Lewis Capaldi held back tears and said he was “lost for words” as he took the stage for a headline set at British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park, London.
A Triumphant Return to the Stage
Poised as one of the biggest moments of his career, Capaldi delivered powerful performances to more than 60,000 people, with hits such as: Before You Go, Someone You Loved and Bruises. The crowd sang and chanted the football chant: “Oh Lewis Capaldi” after he opened with his song Hollywood as the sun set over Hyde Park.
But towards the end, the artist grew emotional and held back tears as he spoke about his 2023 Glastonbury set which ended in a visible struggle and led to a longer hiatus from touring. The performance was a landmark moment in the Scottish artist’s career after his closely-watched journey back to the big stage.
Emotional Moments and Jokes
Speaking to the crowd he said: “It’s crazy to me here with you today. I didn’t know if this was going to be possible again,” he said. As he then began singing: The Day That I Die and the lyric “don’t cry”, Capaldi stopped and held back tears as he became visibly emotional. The crowd started again chanting: “Oh Lewis Capaldi” and he joked: “Shut the f*** up” before starting to sing again.
After kicking off the set, he told the crowd: “It’s very f***ing good to be here. Thank God, the first three songs are done. I was f***ing sh**ing myself,” he said in his opening remarks to the crowd. He went on to joke: “It’s a good thing I’m wearing brown trousers, baby. There’s too many people here. Thanks for coming. Thank you for being here with me tonight. Thank you for the money. Appreciate that. I’m genuinely a bit lost for words here everybody. Thank you. Coming to be doing two nights sold out at Hyde Park is a very strange thing indeed. We’ve been playing shows all summer but this feels really special.”
England Match and Pitbull Jokes
With his set starting ahead of England’s World Cup match against Norway, Capaldi joked that he hoped the crowd would stay until the end of his performance. The singer said: “I’m Scottish, most of you are English,” before joking: “Can’t we all live in peace and harmony?” He then proceeded to chant: “It’s coming home” before saying that he would not do an English accent.
“You could be anywhere else. Even if you do leave to go to the pub early – I mean, don’t, stay to the end, please. As many of you stay to the end as possible, but yeah. This is f***ing wild. Sorry, I’m just sort of catching my breath.”
He later spoke about Pitbull, whose British Summertime headline set the evening before broke the Guinness World Record for the number of people wearing bald caps. Capaldi joked: “I thought people would still be wearing the bald cap. I don’t know what would be the equivalent for me – like, hairy arse?”
Sam Fender Appearance
As he brought on chart-topping star Sam Fender, he said: “There’s another man who released his first single in March 2017. And that man had gone on to do some incredible things. Like recently becoming the longest-running British number one of all time, stadiums around the world, most importantly a dear dear close friend of mine.”
