Lewis Capaldi’s fans showed their support for the singer after he suffered a Tourette syndrome episode while performing onstage during his Feb. 21 concert in Frankfurt, Germany.
In a viral video a fan shared to TikTok, the Scotland native, 26, was performing his 2019 hit “Someone You Loved” when he began experiencing tics and eventually turned away from the microphone as he stopped mid-song.
At that point, the audience pitched in and sang the chorus:
Now the day bleeds/ Into nightfall/ And you’re not here/ To get me through it all/ I let my guard down/ And then you pulled the rug/ I was getting kind of used to being someone you loved.
“We support you!! @LewisCapaldi” the fan captioned the video. Fans finishing off the song for Lewis as he was (struggling) with his Tourette’s >>” the fan wrote on the video.
Tourette syndrome is a nervous system disorder that causes people to experience uncontrollable “tics,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tics are sudden and repetitive twitches, movements, or sounds.
People with the disease usually develop symptoms in early childhood between the ages of 5 and 10. Though symptoms often decrease through adolescence and early adulthood and may disappear entirely, many people continue to suffer from Tourette’s into adulthood and sometimes their conditions worsen with age.
Capaldi first revealed his diagnosis during an Instagram live in September, according to People magazine. He shared that he has always had Tourette, though he was unaware before being diagnosed, and he often suffers from shoulder twitches due to his condition.
“The worst thing about it is when I’m excited I get it, when I’m stressed I get it when I’m happy I get it. It happens all the time,” Capaldi said.
“Some days, it’s more painful than others, and some days it’s less painful. It looks a lot worse than it is. Sometimes it’s quite uncomfortable … but it comes and goes.”
The musician said he initially feared that he had “some horrible degenerative disease.” However, Capaldi said he had previously noticed he was twitching in interviews in 2018, adding that his diagnosis “makes so much sense”
“I do the shoulder twitch quite a lot,” he told his Instagram followers. “And you see underneath every TikTok and stuff, people are like, ‘Why is he twitching?’, which is fine. Curiosity is fine. I get it.”
Capaldi said that he came forward with his diagnosis because he didn’t want people to think he was “taking cocaine.”
“It’s a new thing. I haven’t really learned much about it — I’m learning,” he added. “I’ve got Botox on my shoulder to stop it from moving. It worked for a bit.”
In January, the “Before You Go” singer shared a TikTok video in which he was seen experiencing tics during a performance. In the clip, he was seen in bed as he addressed his fans while the video played in a separate window next to him.
“I’ve seen this video doing the rounds a little bit on TikTok, and I see people in the comments concerned because I’ve twitched quite a lot, ” he said. “Sort of looking uncomfortable.
“I’ve got Tourette’s, so I’m just twitching quite a bit here. I have no issue in the slightest. I’m absolutely fine. It’s just this happens when I get, like, tired, nervous, excited, whatever. It just gets more intense.
“I’m not doing it now at all because I’m lying in my bed in my pants,” he added. “But this is at the end of an hour and a half gig, and I’m singing in front of 15,000 people. So, I’m tired, and I’m also very excited because this whole arena is singing my songs back to me.”
