‘I’ve never seen anything greater than this love’
Lewis Capaldi was forced to end his Glastonbury set early as he lost his voice – but the crowd happily helped the performer in “absolutely incredible moment”.
The 26-year-old fought through his set on the pyramid stage on Saturday night.
After performing fan favourite Bruises, Lewis admitted he was having voice issues, telling the crowd: “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 continued: “I just need you all to sing with me as loud as you can if that’s okay?”
And fans were more than happy to help.
“This is too emotional. Lewis Capaldi has crisis and lost his voice amidst performance at Glastonbury Festival, then the crowd lifted hum up by singing th song through for him word for word,” one fan wrote. Another said: “I’ve never seen anything greater than this love.”
Nevertheless, Lewis continued to apologise to the crowd, and the Eavis family who organise the festival, for his voice starting to go.
Before his final song, Lewis told the crowd: “I recently took three weeks off just because I’ve been non-stop the past year and I wanted to take a wee break from my head for my mental health.
“I wanted to come back and do Glastonbury because it’s obviously so incredible, so I just want to thank you all for coming out.
“I was scared but you’ve really made me feel at ease so thank you very much for that.”
Lewis added: “I feel like I’ll be taking another wee break over the next couple of weeks so you probably won’t see much of me for the rest of the year maybe even.
“But when I do come back, when I do see you, I hope you’re all still up for watching.”
At the end of the Glastonbury performance, Lewis told the crowd that he would take some more time off.
Paula Wickens, 53, a project manager from Newbury, and 59-year-old Claire Foley, a programmes manager in telecommunications, watched Lewis’ performance together.
Foley told the PA news agency that she “got quite emotional.”
“When he came on to do the penultimate song, and also when the Red Arrows flew over, that was pretty spectacular.
“I don’t think I’ve been to a concert as exciting as that. “He was very, very brave and very open and honest and the crowd absolutely loved that.”
Wickens added: “I was smiling like a child, my face hurts from smiling so much. He’s done so well and the fact that he even took his T-shirt off for us, I was like ‘wow, oh my God’.”
At the start of June, Lewis cancelled “all commitments from now” until he was due to take the stage at Glastonbury, saying he needed to prioritise his wellbeing.
In a statement on social media, the singer posted a “really difficult message” which he said “hurts me a lot to have to type.”
He said that the last few months have been “full on both mentally and physically” as he tours and promotes his new album, and that he would be taking the next three weeks off to “be Lewis from Glasgow for a bit.”
He finished by apologising to fans who have “spent money on travel or hotels” ahead of seeing him perform, before saying he was “getting all the help and support I need from the incredible people around me.”
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