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Ed Balls has reflected on his own experiences with stammering after Lewis Capaldi’s emotional Glastonbury set.
The Scottish star, 26, gave an incredible performance on the Pyramid Stage on Saturday, but struggled to finish his hit song Someone You Loved due to his Tourette’s.
That didn’t stop fans from getting behind him, though, as the thousands-strong Worthy Farm crowd belted out the tune while a tearful Lewis took it all in.
At the end of his set, Lewis apologised for his performance, saying he would be taking more time away from the spotlight to work on his mental health, leading to fans rallying around him and sending messages of love.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain on Monday, presenter Ed, 56, was full of praise for the Bruises hitmaker.
Susanna Reid, 52, also hailed him as ‘remarkable’ and was in awe of how the audience finished the song on his behalf.
The duo interviewed a 17-year-old musician who has Tourette’s too, with Ed explaining: ‘It’s so important to say because there was some reporting saying, “The crowd did brilliantly while Lewis Capaldi struggled”, but the truth was, it’s just part of who he is.
‘He did it, he came through it, and the crowd loved him for it.
‘I know with the work I’ve done with the children with stammering, the idea that it’s something you should try and hide or conceal or worry about actually makes it worse, so you just have to say, Lewis has this, and he deals with it.’
‘Yeah, you have to own it,’ praised Wilamena Dyer.
‘And for him, what’s so inspiring is this is a recent journey. Parts of this are very new so for him to still be owning it, still be on stage doing his best, is really incredible.’
She went on to explain how ’emotional’ it was to see Lewis be so supported by the audience.
Lewis Capaldi had the whole of Worthy Farm on his side when his Tourette’s meant he couldn’t finish a song (Picture: Shirlaine Forrest/Redferns)
Ed Balls relates to the singer, as he has a stammer (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
‘You could see they were just willing him to keep going and they really wanted to support him,’ said the musician, who has had ticks since she was four and say they can impact her breathing, just like Lewis.
Following the interview, Susanna said in conversation with Ed: ‘So, we were just talking about wonderful Wilamena and her experience with ticks and Tourette’s, and you really relate to that, don’t you? Because of the stammering issue.’
Ed replied: ‘I think that the tough thing for Wilamena is that, when she’s with her family, her friends, performing, after a while chatting with us, it’s just who she is.
‘But the challenge is, every time she meets a new person, she has to explain it all over again, or she has to go through that first stage of them thinking, “Well, this is unusual, how do I deal with this?”, and that is a lot of pressure and stress to carry.’
Former Cabinet minister and Gangnam Style Strictly star has been open about his stammer, becoming Vice President of Action for Stammering Children and persuading Colin Firth to join him.
Susanna Reid was in awe of the ‘remarkable’ moment as the Glastonbury crowd finished Someone You Loved for Lewis (Picture: Guy Bell/Shutterstock)
He said he’ll be taking more time away from the spotlight to focus on his mental health (Picture: Anthony Harvey/Shutterstock)
The former Labour MP has said he didn’t realise he had a stammer until he was ‘already in the Cabinet’ and speaking publicly all the time.
‘I spent two or three years trying to find out what it was and trying to work out how to handle the fact that sometimes my speeches dried up in TV interviews and in the House of Commons,’ he previously told The Independent.
‘It got worse when I became a Cabinet minister. We went off to investigate and was told it was an interiorised stammer.’
But, Ed believes his stammer has made him stronger.
Ed believes his stammer has made him stronger (Picture: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
‘The reality is that lots of things I’ve done since, like Strictly, have been much easier to do after dealing with a stammer,’ he went on.
‘It’s given me the confidence to do many difficult and fabulous things since. If I was choosing again, I’d choose a stammer.’
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.
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The Glastonbury crowd helped Lewis out when his ticks stopped him from finishing a song.
