Christmas single ahead of Bognor New Year date for Brit Award winner Deniece Pearson

In the autumn Deniece marked the 40th anniversary of Five Star’s debut single with dates including Butlins in Bognor Regis – after releasing her new single Forever Young in the summer. She will be back at Butlins in Bognor Regis on January 21 promising a set full of hits. But in the meantime she is focusing on the new Christmas song.

“It came to me straight after Forever Young came to me and it came in exactly the same way. They were the easiest songs to write because usually the easiest and the simplest songs just come straight to you, straight out of heaven and straight onto the laptop. You don't question anything. You don't think about it. You just do it and you just have to be thankful and grateful for what is happening. And what it is saying is that sometimes the whole meaning of Christmas can be missed, the fact that it is Christ Mass where we celebrate the birth of Christ.

"We used to have assemblies at school and say our prayers and that's how I always saw Christmas, and every Christmas when the children were growing up they used to write a birthday card for Christ. That's how I brought my kids up from how my own parents had taught us. And really this song is just about how sometimes we don't see what is in front of us. Sometimes we just can't see the help of Christ that is there and we just don't realise that all we have to do is ask. Christ appointed Santa Claus to give gifts to everyone to keep them happy but the greatest gift of all is the gift of life.”

Deniece is loving her solo career which has been building up very nicely: “I'm in control of everything. I'm writing and I'm producing and I have my own team. It feels like I'm right in the thread of my life.

"I'm following my life path and when you follow your life path you glow from within and you feel full. I started doing Thriller Live on my own and that was an experience of working with strangers that became a team and that's when I started to merge into what I'm doing now, starting to do shows on my own with my dancers. It has been quite a journey.

"And it has built up to this but the great thing is that I am now managing director of my own destiny and I thank God for that. God is great!”

Formed in 1983 Five Star comprised siblings Stedman, Lorraine, Deniece, Doris and Delroy Pearson. Between 1985 and 1988, Five Star had four top-20 albums and 15 top-40 singles in the UK. They started young: “I started when I was still at school,” Deniece says: “I had to bring a note from the headmistress to get time off school. We did the Russell Harty show. He was amazing. I did Wogan. I loved Wogan and we did the Lenny Henry show and Saturday Superstore and Top of The Pops. We got together when I was about 14 and a half or 15 and I was just about to go into the sixth form which I didn't. What I did was way more interesting.

"Music had always been my passion. My brother was 13 or 14 and we were doing the clubs.

"It was maybe eight or nine months in the clubs and Billy Ocean was on the circuit. It was a great time.”