I can't stop thinking about Lewis Capaldi

If you're in the UK, you'll know all about Glastonbury - if not, it might be new to you. Basically, once a year we have a massive music festival on a farm near the town of Glastonbury. It attracts literally anybody who is anybody. The coolest bands in the world come to look and act like true rock stars before massive crowds of adoring fans.

But this year, the performance that stood out among all the rest was something very different. It featured a chubby young man in an unflattering t-shirt who couldn't manage to sing his biggest hit.

Lewis Capaldi's Someone You Loved has broken all kinds of records around the world. It turned him from a nobody into a global superstar. But the fame came with pressure that triggered extreme anxiety and Lewis developed Tourette's Syndrome, characterised by involuntary twitches and noises. He recently took a carer break to focus on his mental health, but chose to appear to Glastonbury anyway.

His tics were visible from the start of his set, but they got worse as the performance went on. By the time he got to his big hit, he could no longer sing. Now Lewis's fans were there for sure, but this was a huge crowd, filled with people who didn't know anything about him or his illness. All those people knew was that the performer wasn't performing. And yet there wasn't a single boo, not a single catcall. Instead, the crowd picked up the song and carried it all the way through. And when it ended, they gave Lewis a huge round of applause.

Watch HERE or click the image below (but get some tissues ready!) and then come back because I think Lewis Capaldi has so much to teach every artist.

The crowd picked up the slack for Lewis because they saw his vulnerability and wanted to help him. He was standing in front of them, totally exposed and obviously struggling but he was trying his best. 

He's not slick. He's not handsome. He's not cool. But if you've ever seen him interviewed, you will understand why he's so loved. 

He's a truly genuine, down-to-earth, funny and kind young man. He's not perfect - he swears all the time for example and his humour won't be for everyone, but when you watch him, or hear him speak, you can't help but like him. He oozes authenticity - you simply can't imagine him saying anything dishonest.

That crowd had experienced this honesty throughout his set. By the time his anxiety took over, they had decided they liked him. And so they started to sing, and to cheer when he struggled - their hearts went out to him because they recognised themselves in him.

Lewis felt this performance was a disaster, but everyone watching knew it was a moment they would never forget. Capaldi transcended pop music and created a truly beautiful moment of human connection and he did it by simply being himself.

I'm hoping you see where this is going :) I talk a lot about authenticity, but I felt like this moment gave me a way to speak about it in a different way. 

Many of us feel that we are not good enough just as we are. We feel we are too fat or too old or too thin or too young. So we don't show up on video. We think our art is too bold or too conservative or too colourful or too muted, so we keep it to ourselves.

But it goes even deeper than that. If you don't like or accept yourself, you won't make the art that truly wants to come out of you. Instead you will make something inauthentic, something you think people will like (because you're sure they won't like the real you). And so you never express yourself truthfully, and we all lose out.

When I watched that Glastonbury video, I was just seized with the potential for all of us. Just imagine the rich tapestry that could be created if we all showed up as our honest, no holds-barred, no filters selves. Imagine if we ignored the rules about how to do things, and just did the thing that felt best to us.

I'm sure PR people and record industry execs would never advise a new pop star to look or act the way Lewis Capaldi does, and yet it has made him one of the most successful musicians on earth. What's more, after last weekend, his fans love him more than ever.

What does that mean for you? Maybe it means you can start a Youtube channel about your art, even though you don't like the way you look. Maybe it means you can make paintings that don't fit any established criteria. Maybe it means you can sell your art in a completely different way to everyone else. Or maybe it just means you can break a rule you've always thought you had to follow. You can add white gouache to a watercolour painting, or use collage, or paint with saturated colours or sprinkle every damn thing with glitter if you want to.

The more we see YOU, the more positively we will respond. The more you can touch our hearts, the more we will love you. And you won't touch our hearts by being polished or perfect.

Phew what a relief!

You can find out more about Lewis on any of his social media channels or by watching his amazing Netflix documentary.