Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi discovered during a live show in Frankfurt earlier this week that his fans really do have his back.
The 26-year-old performed his hit song, someone you loved when he started twitching and then stopped singing.
Capaldi recently announced that he has Tourette syndrome, a neurological condition that Tourette Canada says causes people to experience sudden, unpredictable, and “involuntary movements or sounds” known as tics.
When he couldn’t get the words out, some of the 15,000 or so spectators jumped in to fill in the lyrics.
In a video on TikTok posted after the 90-minute concert, Capaldi said the twitching in his shoulder happens when he gets nervous, tired or excited, but that it’s not painful.
“I’m absolutely fine,” he said.
“I’m tired – and I’m also very excited because this whole arena is singing my songs back to me.”
He thanked the people who jumped in with the words, even joking about it, saying, “Get a ticket if you don’t … come and see me twitch, live and in person.”
Tourette Diagnosis
According to Tourette Canada, it is estimated that one in every 100 people in Canada is living with Tourette Syndrome. The condition usually begins in childhood, “which can make it harder to learn and cope with,” executive director Lisa McCoy told CBC News in an email.
She said people like Capaldi are “reassuring and inspiring to the many thousands of Canadians like her” while raising awareness of the disorder.
“It’s encouraging to see celebrity entertainers and everyone living with Tourette Syndrome succeed in their chosen professions,” McCoy said. “They also help raise awareness about Tourette’s syndrome, which is a much more common neurological condition than most people realize.”
Capaldi went public in a live Instagram post last September because he said he “don’t want people to think I’m doing cocaine or anything.”
He said being diagnosed earlier this year made “so much sense” to him because he could see his shoulder twitching during interviews in 2018.
In 2018, American singer Billie Eilish said she is also living with Tourette Syndrome after being diagnosed as a child. She told David Letterman that while most people don’t necessarily notice her tics, she can find it “tiring.”
