewis hated giving away his good ideas and decided he would record them himself.

His debut single Waves was released in September 2016, its unconventional structure becoming a pop hit in Australia and then in America last year when it was played on an episode of Riverdale, then Suits.

It scored Lewis five nominations at last year’s ARIA Awards and has more than 60 million streams.

Be Alright has connected faster and wider as Lewis heads overseas this weekend to promote it in the US and then perform concerts in Europe, with his London, Amsterdam and Germany gigs selling out in less than a day.

Fans have DMed him more than 100 clips of them performing it and Lewis has responded to thousands of messages from fans who have shared how the song has helped them get over their own relationship woes.

The Australian artist was floored when a Triple M listener rang into the station to share how Be Alright had helped him explain the pain of his divorce to his daughter.

“Everything is magnified with this song. It feels like the amount of messages and the reaction I had to Waves over six months has happened in a month with this song,” he says.

“I think we all expected girls to connect with it but a lot of guys are reacting too.

“As a guy, I guess it is a little harder to be that vulnerable, to sing about your emotions.

“I never thought about it beyond is the song any good, is it too much? But when I play it now, you can see how it means something to people.”

Originally published as Dean Lewis’ Be Alright the perfect breakup song, but it was almost lost forever