When Lewis Capaldi fans stepped in to sing as star battled Tourette's on stage

16 July 2025, 17:42

During a powerful Glastonbury set, Lewis Capaldi’s visible struggle with Tourette’s was met with overwhelming crowd support.

In June 2023, Lewis Capaldi was at the height of his career, boasting multiple chart-topping hits, sold-out arenas, and a reputation for deeply emotional performances.

Yet behind the scenes, he was managing a personal challenge — his struggle with Tourette’s syndrome.

It was at that summer’s Glastonbury Festival that the world caught a rare glimpse of this battle, as Lewis’s tics briefly took over on stage, prompting an outpouring of support from the crowd.

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A now-viral video from June 24, 2023, on Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage captures a powerful moment of connection between Lewis and his audience.

By this point, Lewis Capaldi had publicly revealed his diagnosis of Tourette’s syndrome — first discussing it in interviews in late 2022, and exploring it in depth in his April 2023 Netflix documentary Lewis Capaldi: How I'm Feeling Now.

As Lewis began performing his hit 'Someone You Loved,' his tics became more pronounced, causing his voice to falter and his shoulder to jerk visibly.

But rather than falter, the Glastonbury crowd responded with overwhelming support — tens of thousands of fans joined in, singing the lyrics back to him and carrying the performance in an extraordinary act of solidarity and compassion.

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Visibly emotional, Lewis wipes his face, smiles through tears, and raises his hand in thanks, overwhelmed by the scale of the crowd’s support.

The moment pulled back the curtain on a condition Capaldi had only recently spoken about publicly, a neurological disorder that he’d been learning to manage in real time.

Straight after the Glastonbury gig, Lewis announced a break from the spotlight, admitting in a recent interview that he thought his career was over.

In a conversation, released to mark his new 2025 partnership with online therapy app BetterHelp, Lewis reflected on the 2023 performance at Worthy Farm as "literally the worst moment" of his life.

"It was a big, big, big old gig," he explained.

"Second song in I was probably just like ‘this has to like… I can’t keep doing this to myself and other people as well’.

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"People were coming to gigs, and I was like ‘that’s not how you want to watch a show’.

"As far as I was concerned, I was like, ‘I’m done indefinitely’.”

The 28-year-old said he felt anxious because he "wasn’t living in the moment at all" and was “catastrophising," adding: “Therapy has been such a massive part of my last two years, a massive part of the reason that I’m able to be a musician again.

Lewis Capaldi’s Tourette’s Episode at Glastonbury 2023 | Emotional Crowd Singalong

2025 saw Lewis return to the Pyramid Stage with a surprise 35-minute set, marking a powerful comeback.

Ahead of his 2025 Glastonbury performance, Lewis revealed he’d quietly played "secret gigs" in Scotland to prepare, describing them as "warm-up shows" to help him "ease in".

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Reflecting on his first warm-up set in Edinburgh, Capaldi said he experienced a "rush of adrenaline" before managing to settle his nerves.

"Before I did the last song, I was just explaining to everybody who was there how grateful I was that they had shown up and come along," he said. "I think I didn’t realise how much I actually missed being on stage, and then I just started to cry."

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Tourette’s syndrome is a neurological condition that causes involuntary movements and sounds known as tics.

These can include blinking, shoulder jerking, or vocalisations, and symptoms often intensify under stress, fatigue, or excitement — all common in high-pressure performance settings.

Capaldi revealed on Instagram Live in 2022 that he had been diagnosed with the condition earlier in the year.

"I have Tourette’s," he told fans.

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"When they told me, I was like, 'That makes so much sense,'" he said. "When I look back at my interviews from 2018, I can see I’m doing it."

"Some days it's more painful than others, sometimes it’s quite uncomfortable," he added, noting that his shoulder twitches were the most visible symptom.

Capaldi continued to speak candidly about his decision to share his Tourette’s diagnosis publicly, explaining that he "didn’t want people to think I was taking cocaine or something."

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He described how the condition affected him personally: "My shoulder twitches when I am excited, happy, nervous or stressed," adding, "It is something I am living with."

To help manage his symptoms, Capaldi revealed he’s been undergoing botulinum toxin treatment to ease the twitching in his shoulder and said he’s "learning new ways to cope all the time."

The thing that's made the biggest difference in Lewis's return to the stage? Therapy.

"I feel amazing after, it’s like going to the gym, I think, which obviously I’m well versed in," he joked.

"Sometimes it can be really difficult, but I think I do it because I realise how important is for me to continue to feel good, because I’ve felt the best I felt in a long time through therapy.

"I would say that has been the cornerstone of like, why I feel how good I feel now."