By Brooke Ivey Johnson

Copyright metro

Lewis Capaldi finally has what he’s always been missing: A compelling story (Picture: Matthew Baker/Getty Images)

From the moment Lewis Capaldi stepped onstage at the O2 Arena in London on Tuesday night, there was an atmosphere of triumph.

Save Oasis’ reunion shows, rarely have I been to a concert with a sense of narrative climax as poignant as this one: Capaldi’s now infamous set at Glastonbury in 2023 was as much in the room with us as he was.

The festival was supposed to be a return to live performances after he had to cancel a series of gigs amid struggles with his mental health and Tourette syndrome, but instead, it was the final straw that pushed Capaldi to take two years off to focus on recovery.

He later described it as ‘the worst moment of my life,’ one he feared he’d never come back from.

That context made this O2 show feel less like a concert and more like a testament to resilience – a fitting theme for a singer whose catalogue is built on heartbreak and survival.

Unlike many pop stars, there’s never been a question of Capaldi’s talent. His rich, raspy tenor with a gravelly edge makes even polished studio recordings sound lived-in, and when he leans into his upper register, the strain only amplifies the emotional weight.

Capaldi has managed to turn his breakdown into a breakthrough (Picture: Chiaki Nozu/WireImage)

He offered fans a beautiful sense of resilience through vulnerability (Picture: Matthew Baker/Getty Images)

It’s a truly exceptional voice, and hearing it live is always going to be a profound pleasure.

But Capaldi used to have a real branding problem. He’s not a typical heartthrob; he tends to wear nothing more extensive than jeans and a T-shirt, there’s no aesthetic edge to his persona or his music, and there’s no real gimmick or hook. Just pretty songs sung in a pretty voice.

What he did have to set him apart in a crowded music scene was his sense of humour. He was the self-deprecating comic prone to filling shows with banter – sometimes at the expense of songs – who used to undercut his own ballads with a ‘here’s another sad one’ shrug and implied eyeroll.

While his laddishness earned him unexpected fans who wouldn’t have necessarily gravitated towards heartbreak ballads otherwise, the whole thing felt fractured and lacking in a clear sense of identity.

But now, after his very public battle with his mental health and Tourette syndrome diagnosis, he finally has a compelling story to hold it all together.

Where he used to do a kind of standup set during concerts, he now lets that story speak for itself with evident self-assurance, only occasionally riffing with the crowd.

The singer seemed far more at ease than he ever has previously (Picture: Matthew Baker/Getty Images)

Opening the show with his new track Survive, lines like ‘I still got something to give / Though it hurts sometimes / I’m gonna get up and live’ might have seemed too on-the-nose from another artist, but from Capaldi, it was a powerful declaration of personal philosophy.

That doesn’t mean he’s abandoned the humour that has landed him in so many ‘best of’ talkshow clip compilations.

At one point in the show, he quipped, ‘A lot of people in Sheffield in the front row did not f***ing like this song… they just gave me blank stares,’ drawing laughs.

But later, when he sat down at a piano, suddenly alone on stage, to deliver the upcoming release The Day That I Die, he seemed at ease with even his darkest sides.

He called it ‘the most personal song I’ve ever written’ and spoke briefly about how ‘s***e’ he was feeling before his break. When he said he now feels ‘genuinely the best I ever have,’ he earned roars from the crowd.

Capaldi expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the crowd (Picture: Chiaki Nozu/WireImage)

He fought back tears as he sang the heartwrenching new track – evidence that the joker and the tender balladeer have always been one, and have now finally merged into a single, compelling presence onstage.

Capaldi has never needed backup dancers or expensive production to hide behind, and this tour is no exception. However, the production value that was present managed to enhance the show without detracting from the music.

When drifts of confetti floated down mid-set, and the wristbands left in each seat lit up in unison, the effect was something akin to religious rapture.

Audience devotion might risk tipping a Capaldi gig into mass karaoke, but he never let the crowd do the work for him, visibly straining as he hit each soaring note, his effort making it all the more compelling. His voice has sounded stronger in the past, but it has never been as steeped in emotion – and emotion won the night.

Before closing with mega-hit Someone Like You, Capaldi stepped back from the mic and looked out over the crowd with genuine affection, not unlike the famous way Taylor Swift has been known to stare with awe at packed stadiums for minutes at a time.

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Yet in his case, the expression carried the weight of everything he has endured. When he said, ‘It’s not lost on me that all these people would show up and see us after this all time, so thank you very, very f***ing much,’ it was with the kind of genuine gratitude that earns an artist lifelong fans.

Yes, two hours of soul-baring ballads occasionally blurred together, and one wonders if Capaldi wishes for a few more uptempo songs to break up the intensity.

But the relentlessness created its own catharsis: even the most stoic listener was worn down into tears by the eighth swelling ballad. By the end, there truly wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Capaldi is no longer just the funny lad with the golden voice, whose persona seemed at odds with itself. He’s an artist who seems comfortable with the vast range of human experience, and in that context, his music no longer seems overwrought and cheesy, but earned, cohesive, and profound.

Capaldi once feared that Glastonbury 2023 spelt the end of his career. Instead, it has given him something far more powerful, something he was previously missing: a story.

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