In front of thousands of adoring fans at the world’s most iconic music festival, he began to falter, overwhelmed by an episode of the Tourette’s syndrome he has been so open about since his 2022 diagnosis.
But far from being a moment of heartbreak or disaster Lewis Capaldi triumphed, as a musician, a human being — and as an advocate for disabled people everywhere.
“I really apologise,” the 26-year-old singer told the crowd who had gathered to watch him on Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage this weekend. “You’ve all come out and my voice is really packing in. We’re gonna play two more songs if that’s cool, even if I can’t hit all the notes.”
The crowd didn’t fall silent. Instead they sang one of his best-loved songs, Someone You Loved, along with him and in some places for him, in scenes which swiftly went viral.
The incident was deeply moving — evidence of solidarity, support and acceptance.
Following his Worthy Farm performance Glasgow-born Capaldi announced in a statement posted to Instagram that he would be taking a break, a move which will see him cancel 24 live dates he has scheduled for the rest of this year’s Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent tour.
“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,” he wrote, after expressing thanks for the support he had during and since Glastonbury.
“Playing for you every night is all I’ve ever dreamed of so this has been the most difficult decision of my life. I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can.”
Tourette’s syndrome is a neurological condition that causes involuntary movements and sounds called tics. Some 300,000 adults and children in the UK have been diagnosed with it. “In the past, it was often misunderstood and stigmatised due to a lack of awareness and misconceptions surrounding the condition, which in some cases lead to social ostracism and discrimination,” explains Abbas Kanani, pharmacist at Chemist Click.
Capaldi has been open about how the condition manifests for him personally and how it makes him feel, explaining his left shoulder and his head both twitch, which can be painful as well as exhausting.
He has also disclosed how others perceive him when he tics. “People think I’m on cocaine a lot and I’m not,” he said on the Jonathan Ross Show last autumn. “Now I’m the poster boy for Tourette’s, and I’ll accept that.”
“Capaldi opening up publicly about his disorder and how it affects him will no doubt help to raise awareness about Tourette’s syndrome and reduce the stigma associated with it, on a global scale,” says Kanani. “His transparency and unique ability to connect to his fans will help to dispel myths and promote empathy and support for people with the condition, as people see first-hand the impact it can have on a person. As a successful musician and through choosing to share his story, people will be able to understand that the condition does not affect intelligence or capabilities and people with Tourette’s syndrome have no control over their tics, which in turn will help to build a more inclusive society.”
Glastonbury’s positive, inclusive reaction to Capaldi was echoed online, with people from various disability communities praising his candour and lauding the moment’s significance.
Disability rights campaigner Cameron Wood took to Twitter to write: “Take a bow all those at Glastonbury who showed #LewisCapaldi love… As a disabled person, I wish that all those living in our society are like all of you.”
“Seeing someone struggling with tics but putting on a world-class performance inspired my young son to embrace his condition” said one mother on Twitter.
Another wrote: “Just caught the audience singing for #LewisCapaldi when he couldn’t and honestly, as a mum of kids with additional needs, thank every sngle one of you who just sang and didn’t judge and was just happy to be there for him.”
A third, Laura Hummerson, a mother of a 19-year-old Tourette’s sufferer told ITV news that the performance “did more for Tourette’s than any charity or education on the topic in all the times I’ve known about Tourette’s.”
As Dr Frances Ryan, a columnist for The Guardian and a disability advocate, points out: “Non-disabled people are taught from an early age that disabled people are either tragic or inspirational – if they’re not ‘overcoming’ what ‘holds them back’, they’re miserably failing.”
All too often disability evokes pity and awkwardness — it’s a direct result of ableism. As a society we are not used to seeing disability in the limelight, but Capaldi was on one of the most famous stages in the world with the pain and difficulty of his condition laid bare and he was met with nothing but acceptance. He evoked empathy, not heartbreak. In fact, the only heart-breaking thing about the incident is perhaps how unusual such displays of humanity and compassion are. So unusual they are front page news.
It is also worth remembering that Capaldi also evoked feelings of deep admiration for his talent, awe at his resilience and joy at his sense of humour (the Royal Airforce Aerobatic Team flew past mid performance and he commented, “So they just thought ‘You know what that Lewis Capaldi set needs, send in the Red Arrows’.”). He showed the world that these things cannot be eclipsed by his Tourette’s syndrome and in doing so has single handedly changed the perception of a much misunderstood condition.
