Lewis Capaldi plays emotional not-so-secret comeback set at Glastonbury

Lewis Capaldi has made an emotional comeback with a “secret” performance at Glastonbury – two years after announcing a break from the spotlight, where he struggled on stage at the festival.

After revealing his new song, Survive, earlier in the day, Capaldi took to the Pyramid Stage and surveyed the huge crowd before him, before launching straight into his 2019 hit, Before You Go.

“Glastonbury, how you doing?” was the simple introduction after the first chorus, and then came his second song, Grace.

Before the next one, the Scottish star took it all in again and told the audience: “Glastonbury, it’s so good to be back… I’m not going to say much up here today because if I do, I’ll probably start crying.”

But, he added, he wanted to thank his fans, and “finish what I couldn’t the first time round”.

Along with the headliners and the Sunday afternoon “legends slots”, secret sets from the likes of Foo Fighters, The Killers, and Radiohead have become some of the most talked-about performances at Glastonbury in recent years.

This time round, there had been much speculation about some of the big unannounced slots on the bill – in particular the TBA act scheduled to appear on the festival’s main stage, the Pyramid Stage, just before Alanis Morissette on Friday afternoon.

With various clues trailed on social media and in Glasgow, where Capaldi was born, and Castle Cary, near Glastonbury, by the time Capaldi walked on stage, it was in reality no secret to all but a few of the huge crowd that had turned out for the “surprise”.

The 28-year-old acknowledged the absurdity of his set being “TBA”, describing it as the “worst kept secret” and joking: “I don’t know who’s been f*****g telling people.”

There were chants of “Oh, Lewis Capaldi!” from the crowd before he began his next songs, including Hold Me While You Wait, Bruises, Forget Me, and Someone You Loved.

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His performance was more than just a surprise set.

A few months before his last appearance at Glastonbury, again on the Pyramid Stage, in 2023, Capaldi had released the all-access documentary, How I’m Feeling Now.

It showed his rise from viral hit-maker to a star whose debut album, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, became the biggest-selling in the UK in its year of release – and the year after, too.

No mean feat when you consider his competition – Ed Sheeran was second in 2019 and Harry Styles in 2020.

Fans have always loved Capaldi not just for his talent as a singer and songwriter, but for his class-clown humour and his unfiltered, indifferent style.

But his sense of humour and anti-celebrity attitude masked struggles with his mental health and Tourette’s, which he spoke about candidly in the film.

At Glastonbury in 2023, the strain was clear.

Prior to the performance, he had cancelled several shows to rest and recover. On stage, he apologised as he prepared to belt out his hit song Someone You Loved.

“I’m going to be honest, everybody, but I’m starting to lose my voice up here, but we’re going to keep going and we’re going to go until the end,” he told the crowd.

“I just need you all to sing with me as loud as you can, if that’s okay?”

And of course they did, the voices of tens of thousands of people carrying him through.

In a statement afterwards, the star said the sentiment had meant “the world”, before announcing a break for “the foreseeable future”.

“I used to be able to enjoy every second of shows like this, and I’d hoped three weeks away would sort me out,” he said.

“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 much more time getting my mental and physical health in order, so I can keep doing everything I love for a long time to come.”

In May, Capaldi performed his first show in two years – a charity gig in Edinburgh to raise funds for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm), a mental health charity he has supported over the years.

For most artists, playing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury is a dream. Now, Capaldi has achieved it once again – this time, fans didn’t need to help him with the sing-along, but of course they joined him anyway. The love from the audience was clear.

“How far will you go to get back to the place you belong?” is one of the lines from Survive.

With this performance, Capaldi showed that this, one of the world’s most famous stages, is still that place for him.