This week we are paying homage to Lewis Capaldi, one of the most down-to-earth gems that the music industry has given us in years.
Lewis Marc Capaldi was born on 7th October 1996 in Glasgow, Scotland. Lewis began singing at 4 years old, when he performed on a stage on a family holiday in France. By age 12, Lewis was singing in local pubs in West Lothian.
In 2014 Capaldi took part in a three-date tour as part of the Hit the Road project run by The Scottish Music Centre. He played in Dumfries, Edinburgh and Fort William alongside Jacob and Rory Green and Zoe Bestel. When he was 18, his manager Ryan Walter discovered him by an iPhone recording that was recorded in his bedroom and had uploaded to his SoundCloud account. The day after first contacting Capaldi, Walter flew from America to Britain to hear Capaldi play live.
Growing up, Capaldi listened to heavy metal bands including Slipknot and Avenged Sevenfold, pop-punk bands such as Blink 182 and Busted, and indie rock bands like Oasis. He discovered a love for "soulful pop music" from the work of Paolo Nutini and Joe Cocker. In 2016, Capaldi graduated with an HND in Music from New College Lanarkshire.
Lewis independently released his first single "Bruises" in 2017, and he quickly became the fastest ever unsigned artist to reach 25 million plays on Spotify, after Bruises was played more than 28 million plays worldwide. Shortly afterwards, Lewis was signed by Universal Music Group.
His music attracted attention from celebrities including Ellie Goulding, and Niall Horan. Horan invited Capaldi to support him on two dates on his World Tour in March. In May, Capaldi joined Sam Smith on their The Thrill Of It All World Tour, opening for Smith over 19 dates. He followed this by announcing a fourth headline UK and European tour, this time playing 2000 capacity venues across the UK and Europe, including two nights at Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom, with both shows selling out.
Lewis is known for being active on social media, and is regularly posting humourous videos. Lewis announced in September 2022 that he had been diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome. His Netflix documentary "How I'm Feeling Now" gives the viewer an unfiltered view of Lewis' difficulties as he speaks out about uncontrollable twitches whilst performing. The chart-topper describes how the symptoms led to panic attacks, before he received the diagnosis.
Lewis documents his experience with Tourette's on social media, and many have praised him as an ambassador for the condition. Lewis has appeared in many TV interviews, often reducing presenters to fits of laughter. He also brought out a range of pizzas, iconicly named "Big Sexy Pizza" (available at all good stores).
As well as being an ambassador for Tourette's Syndrome, and an all-round genuine guy, Lewis has perfomed with giants such as the Killers, Ed Sheeran, and won 2 Brit Awards in 2020. Capaldi became the first artist to sell out an arena tour before the release of an album. The shows sold out in one second upon tickets becoming available, with Capaldi playing to over a quarter of a million people in March 2020.
