Music
Video Diaries
The Video Diaries: Lewis Capaldi
Key moments in the career of the Scottish singer-songwriter, caught on camera
Lewis Capaldi is all over the map this summer, playing a huge run of outdoor and festival shows including two nights at London’s Hyde Park. The Scottish singer-songwriter and power ballad connoisseur is at his best live, where his emotive catalogue and soul-stirring vocals can truly shine. But that’s not to say that Capaldi hasn’t created some video content in his time that we consider essential viewing. From tearjerking music videos to live moments immortalised, we’re looking back through the archives to track Capaldi’s biggest moments on film.
2017 – ‘Bruises’
Lewis Capaldi’s self-released debut single has been re-released a few times since it first came out, with the official music video only dropping on his channel in 2020. But this live performance captures Capaldi’s authentic beginnings, as the singer performs the breakup track to brick walls and one lone accompanist. ‘Bruises’ made Capaldi the fastest-ever unsigned artist to reach 25 million plays on Spotify – a pretty momentous beginning.
2018 – ‘Rush’ ft Jessie Reyez
This collab with Canadian singer-songwriter Reyez was Capaldi’s first major duet, and the single features everything fans would come to love about Capaldi’s releases – stirring lyrics, soulful vocals and a relatable melancholy. Reyez and Capaldi’s emotive voices are hugely complimentary in this simple music video, which shows the two sitting at separate booths in a diner, lamenting the roadblocks in a relationship. Strangely, they seem unable to hear each other, despite the fact that neither are holding back in the vocals department.
2018 – Reading & Leeds backstage interview
In this quick sit down backstage at Leeds Festival before his set, a newly famous Lewis Capaldi decries being well-known enough to have rumours spread about him and showcases his now-famous sense of humour. It’s a neat snapshot of an artist unknowingly heading into the biggest year yet of his career.
2018 – ‘Grace’ live at Abbey Road
For the 2019 BRITS Critic’s Choice Sessions, Capaldi performed the fourth single from his debut album, Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, at the iconic recording studio. In contrast to the song’s tongue-in-cheek choreography-driven music video, this live performance feels appropriately reverent, with Capaldi’s vocals shining as always.
2019 – ‘Someone You Loved’
Like many of the singer’s best videos, a simple concept lets this emotional ballad shine. As Capaldi tries to walk away from a relationship after a breakup, his friends and supporters are there to keep him on the right path and stop him running back to her. Ultimately though, when the song wraps up it’s only him left on an empty street, rooting himself to the spot as his ex walks away.
This song was an enormous breakout hit for Lewis Capaldi. ‘Someone You Loved’ spent seven consecutive weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart, was certified Platinum and Diamond in a huge number of territories, and earned a Grammy nomination for ‘Song Of The Year’.
2020 – ‘Before You Go’
Capaldi’s second chart topper in the UK is a deeply personal track about Capaldi’s loss of his aunt to suicide, speaking to the singer’s career-spanning campaign for mental health awareness. The music video underpins this message, showing friends and family reflecting back on happy memories with a friend who is no longer around.
2022 – ‘Forget Me’ (Backstage Live)
The lead single from Capaldi’s second studio album, Broken By A Desire To Be Heavenly Sent, debuted at No.1 on the UK Singles Chart. This stripped-back version backstage before a gig is as off-the-cuff as it gets, displaying not just the song’s emotional power but Capaldi’s excellence as a live vocalist. The official music video for ‘Forget Me’ is much more upbeat, paying homage to Wham!’s ‘Club Tropicana’.
2023 – ‘Wish You The Best’
Audiences familiar with Capaldi’s knack for a heartbreaker were likely immediately made apprehensive by this video’s opening scene, in which an old man plays with his devoted dog. Sure enough, postman John Fry (played by acting great David Bradley) dies, leaving Willow the dog to mourn by his grave in the rain. Eventually, a new young postman spots her on his rounds and takes her home to warm her up, including her in his rounds the next day and taking her to visit her old owner in the graveyard. When Willow passes too, she and John Fry and reunited, with her new owner placing her collar atop the grave.
This tearjerker inspired many fans to record their distraught reactions to the video and upload them to social media. Capaldi laughingly responded to quite a few.
2025 – ‘Survive’ at Glastonbury
After his 2023 Glastonbury set was disrupted by his Tourette’s, Capaldi returned in 2025 for a surprise set, marking his first public performance following a hiatus. He debuted his comeback single ‘Survive’ live onstage, a song about pushing through adversity, and the resulting performance is an emotional watch.
2025 – ‘The Day That I Die’ (Official Live Video)
The fourth single from Capaldi’s third EP, Survive, is another emotionally raw offering, agreed by many critics to be one of his best anthems. Like many of Capaldi’s tracks, this live performance feels like the song in its correct format, shared with a connected live audience.
Lewis Capaldi will play festival and outdoor dates across the UK this summer – find tickets here
