Happy 25th Birthday Scottish singer/songwriter Lewis Capaldi born on October 17th 1996 in Glasgow.
Lewis is the youngest of four children. His mother is a nurse and his father is a fishmonger. He went to school at St Kentigern’s Academy Blackburn, the family having moved to that area when Lewis was about four, he went on to gain an HND in music at New College Lanarkshire, Motherwell, graduating in 2016. Lewis Capaldi began creating a buzz in early 2017 with the release of his debut single, Bruises, a brooding exploration of a failed relationship that introduced his intimate piano and vocal sound. The song hit number 2 in Scotland and 6 UK wide.
On the strength of his lone single, the Bathgate man sold out legendary Glasgow club King Tut’s and notched millions of streams before dropping his follow-up single, the equally stark “Lost on You,” later that summer. While the songs were not massive hits they certainly gained him many fans and had the record companies sniffing around looking to sign him
After signing with Virgin Records, Capaldi included both songs on his debut EP, Bloom, and capped off his banner year with a Scottish Music Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year.
The front half of 2018 was spent touring in North America and Europe in advance of his next single, Rush, featuring Jessie Reyez. Tough followed a few months later. Both tracks were featured on his next EP, Breach, which arrived in November of that year. The tracks performed well but still in my opinion never set the heather of fire This was all to change with the third single from the EP. “Someone You Loved” was a commercial success, peaking at number one in several countries including a hard nut to crack, the USA. It was what they call a sleeper hit over there, not reaching the top until its 24th week on the chart, one of the longest climbs to the top position in Billboard history, it spent three weeks at the top.
It earned him a Grammy nomination and another nomination as song of the year at the Brits.
In the NME Capaldi revealed that it took him six months to write the song. He said, “A lot of people say that ‘the best songs fall into your lap’ and that they’re the easiest ones to write and take the shortest amount of time: I wholeheartedly disagree with that. I think my best songs come from me sitting at a piano, bashing my head against a brick wall for hours and hours on end to get one good melody.”
Capaldi’s debut LP – titled Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent – arrived in May 2019 on Virgin EMI, it hit the top ten in 9 countries and number 1 in three of them, including the UK and of course Scotland as of September 2020 it had passed one million UK chart sales.
I love the wee guys sense of humour, he was slagged off by Noel Gallagher who remarked Lewis Capaldi: “Fucking Chewbacca should enjoy his 15 minutes” Lewis took it all in his stride, changing his Twitter username to Chewis Capaldi and updated his profile picture to him as Chewbacca. Capaldi later took to the stage at TRNSMT Festival in Glasgow wearing a Chewbacca mask! After removing the mask, Lewis dedicated his rendition of Oasis hit Don’t Look Back In Anger to his “dear, dear father” Noel and changed the title to “Don’t Chewbac In Anger”. Gallagher further endeared himself to us Scots by calling Scotland “a third world country"
Taking to Instagram, Lewis posted a video in which he expressed his pleasure that being the latest in a long line of musicians to be "slagged off” by Noel was better than having a number one record.
The mask later raised £10,000 to fellow Scots singing sensation Paolo Nutini before it was raffled off again to raise even more money for the mental health charity Tiny Changes which was set up in memory of Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison, who tragically took his own life the year before.
Since 2020, Capaldi has been in writing and recording sessions for his forthcoming second studio album which is expected to be released at some stage during 2022. He announced at the end of December 2020 that he'd be taking a break from social media to focus on work for the album.
It’s great that Lewis hasn’t been dazzled by the bright lights of London 18 months ago he was still staying with his mammy, but has since Capaldi bought Castlehill farmhouse in East Renfrewshire.
Just last week Scots TikTok sensation Nathan Evans got fans buzzing on social media as he shared a photo with West Lothian. The pair smiled on Evans' Instagram where he captioned the post 'Scotland’s finest' - and fans are desperate for a collaboration between the pair.
If you come across this Lewis, I hope the new songs are coming along nicely and look forward to hearing a lot more of you in the future.
I chose this live version of Fade, as I think it is brilliant.