Lewis Capaldi Makes A Surprise Return At Glastonbury

Lewis Capaldi is back. Two years after stepping away from performing due to complications with Tourette syndrome, the Scottish singer made his grand return to the spotlight Friday with an unannounced set at the massive UK music festival Glastonbury. “It’s so good to be back,” Capaldi told the audience at Worthy Farm. “I’m not going to say much up here today, because if I do, I think I will probably start crying.”

Capaldi’s comeback comes two years after a moment at Glastonbury 2023 that informed his decision to put his career on hiatus, when he was unable to finish singing and the crowd at the festival’s Pyramid Stage joined their voices together to carry the performance to completion. In the lead-up to this year’s Glastonbury, Capaldi played a run of shows in his native Scotland in partnership with the health charity CALM. The short tour, staged in conjunction with Mental Health Awareness Week, helped the singer to assess his readiness for a return.

Friday’s surprise set included “Survive,” a new single released just hours before Capaldi returned to the Glastonbury stage. The song, an autobiographical ballad exploring the despair and mental health struggles associated with his medical condition, was a big hit out of the gate, racking up more than 1 million global streams in less than 12 hours. “I’ve still got something to give/ Though it hurts sometimes,” Capaldi sings. “I’m gonna get up and live/ Until the day that I die/ I swear to God I’ll survive.”

For “Survive,” Capaldi re-teamed with RØMANS, who co-wrote his 2019 smash “Someone You Loved,” a Diamond-certified, Grammy-nominated No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. For the video, he recruited director Hector Dockrill. He’ll be bringing the song to America in the coming weeks, with appearances lined up on ABC News’ Good Morning America Summer Concert Series on Monday, July 7 and NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday, July 14.

Listen to Lewis Capaldi’s “Survive” now.