Lewis Capaldi | |
|---|---|
_(53008945661)_(cropped).jpg) Capaldi performing at Glastonbury Festival in 2023 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Lewis Marc Capaldi |
| Born | 7 October 1996 Glasgow, Scotland |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instrument(s) |
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| Years active | 2013–present |
| Labels | |
| Website | lewiscapaldi |
Lewis Marc Capaldi[3] (born 7 October 1996) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician.[4] He was nominated for the Critics' Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards. Capaldi also won the 2020 Brit Award for Best New Artist.[5] In March 2019, his single "Someone You Loved" (2018) topped the UK Singles Chart where it remained for seven weeks, and in November 2019, it reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100; it was nominated at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and won the 2020 Brit Award for Song of the Year. "Someone You Loved" was the bestselling single of 2019 in the UK. In May 2020, it was announced that Capaldi's song "Someone You Loved" had become the longest-running top 10 UK single of all time by a British artist.[6]
On 17 May 2019, he released his debut album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, which remained at the top of the UK Albums Chart for six weeks. It later went on to become the best-selling album of 2019 and 2020 in the UK. His second album Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent (2023) was supported by the lead single "Forget Me", released in 2022.
Capaldi was born in Glasgow, Scotland,[3] and lived there until he was 4 years old,[7] when his family moved to East Whitburn in West Lothian.[8] Capaldi is of Scottish, Irish and Italian ancestry.[9] He is the youngest of four children. His mother becoming pregnant with Lewis came as a surprise to his family, being called a sort of "immaculate conception", because his father had had a vasectomy.[10] Capaldi's passion for performing started after he sang on stage at the age of 4 on a family trip in France.[11] He learned how to play guitar when he was nine.[12] Soon, he began writing songs, and playing gigs by sneaking into pubs with the help of his eldest brother.[13]
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, Rory Green and Zoë Bestel.[14] 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.[15][16] In 2016, Capaldi graduated with an HND in Music from New College Lanarkshire, Motherwell.[17]
He released his first single "Bruises" independently on 31 March 2017. The song quickly amassed close to 28 million plays on Spotify worldwide, making him the fastest ever unsigned artist to reach 25 million plays on the platform.[18] The song was later re-released as a single in 2019 and reached a peak of no.6 on the UK Singles Chart.[19] After the initial release of the song, he was signed to the German branch of Universal Music Group, and was assigned to the Vertigo Berlin division. His releases are distributed in the UK by Virgin EMI Records and in the US by Capitol Records.[20] His debut single, as well as the songs "Lost on You" and "Fade" were featured on his first extended play Bloom[21] and later on his upcoming album. He supported English singer-songwriters Rag'n'Bone Man and Jake Bugg on their tours in the fall of 2017.[22]
In January 2018, he joined German rock band Milky Chance on their North American leg of the Blossom tour. On 23 February, his collaboration "Rush" with Canadian singer and songwriter Jessie Reyez was released.[23] Irish singer Niall Horan invited Capaldi to support him on two dates on his Flicker World Tour at the Glasgow SEC Armadillo in March. In May, Capaldi joined British singer Sam Smith on their The Thrill of It All European Tour, opening for Smith over 19 dates. He followed this with his own headlining tour across the UK and Europe. Capaldi was named as one of Vevo DSCVR 'Artists to Watch 2018'[24] and he won Best Acoustic Act at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards.[25] He was also long-listed for BBC Music's Sound of 2018.[26] In August, Irish Indie rock band Kodaline invited Capaldi to open for them at a concert in Belfast.[27] In addition to this, Capaldi performed at many festivals during the summer of 2018, including: Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Firefly, Mountain Jam, Osheaga, Reading & Leeds Festival, Rize and TRNSMT. On 8 November, Capaldi's second extended play Breach, which included his single "Tough", was released.[28]
The Breach track "Someone You Loved" became Capaldi's breakthrough single, charting in 29 countries. During his 2019 tour with Bastille,[29] the song reached number one on the UK Singles Chart and remained at the position for 7 weeks. It also reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making him the first Scottish solo artist to top the US charts since Sheena Easton in 1981.[30] The song received a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year.[31] According to the IFPI, the song was the 9th biggest global single of 2019.[32] Another Breach track "Grace" reached a new peak of no.9 in the UK that year.[33] Both songs were included on his debut album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent. The instant grat single "Hold Me While You Wait"[34] entered the UK Singles Chart at no. 4.[35] The album was the biggest selling album in the UK in five years, spending five weeks at number one in its first six weeks of release.[36]
Capaldi was nominated for the Brit Critics' Choice Award at the 2019 Brit Awards, but lost to Sam Fender. At the end of March, Capaldi supported the Irish band Picture This at their shows in Ireland.[37] In April, the video game Days Gone that had featured his self-written song "Days Gone Quiet" in the end credits was released.[38] The song received nominations from the Game Audio Network Guild Awards[39] and the NAVGTR Awards.[40]
Over the summer of 2019, Capaldi performed at many festivals such as the Belsonic festival in Belfast, where he opened for the Killers,[41] and the Glastonbury Festival.[42] On 5 August, he performed songs from his album with the Manchester Camerata for a special Live Lounge Symphony concert in Croxteth, Liverpool.[43] From 16 to 26 August, he supported Ed Sheeran at the end of his Divide world tour, playing four gigs with him in Ipswich and Leeds.[44] Towards the end of the year, an extended edition of his debut album was released along with the single "Before You Go", which became his second UK Singles Chart-topper on 31 January 2020.[45][46]
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.[47] The initiative LiveLive [/lɪv/ ⓘ /laɪv/ ⓘ][48] was launched to help fans have a more comfortable experience at his concerts.[49] At the 2020 Brit Awards, Capaldi received three nominations, winning two awards.[5] Two songs written by Capaldi were also released that year: Rita Ora's "How to Be Lonely" and Sigala's "Lasting Lover".[50]
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In March 2021 Capaldi announced that he postponed all his upcoming shows to work on his upcoming sophomore album.[51] He returned in the summer of 2022 to play his postponed shows, including his headlining slots at the TRNSMT Festival,[52] the Latitude Festival,[53] and the Isle of Wight Festival.[54]
The lead single "Forget Me" from his second album, Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent,[55][56] was released in September 2022 and it became his first song to debut at the top of the UK Singles Chart.[57] His frozen pizza range Big Sexy Pizza was also released later that month in the UK supermarkets Iceland and Tesco.[58] He achieved his fourth number-one single when "Pointless" climbed to the top of the UK charts in January 2023.[59] In April 2023, Capaldi achieved his fifth number-one song on the UK Singles Chart with "Wish You the Best".[60] In May 2023, Capaldi was announced to be performing an intimate warm-up intimate set in June before Reading and Leeds Festival where James Marriott would support,[61][62] though Capaldi later cancelled the gig due to his poor mental health.[63]
In June 2023, Capaldi announced that he was taking an extended and indefinite break from touring, citing a need to focus on his mental and physical health. Earlier that month, Capaldi's set at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival was complicated by an apparent episode of Capaldi's recently diagnosed Tourette's syndrome, though concertgoers joined in to help him finish the performance.[64][65]
Capaldi is a fan of association football and supports the Glasgow-based Celtic F.C.[66] On his father's side, his first cousin twice removed is the actor Peter Capaldi, who appeared in his music video for "Someone You Loved".[67]
After his rise to fame, Capaldi started feeling anxiety and a pressure to perform. He started showing nervous tics. In September 2022, he revealed that he had been diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome.[68] During the COVID-19 pandemic, he moved back to his parents' house in Whitburn, Scotland, to work on his second album. In April 2023, his documentary How I'm Feeling Now was released on Netflix.[69]
Capaldi has been in a relationship with Scottish actress Ellie MacDowall as of June 2023.[70][71]
Growing up, Capaldi listened to heavy metal bands including Slipknot and Avenged Sevenfold, pop-punk bands such as Blink-182 and Busted,[72] and indie rock bands like Oasis and the View.[73] He discovered a love for "soulful pop music" from the work of Paolo Nutini and Joe Cocker.[74] Capaldi has expressed admiration for the 1975,[75] the Macabees,[76] Arctic Monkeys, the Beatles, and Bob Dylan.[77] Adele and Kings of Leon have also inspired his songwriting.[78]
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Main article: Lewis Capaldi discography |
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Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Lewis Capaldi |
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Headlining
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Supporting
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| Year | Title | Role | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | The Lewis Capaldi Symphony | BBC One special | [79] |
| 2020 | Birthday Song | YouTube documentary | [80] |
| Cup of Joe | Episode: "Berlin With David Hasselhoff & Lewis Capaldi" | [81] | |
| 2022 | Niall Horan's Homecoming: Road to Mullingar with Lewis Capaldi | Television special | [82] |
| 2023 | Lewis Capaldi: How I'm Feeling Now | Netflix documentary | [69] |
