Lewis Capaldi’s Glastonbury 2023 performance hailed as “amazingly powerful” by mother of teenager with Tourette’s

26 June, 2023

Lewis Capaldi

Lewis Capaldi‘s set at Glastonbury 2023 has been described as “amazingly powerful” by the mother of a teenager with Tourette’s.

While onstage on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury on Saturday (June 24), Capaldi was noticeably experiencing vocal difficulties, and exhibiting tics from his widely-publicised Tourette’s.

Speaking to the PA, Laura Hummersone, whose 19-year-old son Harry has Tourette’s, said that the performance and visibility of the condition was “amazingly powerful” as the pair watched at home on TV.

“Watching Lewis yesterday, in that moment, I think he did more for Tourette’s than any charity or education on the topic in all the times I’ve known about Tourette’s,” she said. “I was in tears.”

She added: “[Capaldi] was openly ticing and my son tries to suppress his most of the time when he’s out, which means that when he comes home, he has these huge tic attacks where he can barely do anything.

“Some of the tics that Lewis was doing were tics that my son does on a regular daily basis, jerking the head.”

Hummersone went on to hail the “acceptance, tolerance, understanding, empathy and compassion which the crowd showed yesterday,” calling it “phenomenal”.

“I wanted Harry to see the love from that crowd,” she added. “Nobody cared about Lewis’ ticing, they were carrying him through and little things like that show it is nothing to be ashamed of. That’s the big thing.”

During the show, Capaldi addressed the recent break he took prior to the festival performance, saying: “I recently took three weeks off. It was a break for my mental health and stuff.”

He then confirmed after the set that his mental health break would continue, saying: “I feel like I’ll be taking another wee break for the next few weeks, you might not see me for the rest of the year. But when I do come back and I do see you I hope you’re up for watching.”

During his Glastonbury set, Capaldi struggled with his voice several times. “My voice is going big time,” he said mid-set. “It’s really fucking packing in.” He went on to finish out the rest of his set, calling on the audience for help along the way.

Earlier this month, Capaldi cancelled all of his shows leading up to Glastonbury, explaining that the last few months have been a lot for him and it has taken a toll on him “both mentally and physically”.

You can catch up on all of NME‘s Glastonbury coverage in real time by checking out the live blogs for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

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