Lewis Capaldi

In 2014 Capaldi took part in a three-date tour as part of the 'Hit the Road' project run by The Scottish Music Centre. He played in Dumfries, Edinburgh and Fort William alongside Jacob and Rory Green and Zoë Bestel.[12] Aged 18, he was discovered by his manager Ryan Walter through an iPhone recording Capaldi recorded in his bedroom and had uploaded to his SoundCloud account. The day after first contacting Capaldi, Walter flew from America to Britain to hear Capaldi play live.[13][14]

He released his debut extended play recording Bloom EP on 20 October 2017,[15] on which he worked with Grammy Award-winning producer Malay, a long-time collaborator of Frank Ocean.[16] He later released his first track "Bruises" on 31 March 2017. The song quickly amassed close to 28 million plays on Spotify worldwide, making him the fastest ever unsigned artist to reach 25 million plays on the platform.[17] Shortly afterwards, he was signed to the German branch of Universal Music Group, and was assigned to Vertigo Berlin division. His releases are distributed in UK by Virgin EMI Records and in North America by Capitol Records.[18]

Capaldi performing at the 2018 Ilosaarirock Festival in Joensuu, Finland

In late 2017, Capaldi was named as one of Vevo dscvr 'Artists to Watch 2018'[19] and he won Best Acoustic at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards.[20] Capaldi was also long-listed for BBC Music's Sound of 2018.[21]

He supported Rag'n'Bone Man on his European tour in November 2017, and Milky Chance on their North American leg of the Blossom tour in January 2018. He attracted attention from celebrities including Chloë Grace Moretz, Kygo, James Bay, Ellie Goulding[22] and Niall Horan.[23] Subsequently, Horan invited Capaldi to support him on two dates on his Flicker World Tour at the Glasgow SEC Armadillo in March 2018. In May 2018 Capaldi joined Sam Smith on their The Thrill of It All European Tour, opening for Smith over 19 dates. He followed this by announcing a fourth headline UK and European tour, this time playing 2000 capacity venues across the UK and Europe, including two nights at Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom, with both shows selling out.

On 13 July 2018 Capaldi was named as one of two acts in BBC Radio 1's 'Brit List', guaranteeing him three successive incremental Radio 1 playlist places. In August 2018, Irish Indie rock band Kodaline invited Capaldi to open for them at a concert in Belfast.[24] In addition to this, Capaldi was included in the line-ups for many festivals during the summer of 2018, including: Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Firefly, Mountain Jam, Osheaga, Reading & Leeds Festival, Rize and TRNSMT. Capaldi's second extended play Breach was released on 8 November 2018, which included previously released singles "Tough" and "Grace", along with new songs "Someone You Loved" and a demo of "Something Borrowed". Zane Lowe premiered "Someone You Loved" on Apple's Beats 1 radio on the day of release.[25] On 14 November 2018 Capaldi performed a cover of Lady Gaga's "Shallow" from A Star Is Born live on BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.[26]

Capaldi opened 2019 with his breakthrough single "Someone You Loved" charting in over 29 countries. The song spent seven weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart. His debut album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent followed in May which became the best selling album in the UK in five years, spending five weeks at number one in its first six weeks of release. The album also achieved gold status in the UK only two weeks after release.[27] At the 2019 Brit Awards, Capaldi was nominated for the Brit Critics' Choice Award, but lost to Sam Fender.

Capaldi also made history by becoming the first artist to sell out an arena tour before the release of an album. The shows sold out in one second upon tickets becoming available and will see Capaldi play to over a quarter of a million people in March 2020.[28]

In August 2019, Capaldi supported Ed Sheeran at the end of his Divide world tour, playing five gigs with him in Ipswich and Leeds.[29]

At the end of October 2019, "Someone You Loved" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, making him the first Scottish solo artist to top the US charts since Sheena Easton in 1981.[30] On 30 October, Capaldi was announced as an opening act for Niall Horan's Nice to Meet Ya Tour, set to begin in 2020.[31] "Someone You Loved" was nominated for Song of the Year at the 2020 Grammys,[32] and Capaldi received three nominations at the 2020 Brit Awards, winning two awards.[4] His single "Before You Go" from the extended edition of Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent became his second UK singles chart topper on 31 January 2020.[32]

In September 2020 Capaldi's Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent passed one million UK chart sales.[33] In December 2020 he performed Someone You Loved and Before You Go along with a cover of the Wham song Last Christmas at the Jingle Ball.