There’s a poignant moment in singer Ed Sheeran’s new documentary, The Sum of it All, where he says he feels “embarrassed” for crying on stage when talking about a close friend who had suddenly died.
“My job is an entertainer and I didn’t feel like an entertainer,” he said. “I felt like just a man on the stage talking.”
Yet it’s this willingness to be vulnerable, spilling from concert to screen, which is so refreshing, relatable and compelling.
The 32-year-old, who recently won the second copyright legal case against him, goes on to break down several times as he speaks about navigating his grief, compounded by his wife Cherry’s cancer diagnosis.
Most importantly, perhaps, is that Sheeran’s four-part offering on Disney+ is part of an explosion of “pop star confessionals” taking music documentaries to a wholly raw and personal stratosphere.
In truth, much of their day-to-day lives seem largely miserable and pressured, dotted with occasional highs of packed stadiums and No.1 hits.
And this intimate share fest will perhaps serve to teach younger fans, whose digital lives are bombarded with slanted notions of fame on Snapchat and TikTok, a valuable and much-needed life lesson; fame is not a guarantee of happiness.
Far from it.
Fellow Brit singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi is so open in his own offering on Netflix, How I’m Feeling Now, that he, too, is frequently in tears.
The documentary charts how the Scottish star finds himself at breaking point after his initial rapid success, his struggles with anxiety and finally being diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome.
The very first lines set the tone for the entire documentary.
“I think I’ve never been more insecure in my life than I am now,” he said. “The success of the first one [album] made me feel more insecure and self-conscious of my own abilities … I feel like I’m in a race against the clock to get my mental health in order.”
We witness his parents tell him a new set of recorded songs are “rubbish”, and he’s seen emptying their dishwasher and cutting up chicken for supper.
‘Ordinary is a remarkable thing’
Like Sheeran, Capaldi’s multimillion-dollar wealth grows every second, as his songs are streamed in the hundreds of millions.
The 26-year-old could have spent the pandemic basking in a luxurious pad living off Uber Eats, but he was clearly happier at home in the kitchen with his mum and dad in his hometown of Whitburn.
“Ordinary is such a remarkable thing, there’s something to be said for that … beauty in like everyday life.”
All of Those Voices, the recent doco film by former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson, also captures the real-life struggles and triumphs of a singer who refused to be silenced by expectations.
In revealing their deepest feelings, influential cultural figures such as Sheeran, Capaldi and Tomlinson are bringing fame back to earth with a god almighty thud, in a way that is gaining traction in a modern world increasingly attuned to the importance of mental wellbeing.
Gone are the days of singers such as Freddie Mercury hiding an HIV diagnosis, or George Michael being initially afraid to reveal his homosexuality because he feared his fans would reject him.
Of course, there have been many music docos long before the likes of Sheeran and Capaldi were born. But often the lines were blurred amid a self-conscious need for branding, with a clear reluctance to step over the precipice from superstar to human being.
In Madonna’s Truth or Dare, released in 1991, the singer may have made some indiscreet quips about the actor Kevin Costner and did a rude scene involving an Evian bottle, but her facade never fell, making it impossible to garner who she really was.
And that’s what we all really want to know; the human behind the hits, the soul behind the songs.
And we love them all the more for it, especially, for example, when Sheeran reveals how he wrote his adored hit song Perfect just weeks after he began dating his wife. A wife he had never really even shown to the world until now.
There is a new-found confidence stars will still be accepted after peeling back the layers, no matter how personal. In fact, by sharing the song-writing process with their honesty and story-telling it’s cleverly hooking in their emotionally connected young fans even closer.
Yes, there are hints of private jets and hotel suites, but it’s certainly not a carefree life to necessarily aspire to. Misery will always win over luxe.
Need for approval
In Taylor Swift’s Netflix doco Miss Americana, released in 2020 and following several years of her life and career, she talks of the need for approval that drove her early ambition.
“I became the person everyone wanted me to be,” she reflected.
She talks about how the constant publication of paparazzi pictures led her into dangerous territory in regards to her personal self-image.
“I’m not in any way proud of it,” Swift said. “But I tend to get triggered by something where my tummy was too big or like someone said that I looked pregnant or something and that will trigger me to just starve a little bit, just stop eating.”
We witness a similar willingness to be vulnerable in Lady Gaga’s Netflix doco Five Foot Two.
We see the singer and actor writhe in pain from a back injury, and lament the fact that the most successful points in her career have also marked personal lows in her love life.
As a mother of a teen and tween, who are constantly streaming songs from superstar singers, I welcome this candid celebrity insight as we watch them grapple on screen with what values really matter most.
As Sheeran remarks in the closing minutes of his final episode, surrounded by family and friends in his garden: “Everything is in perspective … and nothing matters more than health and time with people.”
