Why soul-searching crooner Lewis Capaldi is also Britain’s funniest pop star

A MASTER of the self-mocking one-liner, Lewis Capaldi used to open gigs: “If you don’t like sad songs sung by chubby guys, you’re not going to enjoy this.”

But fortunately for him, millions of people are in fact very keen on the scruffy-haired, baby-faced, Scottish singer’s brand of soul-searching pop.

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Lewis, the son of a fishmonger and raised in Bathgate, a town between Edinburgh and Glasgow, started playing the drums and guitar aged two — and had his first pub gigs at nine.

Now 22, he has seen debut Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent become the fastest-selling album of the year, going gold in just a week.

And single Someone You Loved became the biggest selling of last year, spending seven weeks at No1 and being streamed 287million times.

But Lewis, a hopeless romantic whose songs are inspired by his falling in love at the drop of hat, has become almost as famous for his social media antics as his haunting tunes.

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While his heavenly voice give fans chills, his tweets and hilarious YouTube videos poking fun at himself have them in stitches.

Ed Sheeran eat your heart out.

One viral tweet from March saw a deadpan Lewis write: “Whoever says money can’t buy ye happiness has never ordered three takeaways in one day.”

Lewis’s gags often centre on his bathroom habits, and he is known for sharing his “movements” with his two-million-plus social media followers.

He has even claimed: “Hopefully my ar*e can be my fortune.”

One now-infamous Instagram story from April saw Lewis film himself on a desperate hunt around LA to buy a toilet plunger after he blocked the loo in his hotel suite.

“It won’t flush, it’s stuck there and there’s no f***ing toilet brush,” he tells the camera, panic rising in his voice.

“I’ve got someone coming here to put make-up on my face later on. I’ve been told it’s a lady, and she’s going to come in here and go, ‘Can I use the bathroom?’.

“And she’ll go in and she’ll see a big pile of dirty toilet paper and she’ll run out the door f***ing screaming.”

Other posts have covered his Tinder profile and his neighbours’ noisy bedroom antics, all delivered with his impeccable comic timing.

In an era of stars carefully marshalled by PR advisers, Lewis’s spontaneity makes a refreshing change for fans. And music bosses believe it is a key ingredient to his astonishing success.

Shani Gonzales, a boss at Lewis’s music publisher BMG, said: “How many times do you get to see an artist, while they’re having a No1 single, go and plunge their toilet?

“It’s ridiculous and brilliant at the same time. He just feels like your crazy friend.”

Lewis insists there is nothing stage-managed about his shakily filmed, goofy videos. He said: “I just act like a tit and film it for a laugh, but the music side of things I put thought into.

“Maybe people like me because of a combination of the two, but I never set out to be anything in particular.

“I don’t know the first thing about social media strategy.

“People keep asking me and I’m like, ‘What the f***? I’ve been talking about my pubes for months’. I don’t understand how this is a thing.”

Lewis also has a nifty knack of turning criticism into social media gold.

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He was recently so tickled by a tweet branding him Lewis “Crapaldi” that he made it his official Twitter handle.

And last weekend on radio station XFM.

When asked what he thought of new music, the former Oasis frontman said it was “f***ing w**k” and singled out Lewis, saying: “Who is that idiot?”

In response, Lewis posted a series of videos showing himself thrilled at being name-checked by Noel.

Not to be outdone, and former bandmate, who he has long since fallen out with.

When asked by a fan if he likes Lewis, Liam tweeted: “I do now.”

Lewis’s appeal is even starting to spread across the Pond, where he has been wowing American audiences with his music — and baffling them with his quirky chat show patter.

Topics have ranged from snapping selfies of his haemorrhoids to the challenge his mum faces when washing his pants.

Following his first TV performance there — on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Lewis tweeted: “Performed on TV for the first time last night and as you’d expect b*ners across the nation are now at an all- time critical high.”

Last week host James Corden was so impressed by Lewis’s appearance on his The Late Late Show, he became the first guest to be invited back to perform again the following evening.

James tweeted: “Every single person in the audience and who works for @latelateshow fell in love with @LewisCapaldi today.

“He was so incredible on the show we asked him if he could come back and perform tomorrow. He said yes! #DoubleCapaldi.”

But while Lewis’s knock-about persona has won him an army of fans, few would guess he is currently in therapy to deal with crippling anxiety.

Lewis, who lives at home with dad Mark and mum Carol, said: “The first time I had a panic attack I thought I was actually having a heart attack.

“I was at home and I was sitting up at the piano quite late when it came over me and I didn’t know what was happening.

“I was like, ‘Mum, wake up, I’m having a f***ing heart attack’.

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“She was like, ‘No, you’re not, but I’ll take you to see a doctor anyway’.

“We went to the hospital and they checked me out and said it was just anxiety and my heart was fine.

“After that it was all about just trying to understand it. But I get pure twitchy when I’m having one. People think I’m on drugs.

“I went to see a cognitive behavioural therapy specialist.

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“He’s been talking me through ways to deal with it because when it first happens to you, you think you’re going to die.”

Lewis’s experience prompted him to establish the LiveLive initiative.

It sees a small charge from every ticket for his 2020 tour funding a team at each venue to help audience members with stress-related issues.

He said: “I am lucky that I’m not shy talking about it.

“I can be sitting in a room with just four people when it strikes and I’m not shy at telling them.

“It’s not the stress from doing the job because I f***ing love that. Weirdly enough, I’m fine with gigs.”

thanks to his older brother Warren, now an electrical engineer, who used to play guitar and secure him bookings.

And even back then, lavatories played a key role. Lewis said: “I played pubs even though I obviously was too young to be in them.

“So I used to hide in bathrooms, come out and play my set, then get the hell out as quickly as possible.”

His track Bruises first got him noticed in 2017 and made him the fastest-ever unsigned artist to pass the 25million plays mark on Spotify.

It led to him being snapped up by music giants Capitol in the US and Virgin in the UK.

He has since persuaded Doctor Who actor Peter Capaldi — a distant relation — to star in the video for hit Someone You Loved.

But despite his meteoric success, Lewis has rubbished claims he is worth £7million — and

He also reveals that his stardom has not seen a stream of women beating a path to his door.

He said: “The money will come in at some point but right now I’ve not seen much of it. And I haven’t felt the touch of a woman in many years.”

“I was in a relationship for nearly two years but I have always been good at over-romanticising a situation. So if I meet a girl in a pub one night, I’ll be like, ‘Boys, I’ve found the woman for me’.

“In reality she doesn’t want anything to do with me and is telling her pals, ‘Oh God, I can’t believe I kissed that guy last night. What a state he was in’.

“But my imagination will run riot and I’ll be like, ‘That’s given me another song’.”

His growing legion of fans will surely hope he remains unlucky in love for a little while yet.

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