Lewis Capaldi cancels ‘touring for the foreseeable future’ — here’s why his last show mattered
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Performing at the Glastonbury Festival wasn’t something singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi took lightly.
The festival is a major U.K. event that brings in big-name artists and draws roughly 200,000 people each year, according to the Somerset County Gazette. Headlining artists this year included Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, Lizzo, Yusuf/Cat Stevens and Elton John (marking John’s final U.K. show, per Reuters).
To prepare for his big moment on the Glastonbury stage Saturday, Capaldi decided earlier this month to cancel all of his gigs for the following three weeks so he could be in good form.
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“The last few months have been full on both mentally and physically,” Capaldi shared in a June 5 statement on Twitter. “I haven’t been home properly since Christmas and at the moment I’m struggling to get to grips with it all.
“I need to take a moment to rest and recover, to be at my best and ready for Glastonbury and all the other incredible shows coming up so that I’m able to continue doing what I love for a long time to come,” the Scottish singer-songwriter continued. “I need to take these three weeks to be Lewis from Glasgow for a bit, spend some time with my family and friends and do normal life things that are an important part of me feeling better. I hope everyone understands.”
— Lewis Capaldi (@LewisCapaldi) June 5, 2023
After three weeks off, Capaldi made it to Glastonbury — but his return to the stage didn’t go as planned.
Lewis Capaldi performs at Glastonbury Festival
On the Glastonbury stage, Capaldi made jokes with his fans and appeared in good spirits. But by the fifth song in his hourlong set, “his voice began to sound raspy and fractured,” reported Mark Savage, the music correspondent for BBC.
“I really apologize. You’ve all come out and my voice is really packing in,” the 26-year-old artist said during his June 24 show, per BBC. The outlet noted that it would be the first of several apologies over the course of the set.
Capaldi carried on, “but the issues were clearly agitating him and the symptoms of his Tourette’s began to become more visible,” Savage reported for BBC.
The singer opened up to his fans about his Tourette syndrome diagnosis last September.
“I’ve always had it apparently,” he said on Instagram Live, per Entertainment Tonight. “I do the shoulder twitch quite a lot and you see underneath every TikTok people are like, ‘Why is he twitching?’ Which is fine. Curiosity is fine. I get it.
“The worst thing about it is when I’m excited I get it, when I’m stressed I get it, when I’m happy I get it,” he continued. “It happens all the time.”
Capaldi’s Tourette syndrome symptoms were present at the start of his Glastonbury set but intensified as the time came to perform his hit “Someone You Loved,” USA Today reported.
So his fans sang it for him.
In a video that has more than 4 million views on TikTok, Capaldi can be seen taking a step back, at times emotional, as thousands and thousands of his fans step up to sing the song that helped catapult him to fame.
@bbc The Glastonbury crowd ft @lewiscapaldi - what a beautiful moment ❤️🤗 listen on @bbcsounds bbcsounds | watch on iPlayer Glastonbury iPlayer OurBBC
♬ original sound - BBC - BBC
It was far from the performance Capaldi had hoped for — “Glastonbury, I’m really sorry. I’m a bit annoyed with myself,” the singer said at one point, per BBC. But it was a significant performance that generated a lot of admiration — especially from others with Tourette syndrome who appreciated “seeing a celebrity with symptoms at a high-level event,” per USA Today. It even inspired an opinion piece in The Guardian titled, “Lewis Capaldi’s Glastonbury set displayed the best of the human spirit — and put disability centre-stage.”
“In his moment of triumph, his disabilities visible, the crowd loved him. If only society was always so accepting of difference,” Frances Ryan wrote for The Guardian.
“Imagine the difference it would make to people’s lives if disabled bodies were normalised,” Ryan wrote. “If a tic were just a twinge on the face and not a sign of failure. That’s why Capaldi’s performance on Saturday matters. As the early evening sun shone over Worthy Farm, the crowd were communicating much more to the singer than his own lyrics. They were saying: ‘We want you exactly as you are.’ In doing so, Glastonbury showed disabled people that acceptance is possible, at least for an hour.”
At the close of his set, Capaldi looked “dejected” and told his fans he’d likely be taking some more time off, BBC reported.
“You probably won’t see much of me for the rest of the year,” Capaldi said, per BBC. “But when I do come back and when I do see you, I hope you’re still up for watching us.
“I genuinely dreamt of doing this,” he told the crowd of performing at the Glastonbury Festival. “If I never get to do it again, this has been enough.”
And then he walked off the stage.
Lewis Capaldi officially announces more time off
On Tuesday, just a few days after his appearance at the Glastonbury Festival, Capaldi officially announced that he would be “taking a break from touring for the foreseeable future.”
“First of all, thank you to Glastonbury for having me, for singing along when I needed it and for all the amazing messages afterwards. It really does mean the world,” Capaldi wrote in a statement on Twitter. “The fact that this probably won’t come as a surprise doesn’t make it any easier to write, but I’m very sorry to let you know I’m going to be taking a break from touring for the foreseeable future.
“I used to be able to enjoy every second of shows like this and I’d hoped 3 weeks away would sort me out. But the truth is I’m still learning to adjust to the impact of my Tourette’s and on Saturday it became obvious that I need to spend much more time getting my mental and physical health in order, so I can keep doing everything I love for a long time to come.”
hi x pic.twitter.com/qK8zxTD5IS
— Lewis Capaldi (@LewisCapaldi) June 27, 2023
Capaldi shared his gratitude for his family, friends and medical professionals who have been by his side offering support, and apologized to his fans who had planned to see him in concert this year.
“Playing for you every night is all I’ve ever dreamed of so this has been the most difficult decision of my life,” he said. “I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can.”
The singer-songwriter released his second album, “Broken By Desire to be Heavenly Sent,” in May, and has had five No. 1 hits in the U.K., per Forbes.
