Lewis Capaldi has released a music video for his new single Forget Me and it’s a scene-by-scene remake of Wham!’s Club Tropicana music video.
And yes, it’s as good as it sounds. The Scottish singer has gone all the way: not only is he fabulously unselfconscious (think white speedos, looking thoughtfully out across the sea) but his music video is almost an exact duplicate of Wham’s 1983 original - it was even filmed at the same hotel in Ibiza.
There are scenes of Capaldi drinking cocktails at a pool party (still wearing speedos), on lilo speaking into a giant Eighties mobile (presumably closing important business deals), and playing the trumpet (both standing and while swimming in the pool).
The music video was made by award-winning director Louis Bhose who also made the video for Arlo Parks’ Green Eyes, Bombay Bicycle Club’s Eat Sleep Wake and has worked with Capaldi before on the video for track Grace.
Fans have come out in praise of the singer’s apparent body confidence: “This video is such a brave thing to do from him. I can’t express how much it means from a male point of view to see someone be so successful in the celebrity sphere and not need to have a 6 [pack] or look like a stereotypical fake Hollywood way. I applaud you Lewis, it means a lot to see someone with a similar body type to me for once,” commented one fan on the video.
Joking with fans in an Instagram post, Capaldi said: “Traumatising the general public in the name of self promotion. Sex sells” alongside a promotional photo of the singer in speedos (again) plastered across several billboards.
Forget Me is Capaldi’s first single since 2019’s Before You Go. Speaking about his new song Capaldi said: “I hope you like the song. If not, that’s fine too, but come on to f**k, I’ve heard some of the shite that’s been big over the last few years and it’s got to be a wee bit better than some of that. I’ll leave you with a quote from my mother: ‘It’s not the best song I’ve ever heard, but I do like it.’”
The 25-year-old first shared Forget Me during a gig at London’s O2 on September 2, which was simultaneously streamed on his Tik Tok account. The track was then officially released on September 9.
Wham!’s track Club Tropicana was released in 1983 and went on the peak at No. 4 in the UK charts. The English duo’s video was uploaded onto YouTube in October 2009 and has since garnered over 30 million views.
Capaldi has been lying relatively low recently, especially when compared to his 2019 explosion onto the scene. The singer’s 2018-released single Someone You Loved became one of the biggest songs of 2019: the track topped the UK charts for seven weeks, a year after its release it reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100, it won Capaldi the 2020 Brit Award for Song of the Year and it was nominated for a Grammy.
In May 2019 Capaldi then released his debut album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent which became the UK’s best-selling album of 2019 and 2020. In an interview with the BBC at the time, Capaldi said: “I don’t think I’m a pop star necessarily. I don’t think I have the poise or grace or air about me for that. I’m a singer - I’ve definitely done that a lot!”
Speaking about whether there was anything he would not share with fans, Capaldi said: “I had a haemorrhoid the other week and I took a picture of that I probably wouldn’t put that on the internet or any nude pics for that matter.”
Then, a month later, he shared a video on his YouTube channel called “I’m a god amongst men”: Becoming Lewis Capaldi, which took fans on a tour of his parent’s home in Bathgate in Scotland (which is about halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow) where he still lived.
Speaking to the camera, Capaldi said: “I’ve had a lot of good times spent in between these sheets, I got very hot and sweaty.
“I probably shouldn’t be saying this but I watched the entire Lord of the Rings film series back to back and I was in here for days – I didn’t open any windows, it really locked in the heat. It was disgusting.”
This week Capaldi also shared the news that he has Tourette’s syndrome during an Instagram live, saying, “It’s a new thing. I haven’t really learnt much about it. I got Botox in my shoulder to stop it moving but I’m learning new ways to cope all the time. Some days it’s more painful than others, sometimes it’s quite uncomfortable but I guess that’s it.”
Speaking on Lorraine yesterday, Capaldi said: “I got told like seven months ago or something like that, really recently. It made a lot of sense. To me, I am quite a jittery individual. A lot of people think I am on drugs when they meet me. I am not. At least not right now on Lorraine…”
According to the charity Tourettes Action around 300,000 people in the UK live with Tourette’s syndrome.
