Glasgow, UK · pop

Lewis Capaldi

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Scotland's self-deprecating balladeer — arena-filling heartbreak delivered between stand-up-quality banter.

Lewis Capaldi was born in Glasgow in 1996 and grew up in West Lothian. He first sang on stage at four years old during a family trip to France, learned guitar at nine, and began writing songs and playing pub gigs as a teenager, helped by his eldest brother sneaking him inside.

His breakthrough came through a bedroom recording posted online: a manager heard it and flew from the United States to Britain the next day to see him play live. His debut single, 'Bruises', released independently in 2017, became the fastest track by an unsigned artist to reach 25 million streams on Spotify, leading to a deal with Universal's Vertigo Berlin.

'Someone You Loved' topped the UK Singles Chart for seven weeks and later reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, going on to become the longest-running UK top-ten single by a British artist. It brought Capaldi a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year and Brit Awards for Song of the Year and Best New Artist.

His 2019 debut album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, topped the UK chart and became the best-selling album of both 2019 and 2020 there. A second album, Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent, followed in 2023, preceded by the single 'Forget Me'.

The songs themselves stay plainly worded, breakup-focused, delivered in a hoarse, high-volume voice over piano or guitar, in contrast to his broadly comic interviews and social media, a contrast that has become part of how he is known. Capaldi has spoken publicly about living with Tourette's syndrome and about stepping back from touring for his health.

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