Lewis Capaldi is back! Singer returns after two years with powerful new single Survive following career hiatus - amid reports 'comeback song will coincide with secret Glastonbury set'
Lewis Capaldi is making a return to the music industry with a brand new single, Survive.
The powerful track is the Scottish singer's first offering in two years following a career hiatus due to his battle with Tourettes.
Lewis, 28, previously announced he would be taking a break away from the spotlight for his mental health after performing at Glastonbury in June 2023 where he struggled with his Tourette's symptoms.
But on Friday, he shocked fans by announcing his comeback on Instagram, sharing a snippet of the song and the Henry Dockrill-directed accompanying music video.
Captioning his exciting post, he simply wrote: 'It's been a while…' before directing his followers to the link to his song in his bio.
The short video features sweet moments throughout Lewis' life and career, including snippets from his childhood.
The new song has been described as a 'brutally honest track that addresses mental health challenges of self-doubt and despair', highlighting the difficult period in his career following his last Glastonbury performance.
It features heartbreaking lyrics including: 'Most nights I fear that I'm not enough, I've had my share of Monday mornings when I can't get up.'
However, more defiant lines include: 'I swear to God I'll survive, if it kills me to, I'm gonna' get up and try, if it's the last thing I'll do.'
Lewis once again teamed up with collaborator Romans for the track, with the songwriter having famously co-wrote Lewis' megahit Someone You Loved.
The star's announcement on Instagram sent his fans wild, with many sharing their excitement at his comeback in the comments.
They penned: 'Can we all stand up and give this young man the around of applause he deserves, for stepping back and taking the time to seek the help he needed. What a role model. Welcome back Lewis. The world is a brighter place with you in it.'
'God said "Let there be light" and he gave us our Lewis Capaldi back. Id be lying if I didn't say I wasn't crying. You have been so missed. I love you!!'
'you've been so missed. We are all exactly where you left us ❤️'
Captioning his exciting post, he simply wrote: 'It's been a while…' before directing his followers to the link to his song in his bio
The star's announcement on Instagram sent his fans wild, with many sharing their excitement at his comeback in the comments
'Not me literally tearing up when I see a post from you again. I've missed you, but thank you for putting yourself first. Welcome back.'
It comes amid reports Lewis' new song will coincide with his big stage return at Glastonbury, two years after he broke down onstage at the festival.
Following his emotional set at Worthy Farm in June 2023, the singer, 28, took time off to focus on his mental health and to 'adjust to the impact' of his Tourette's diagnosis.
But earlier this month, the Mail on Sunday revealed that Lewis was set to return to the spotlight with a performance at this year's festival, in the 'secret slot' on Friday at the Pyramid Stage after Alanis Morrisette.
And now it has been claimed that the Scottish star will release his first single since he dropped Strangers and A Cure For Minds Unwell in January last year, to coincide with his Glastonbury set
A source told The Sun: 'Lewis took a decent chunk of time away and now he's ready for his fans to hear what he has been working on.
'Tomorrow is a huge day for him. He will be releasing a brand new single and it is his Pyramid Stage performance. He is in a great place and feels ready to come back into the spotlight.'
The insider added that Lewis was 'raring to go' after taking a career hiatus to work on his mental and physical health.
They said: 'Naturally there will always be nerves but he feels confident and assured. He is firing on all cylinders and there's no doubt this single will go straight to No1, which will give Lewis a massive boost.'
During his last performance at Glastonbury two years ago, Lewis was coming out of a three-week mental health hiatus he had taken to 'rest and recover'.
Returning to the stage, the singer admitted he had been 's**t scared' to perform as he opened up about his mental health struggles and battle against Tourette's.
The neurological condition is characterised by a combination of involuntary noises and movements called tics, and can cause speech and voice abnormalities.
In the middle of his set, Lewis confessed that he was struggling with his Tourette's and said his voice had 'packed it in', after coughing throughout the show.
However, his supportive fans rallied around him, with the show coming to an heartwarming close as the supportive crowd sang out his hit Someone You Love at the top of their voices.
Lewis emotionally left the stage, saying: 'Glastonbury, I'm really sorry. I'm a bit annoyed with myself'.
Afterwards, he announced he would be 'taking a break for the foreseeable future' as it was 'obvious' he needs to spend 'much more time getting my mental and physical health in order'.
The hitmaker, who had been due to embark upon a world tour, explained he needed time to ' adjust to the impact' of living with Tourette's, admitting it was 'the most difficult [decision] of my life'.
Lewis had charted his struggles with the condition in a documentary How I'm Feeling now, which aired in April 2023, two months before his breakdown at Glastonbury.
But he has teased that he would be back with new music, sharing a New Year's Eve update in 2023 for fans where he said: 'I'm really happy to say I've noticed a marked improvement in both since I decided to take some time off back in June.
'For now I'm going to continue taking some time to carry on looking after myself, maybe writing some music and taking a moment to reflect on some of the most incredible years of my life.
'I want to make absolutely sure I'm 100% before getting back out there again properly for more shows and doing what I love more than anything!
'These songs mean the world to me and I'd be gutted if I'd not been able to share them. Hope this tides you all over until we can get in a room and sing them together some day very soon!'
Lewis also thanked fans for their support, saying their reaction has been 'nothing I've ever experienced and has made me more excited than ever to return to doing what I love at some point in the not too distant future'.
And last month, he took to the stage for a secret performance at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh last month - the first time he has performed Worthy Farm.
Headliner Tom Walker said Lewis made a 'last minute' decision to perform at the low-key gig, and fans were encouraged to 'stick around' for a surprise act.
He performed six songs, including his 2019 hit Someone You Loved, at the event, which was to help raise funds for the suicide prevention charity, Campaign Against Living Miserably (Calm).
Lewis released his first album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent in 2019, followed by Broken by Desire to be Heavenly Sent in 2023, which debuted at No 1 with 95,000 sold, making it the fastest- selling album of the year.
WHAT IS TOURETTE'S SYNDROME?
Tourette's syndrome is a neurological condition characterised by a combination of involuntary noises and movements called tics.
It usually starts during childhood and continues into adulthood. Tics can be either be vocal or physical.
In many cases Tourette's syndrome runs in families and it's often associated with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Tourette's syndrome is named after the French doctor, Georges Gilles de la Tourette, who first described the syndrome and its symptoms in the 19th century.
There's no cure for Tourette's syndrome, but treatment can help to control the symptoms.
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'He jumped up and started shouting out the windows and yelling down the stairs. All sorts of nonsense was coming out of his mouth. There was no reasoning with him. So Neill took him back to hospital.' This time, the psychiatrist was clear: Sam needed to be sectioned. 'They were trying to sedate him,' Andrea continues, 'but Sam was so manic that the drugs didn't have an effect. He was convinced his brain was inside the heart monitor, that people were trying to kill him, and that he was no longer Sam. He was running through the corridors shouting: 'I'm Mr Doodle, and I need help.' It was as if someone else was inside him, and had taken over his body. Like he was possessed.' He was diagnosed as having a psychotic episode and psychosis. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Sam nods as he listens – his own memories are fuzzy. He knows he was taken to an ambulance. 'I was convinced the paramedic was my friend Steve, and kept trying to escape, running around the hospital car park. It was like I'd entered this alternative, Matrix world that I'd invented in my head.' Eventually, he was corralled into a psychiatric ward in Canterbury, where his psychosis worsened. The next six weeks were a blur: two weeks at one secure unit, then a month at another. 'I wasn't able to understand who or what was in front of me.' He became conspiratorial, believing meals and medication were laced with poison. He was consumed by religious and spiritual delusion. 'I believed I was connected to God. That if I breathed deeply, I could control things. If I tapped my right foot, I'd send someone to heaven, or my left foot could send someone to hell. I thought screaming certain words gave me specific powers.' He looks to the family now sitting around him. 'And I know I said the worst things to all of them.' Sam believed he had become the character he'd constructed. On one visit, he turned to Alena and announced, 'Sam is dead, call me Mr Doodle now.' Art was intertwined with his psychosis; at times, it was the only connection the family found to the Sam they knew. 'I wanted to draw on the hospital walls,' says Sam, which wasn't exactly encouraged. 'They'd put me in a confined room, and I'd draw on the walls in soup and bread. People coming and going seemed, to me, to be artists I'd been inspired by.' His senses were heightened. 'Colours were so intense; if I heard music, it would feel like my whole body was vibrating.' On the psychiatric ward, Sam's doodling remained relentless. He still has the sketchbooks. 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We couldn't even watch David Attenborough – Sam thought the rocks were giving him dirty looks.' Occasionally, flickers of the old Sam returned – initially, in conversation with his grandparents. Over months, these became more regular. He only came off the last of the medication in early 2024. Psychotic episodes can be triggered by substance abuse, sleep deprivation, stress or specific physical conditions. 'I didn't feel stressed at the time,' Sam says. The family doesn't seem convinced. 'But there was definitely too much in my head.' Episodes such as this have no clear end point, and doctors couldn't guarantee it wouldn't strike again. Sam was unperturbed and, within weeks, wanted to return to project Doodle House. 'I thought you should never draw, never be Mr Doodle again,' Tom says. 'That this place would have to be abandoned.' 'I tried to talk him out of it,' Andrea says. 'But he was determined. So we just encouraged him to take it slow, not all day and all night: stop, walk, break, breathe. Alena was here, keeping Sam under control, making sure he took breaks and his tablets.' The pandemic helped, slowing Sam's other projects. His parents took over the business admin. 'Plus, I was sleeping a lot more because of the medication,' he says. 'There was no 24 hours of nonstop drawing, as before.' Joey the cockapoo's arrival was a boon. 'I'd stop drawing to take him out for walks.' Soon, Alena was pregnant – another responsibility. The documentary, the family hope, marks an end to this chapter. 'Speaking about it has made the whole thing feel more normal for all of us,' Andrea explains. 'Before this, I'd never been inside a psychiatric hospital.' The topic feels taboo, perhaps, even in an era of mental health awareness. 'When Sam first got ill, I wasn't telling people – not embarrassed, but I didn't understand, or know how to explain. Now we just talk about it as if he had appendicitis.' Sam and Alena take me on a tour, past doodled walls, floors and ceilings; lamps, log burner and chandelier; dressing gown and laptop; toilet and bathtub. There's a doodle garage, complete with doodled Tesla. Dream-themed doodles decorate the bedroom; each of the 2,000 tiles in its en suite bathroom are adorned with appropriately aquatic doodle designs. We step outside, passing the doodle water butt and American yellow school bus, through the evolving sculpture park. In the back corner of the four-acre estate is an imposing, newly constructed modern studio, designed by architect Guy Hollaway. Its exterior is wrapped in metal panels, each with intricate laser-cut doodle shapes. Inside, white double-height walls provide Sam with a blank backdrop to work on. In one corner, floor-to-ceiling racks display his recent works. The smallest among them sells for roughly $80,000. Another corner displays a grid of square drawings, each with crisscross coloured lines. It's a new style he's experimenting with, inspired by the NHS-issue felt-tip pens he relied on while hospitalised. The studio is a flurry of activity: Tom is taking a phone call, Alena moves materials around. Photographs are being taken. In the corner, at a table, Sam sits, thick, black pen in hand, entirely at ease. Smooth, freeform lines fill up the white page. Swoop, circle, dot dot dot. Up to the corner, looping down. Squiggle, glide, squiggle. Alena perches next to me. 'The first time we met,' she tells me, 'Sam told me this was his dream: to buy the big house, and to doodle it. I knew what I was signing up for.' I'm not convinced that grandma Sue was right, I say: my eyes haven't yet adjusted. 'When we first started,' Alena replies, 'I couldn't imagine living there. It was so sterile. But I started to make it homely, with little softening details. Now it's home. It's not too much for me, honestly, any of this. Without doodles, Sam and I would never have met. I find them comforting.' 'When I start drawing,' Sam says, 'I don't think before shapes and characters just merge into something. I enjoy the physical feeling of moving the pen along the paper – it's like that sensation of spreading soft butter on toast. It just feels satisfying. The noise that it makes. I feel content in myself when I do it, emotionally. It's when I'm happiest. Seeing the work made in front of me is a high – it's that feeling I'm chasing each time I draw. This itch that's satisfied by seeing work appearing in front of me.' He still feels that intense pull to draw: 'I don't get lost in it now, but left to my own devices, I could do this for ever' The Trouble with Mr Doodle airs on Channel 4 on 9 July at 10pm.
