Lewis Capaldi made a rare onstage appearance at Tom Walker‘s charity concert in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Capaldi, who announced he was taking a step back from touring in 2023, was the surprise guest at a benefit show on Friday (May 2) for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) at Assembly Halls.
Fans at the benefit gig were told to stay for a special guest after Walker’s set, with the promise of another surprise appearance alongside him and Nina Nesbitt, the BBC reports. Concert-goers were then stunned when Capaldi stepped out onstage for a six-song performance that ended with his hit “Someone You Loved,” which spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2019.
“Lewis Capaldi being a surprise guest was the best thing ever. What a gig,” one lucky fan wrote on X. Another added, “lewis capaldi coming out at tom walker oh i’m going to bawl.”
Attendees at the show were asked not to film any of the sets, with their phones stored in sealed Yondr pouches.
Friday’s event, held ahead of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week (May 12-18), marked the first of three phone-free gigs aimed at raising funds for CALM, a suicide prevention organization. The next show, on Tuesday (May 6), will feature Walker alongside Declan McKenna and Bradley Simpson at Stirling’s Albert Halls. And the final show will take place on May 10 at Glasgow’s Old Fruit Market, with performances by Nathan Evans, Saint PHNX and Caity Baser.
Capaldi announced he was taking a break from touring in a message posted to Instagram in June 2023, just days after struggling to perform “Someone You Loved” during his set at the Glastonbury Festival. Fans rallied to help him finish the song by lending their voices.
“Thank you to Glastonbury for having me, for singing along when I needed it and for all the amazing messages afterwards,” he wrote. “It really does mean the world.
Capaldi continued, “The fact that this probably won’t come as a surprise doesn’t make it any easier to write, but I’m very sorry to let you know I’m going to be taking a break from touring for the foreseeable future.”
The Scottish artist had previously been open about his struggle with Tourette’s syndrome, revealing his diagnosis in September that year. Months later, in an April interview with the U.K.’s The Times, Capaldi shared that he had been struggling to control his tics while performing, and admitted there may come a day when he would quit music because of it.
