Scots chart-topper Lewis Capaldi became an overnight sensation in 2018.
The Bathgate -born singer shot to fame with the global success of his single, Someone You Loved, after building a loyal online fanbase.
Capaldi, 25, started off his career performing in small pubs across Glasgow and Edinburgh - hard to imagine now as he continuously sells out huge arenas.
The West Lothian superstar has kept it quiet over the last two years as he focussed on his second album during the pandemic.
Here's an insight into Lewis Capaldi's rise to fame, from his famous cousin to who his songs are really about..
Rise to fame
Lewis always had an interest in music, as he started learning the drums at the age of two.
The Bathgate-born singer started playing in pubs way before he was able to have a drink in them ,at just 11-years-old, when his brother would take him in.
"I started playing the guitar when I was nine, because my older brother, who is six years older than me, he was doing it," he explains.
"I started writing songs from that age too, and when I turned 11 I wanted to play gigs. My older brother, he was in a band, and he got me into pubs.
"Obviously I was 11 so I wasn't allowed to be in a pub, so I'd have to go and hide in the bathroom before I played, and I'd always leave immediately after.
"I did that, kicking around throughout Scotland from then until the age of 19 or 20."
He released his first track Bruises on March 31, 2017.
Ryan Walter, his current manager, discovered him through an iPhone recording which Capaldi recorded in his bedroom, then uploaded online to SoundCloud.
Surprisingly, for the down to earth singer, the song soon built up close to 28 million plays on Spotify worldwide, which quickly made Capaldi the fastest ever unsigned artist to reach 25 million plays on the platform.
Capaldi went on to be awarded BBC’s Sound of 2018, The Great Scot Awards 2018 Breakthrough Award and Forth Awards 2018 Rising Star Award.
The same year he made various stage appearances, supporting Rag’n’Bone Man, Niall Horan, Kodaline and Sam Smith on tour.
He also took to the stage at various music festivals in the summer of 2018 playing Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Reading & Leeds Festival and Scotland’s very own TRNSMT.
Towards the end of 2018, Lewis released his second EP ‘Breach’, containing songs ‘Grace’ and ‘Someone You Loved’ which became his breakthrough single.
It remained at Number 1 in the charts in the UK for seven weeks before being named the best selling song of the year.
He told the Sunday Mirror: “That will never happen again in my career, I can tell you that now.
“I don’t deserve to have a No 1 for seven weeks – no one deserves to have a No1 for seven weeks. It’s an anomaly.
“When a song does that, it’s so much bigger than you. I felt it was happening to someone else and I was just watching. I just remember it feeling so surreal.”
In 2019 Capaldi made history by becoming the first solo artist to sell out an arena tour before the release of an album.
After the tickets went on sale, the show sold out in just one second for his 2020 tour.
It was reported to be the first time anybody has planned a tour in such large venues before their debut album had even been released.
"I mean, I was quite content when we were doing our tour at the end of last year," Capaldi told Bournemouth Echo.
"We were doing gigs in 2,000 capacity rooms and I was like, 'This is incredible, this is as big as I'm ever going to get and that's absolutely fine'.
"I've always been quite laid-back. When I first got my manager, I said all I want to do is play King Tut's, which is a place in Glasgow for 500 people - that's a goal.
"And then I did it, and now it's gone beyond anything that I could have ever hoped for."
He laughs: "So all of this is a complete surprise."
Later that year, Someone You Loved reached Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, which made him the first Scottish solo artist to top the US chart since the ’80s.
First album success
Capaldi debuted his album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent which subsequently became the best selling album in the UK in the last five years, spending five weeks at number one.
After only two weeks of release, the album achieved gold status in the UK.
In February 2020, he went on to win Song of the Year and Best New Artist at the 2020 BRIT awards.
Lewis admits he couldn’t have made his debut album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, without the help of his mum and dad, nurse Carol and Mark, who runs a fish and chip shop.
He told the Sunday Mirror: “Even when I was younger, as soon as I wrote a song I would go straight downstairs and play it to my mum and dad. My mum has got this face where if she thinks something is terrible, she just can’t hide it.
“I got into a bit of a rut where I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m good at this any more.’ Then, by the end of the album, you have to go, ‘Sit down,just finish something.’”
Lewis admits that finding fame overnight has been hard to handle – and his mum sometimes worries about him.
He continued: “It just sometimes feels like it’s all happening a bit too fast and I have to kind of stop and go, ‘Right, it’s all good, we’re fine.’ I sometimes get scared.”
However, the star is a dab hand when it comes to dealing with online trolls.
Lewis said: “I grew up very thick-skinned. My family take the mickey out of each other to show affection and I think it’s just part of being Scottish as well.”
The Scottish sensation announced in January 2021 that he would be taking a social media break, to focus on his second album.
Romance
Capaldi dated Scottish Love Island winner Paige Turley when the two studied together at North Lanarkshire College.
.In a radio interview in New Zealand, he joked he would like a cut of her £50,000 prize fund if she wins, joked: “The prize is like, £50,000.
“And I’ll be like, ‘Well, they asked you to go on it, I’m not saying I’m the reason but, also, sling me a couple of grand.’”
He said their split was “amicable” and they have known each other “for years.”
Capaldi added: “I’ve known her for years, we were 18 when we first met, 19 when we first started going out and 20 when we finished going out.
“It was fairly amicable, the split. She never told me she was going on the show.
“That would have been a nice heads up! But I mean fair play, good luck to her.”
Asked whether he’ll be watching it, he replied: “Aye, I’ll be watching it and going, ‘Go on Paige! Come on, come on!’
“And when she’s on a date with a boy I’ll go ‘Come on! Kiss him!’ I hope she wins.”
When asked about Paige during an interview with The Independent, Capaldi said: “Everyone thinks ‘Someone You Loved’ is about Paige, it’s actually ‘Bruises’, and a bunch of other songs on the album that are about [Paige], but ‘Someone You Loved’ is about my grandma.
He continued: “This sounds very crass, but when you go out with a singer they can write songs about you and make money from that. So she’s got every right to talk about it, too.”
The West Lothian singer confirmed again that the song wasn't about Paige when he collected his BRIT Award for Song Of The Year in 2020.
Swigging from a bottle of Buckfast, he aid: "Contrary to popular belief, a lot of people think this song is about my ex-girlfriend, who you can now see every night on Love Island."
"It's actually about my grandmother who has sadly passed away a few years ago.
"I hope to god that ITV don't contact her to be on a reality TV dating show."
Famous family
Lewis isn't the only celebrity in his family, as many have probably guessed by their surnames - he is related to none other than Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi.
Lewis told the Record: “My dad and my aunties told me we were related to Peter a while ago, I think he’s my dad’s second cousin.
“Whenever he came on the TV they’d always say ‘You’re related to Malcolm Tucker’ or ‘you’re related to Doctor Who.’
“None of us had met him though so when my agent mentioned he’d been in touch asking about coming to my show in London I said ‘yes, of course!’
“He came backstage afterwards to say hello and we had a great chat.
“We talked a bit about the family connection and he said he really liked the music, so that was really nice of him. He’s a really cool guy.
“It’s a big inspiration to have someone so successful in the family.”
Peter then went on to star in the music video for Lewis' number one song, Someone You Loved.
Speaking to the Big Issue, Lewis said "We were at the record label and I was explaining what I wanted to do to raise awareness with this video. Very flippantly I was like, 'We could ask Peter Capaldi'."
He said, "My manager had his email from when he came down to the show last year, he emailed and literally the next day, my manager gets a phone call from Peter saying, 'Mate, I’d love to do this, send me over the script, I’d be honoured to be involved'."
Hiatus
The Scottish sensation announced in January 2021 that he would be taking a social media break, to focus on his second album.
Capaldi tweeted: "See you all later in the year with a new album to shove down your throats"
Underneath was a lengthy note explaining the reasons behind his decision, which read, “Honestly been the most incredible few years and it means the world to have the support of all of you. Going to f*** off for a wee bit now to crack on and finish the second album.”
“Won’t be using any social media, so you’ll all have to make do without me talking s**** and constantly trying to take your money by flogging you something.
"Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year and I’ll see you big lovely b******* later in the year with some new music that I imagine will be universally panned by critics and will fail to be as commercially successful as my last outing."
The Grammy-award winning singer concluded by saying, "Thus spelling the beginning of the end of the 15 minutes of fame, that quite frankly, I never deserved in the first place. IT’S ALL VERY EXCITING. LOVE YOU, STAY SAFE AND BYE FOR NOW.”
He broke his social media silence two months later to reflect on the previous year and announced he would be rescheduling his tour to 2022 due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.
Although he has not yet commented on it, event organisers have confirmed Capaldi is set to headline 2022 TRNSMT music festival at Glasgow Green.
Comeback
Lewis is preparing to come back to the music scene later this year after taking time off.
The singing sensation exclusively told the Daily Record earlier this year that he "can't wait" to show fans his new material.
Lewis, 25, said: "I have been busy in the studio and everything is getting into a bit more shape.
"I can't wait to get the songs out now and release my new music. It's been a long wait for everyone."
In early 2022, the Someone You Loved singer announced his first solo comeback show of the year in Wales.
Lewis will perform at Cardiff Bay’s Alexandra Head, as part of a spectacular open-air series of shows this summer.
Fans are eagerly awaiting new music from the Before You Go singer, and his new album is set to be released later this year.
He has enlisted the help of One Republic frontman Ryan Tedder who told The Sun's Bizarre column: "I was playing the songs an hour ago in the car and it’s just like, goosebumps!
"The guy could sing a random song in Spanish and it would still give me goosebumps. He’s so good.”
The 42-year-old has penned some of the biggest pop hits to date from Beyonce's anthem Halo and Rumour Has It from Adele's smash hit album 21.
It was also announced last year that Capaldi would be the centre of a brand new documentary focussing on his life.
The West Lothian -born talent will reveal behind the scenes action during his rise to success in the project with BAFTA -winning director Joe Pearlman and Pulse Films.
The as yet unnamed documentary was filmed over a five-year period and sees Lewis reveals his hopes and fears throughout his incredible rise.
Lewis joked about the project: "“If the immense pressure of writing and recording a second album that has to live up to the expectations of so many people I’ve never met while also attempting to eclipse the commercial success of my previous album wasn’t enough, I decided to film the process in its entirety for your viewing pleasure.
"I’m very excited to potentially capture the making of the best album of all time, or more likely, to permanently document the scorching of my dreams as years of my life’s work is received like a pile of flaming s***e.
"Either way, it’s going to be lots of fun and will be lovely to have people along for the ride."
After a two year break, Capaldi is set for a massive comeback in 2022 as he's booked to perform at Parklife, Isle of Wight, Glasgow's own TRNSMT and more.
Tickets to see Lewis Capaldi are available here.
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