What is Tourette’s Syndrome? Lewis Capaldi struggles with health issues during set at Glastonbury

Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi cancelled a number of gigs in the run-up to Glastonbury, citing health concerns in a statement released on social media and sparking fears that he may be forced to pull out of one of the world’s biggest and best-known music festivals.

The 26-year-old has been on tour for most of 2023 and had been due to play in Glasgow, Dublin, London and Norway earlier this month but stated that he needed some time to “rest and recover” after struggling “mentally and physically” in recent times.

He wrote: “It’s been such an incredible time leading into this new album, and seeing all the support from everyone has been beyond I could have ever dreamed of.

“That said, the last few months have been full on both mentally and physically, I haven’t been home properly since Christmas and at the moment I am struggling to get to grips with it all.”

Capaldi a big draw at Glastonbury

Glastonbury is one of the most illustrious festivals in the world and Capaldi’s presence at the 2023 edition was a major draw for music fans. Last month he released his second studio album, ‘Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent’, which reached number one in the UK album chart.

Glastonbury crowd shows support after on-stage struggles

And despite his recent struggles, Capaldi made his on-stage comeback during his scheduled set on the Pyramid stage on Saturday. Things didn’t quite go as he would’ve wanted, however, with vocal problems and Tourette’s syndrome tics making it difficult for him to complete his set. “Glastonbury, I’m really sorry,” he said. “I’m a bit annoyed with myself.”

However, the crowd, the vast majority of whom will have been well aware of the tough time Capaldi had gone through before the festival, rallied round and did most of the work in his final few songs, with the Scot joining in when he could as he walked round the stage, seemingly in awe at the support he had been shown.

“I feel like I’ll be taking another wee break over the next couple of weeks. So you probably won’t see much of me for the rest of the year, maybe even longer. But when I do come back and when I do see you, I hope you’re still up for watching us,” Capaldi revealed before heading off stage.

Capaldi discussed Tourette’s syndrome diagnosis last year

Last year, the singer revealed that he was “relieved” to be suffering from Tourette’s syndrome and not “some horrible degenerative disease”, which he feared had been the case.

According to the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, Tourette’s is “a condition that causes a person to make involuntary sounds and movements called tics”. Such tics can take numerous different forms and can be physical, such as shoulder shrugging or jerking the head or limbs, or vocal, from grunting and throat clearing to repeating random sounds and swearing.

There is no known cure for Tourette’s syndrome, although symptoms are thought to get worse during periods of stress, anxiety and tiredness.

After his diagnosis, Capaldi said: “I have Tourette’s. I’ve always had it, apparently. I do a shoulder twitch quite a lot. It’s a new thing”.