Lewis Capaldi has cancelled his entire upcoming tour and announced he is taking a break from touring “for the foreseeable future” in order to “adjust to the impact” of living with Tourette syndrome.
The 26-year-old Scottish songwriter’s statement followed his performance on the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury on Saturday, in which he lost his voice and relied on the audience to help him sing his biggest hits. The set was his return to performance after announcing in early June that he was cancelling all dates in the lead-up to the festival in order to take care of his mental health.
During the show, he told the vast crowd that it was likely the last people would see of him for a while as he took another break.
In a statement confirming his upcoming absence, he wrote: “I used to be able to enjoy every second of shows like this and I’d hoped three 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 so much more time getting my mental and physical health in order, so I can keep doing everything I love for a long time.”
Capaldi apologised to fans who had planned to see him perform this year on a tour through Europe, Australia, east Asia, the UK and the Middle East. “I need to feel well to perform at the standard you all deserve,” he wrote. “Playing for you every night is all I’ve ever dreamed of so this has been the most difficult decision of my life. I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can.”
Capaldi released his second album, Broken By Desire to Be Heavenly Sent, in May. It debuted at No 1, with 95,000 units sold, making it the fastest-selling album of the year. It is now No 16 in the UK albums chart but set to rise 12 places to No 4 this week. Capaldi’s 2019 debut album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, has also risen 22 places to No 12 off the back of his Glastonbury performance. In March, Capaldi released a documentary, How I’m Feeling Now, which revealed his struggles with writer’s block and his mental and physical health as he tried to write the album.
Despite his struggles at Glastonbury, Capaldi’s set won praise from critics. In a four-star review, the Guardian called it “beautiful, supportive, truly communal, and a testament to the complex bond he has built with his fans; a real human triumph”.
The Guardian columnist Frances Ryan praised Capaldi for putting disability centre-stage: “We still live with the all-too common myth that disabled people should hide their disability, often out of deference to the feelings of non-disabled people watching … What the non-disabled gaze might see (well-meaningly) as “heartbreaking” or supposedly pitiable is often, in fact, just a disabled person living their life.”
