This essay will be discussing the success of Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Someone You Loved’ and the significance of the track towards his overall success as an artist. Looking into this topic will show what has shaped Capaldi’s career to become what it has today. In order to find out more about Capaldi’s success, this essay will be looking into some background about the artist and how his interest in music occurred, the statistics and story behind his song ‘Someone You Loved’, and the marketing techniques he used throughout his promotion.
Scottish born singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi had a swift rise to fame. His independently released debut single ‘Bruises’ accumulated over 28 million streams in 2017, making him the fastest unsigned artist to reach over 25 million streams on Spotify worldwide. (Wikipedia, 2023) After finding a passion for music at a very young age, Capaldi set out to achieve the goal of performing music live, following in the footsteps of bands such as Green Day and Queen. Capaldi believes that his rise to stardom was because he wrote his own songs from personal experiences, to fit the style of his own voice, and that people gravitate towards his music because he embodies the story through his lyrics. (Sang, 2019)
‘Someone You Loved’ was initially released in November 2018, alongside Capaldi’s ‘Breach’ EP, but was re-released with his debut album ‘Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent’ in May 2019. The hit single currently sits at number six on Spotify’s most streamed list with over 2.7 billion streams (Masters, 2022) after spending seven weeks at number one in the UK official charts, with an additional thirty-one weeks spent within the top ten. (Official Charts, no date) The song took himself and co-writer Samuel Romans around 6 months to write, as a last-minute addition to his EP and album. He wanted to take a step away from writing songs about past relationships and heartbreaks, and instead focus on writing songs that were more open to interpretation. He enjoyed listening to his fans’ stories of how they related to a particular song, and therefore didn’t want to write about himself and his experiences directly. (Genius, 2019)
Capaldi’s connection with his fans has undoubtedly been a significant contribution to his success. He has allowed himself to create an artist-fan relationship where his audience feel as though they know him on a personal level, both face to face and over social media. Capaldi is constantly connecting with his fans through social media comments and direct messages and engaging with them through Instagram stories or TikTok videos. During the European leg of his 2019 tour, Capaldi would invite several audience members to perform on stage. (Pintea, 2019) This further shows the commitment he has towards his audience in making them feel as though they are a part of his journey, whether that be throughout his presence on social media, or when he takes to the stage. Other artists who also interact with their fans quite regularly are Harry Styles and YUNGBLOOD; they both have a dedicated audience of fans who will go above and beyond for them after creating strong relationships amongst their own communities. As seen over the past few years during Styles’ ‘HSLOT’ tour, fans travelled hundreds of miles to see the artist perform, whilst creating fan ‘light’ projects to display at the singers shows. (YouTube, 2018) Similarly, Dominic Harrison (YUNGBLOOD) also prioritises the connection he has with his fanbase. Harrison explained in an interview with Valley Magazine over the pandemic that he missed ‘being able to interact with his fans’. (Shaffer, 2020) This strategy works for all three artists because not only are they building a fanbase of people who enjoy their music, they are also building a community of people who respect them as artists. ‘The only relationships that you can have that are permanent is with your community.’ (McTear, 2014)
The song’s music video features Capaldi’s family member and actor Peter Capaldi and is focused on the process of organ donation, showing both the bereavement and hopeful side of it. (Capaldi, 2019) The video raises a lot of awareness towards organ donation, telling the story of a husband losing his wife and becoming lost in the recordings of her heartbeat. (Capaldi, 2019) Currently standing at over 180 million views, the video was a huge contribution to the song’s success. (Capaldi, 2019) At the time of its release, Capaldi wasn’t necessarily an established artist; his fanbase wasn’t huge and despite the popularity of ‘Bruises’, he didn’t have many other songs released. The video’s popularity certainly aided Capaldi when climbing the charts, with the song reaching the top spot just 4 weeks after its release. (Official Charts, no date)
Capaldi takes a very unusual approach to marketing his music. In an interview with Steven Bartlett, he looks back the earlier days of using social media within his career. After the release of his first two EP’s, he took a small break from social media, and then gradually started to build his online portfolio by promoting his own gigs and posting content that he thought he and his friends would find amusing. (Bartlett, 2022) After accidentally establishing a ‘brand’ by being his authentic self, he now uses many social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and TikTok to post out of the ordinary content to market his upcoming singles and albums. He recalls in an interview that his label ‘took a step back’ and almost allowed him to take control over the way his music was advertised. (Sang, 2019) In 2019, the artist’s marketing budget was between £5,000-£10,000, a very small amount in comparison to many other campaigns. Therefore, his step-up on social media has made a huge impact on his career, with his team members acknowledging that ‘The Lewis Capaldi campaign has been a diverse and, frankly, unprecedented one…We’d like to make it known that without Lewis’s unwavering dedication to his online presence and personal brand, none of this would have been possible. Lewis is a digital phenomenon.’ (Sandbox, 2019)
Capaldi doesn’t take the traditional route that most artists are advised to follow, and instead uses his own personality as a tactic to market not only his music, but himself as a musician. During the release of his debut album, Capaldi was seen posing with a series of different sunglasses, singing along to his music. (Capaldi, 2019) This marketing technique is extremely popular amongst his fans, with many people commenting on his social media posts, saying how even though they aren’t huge fans of his music, they enjoy engaging with his social media posts due to his likeability. (Capaldi, 2022) As well as this, many other artists are beginning to take a similar approach. Therefore, this shows that the marketing technique works very well considering both his own popularity, and his influence on other artists. Capaldi’s freedom and creative control within his marketing has benefited him significantly; he is able to use his humour and wit to engage his audience throughout social media, TV shows and on stage.
By avoiding becoming the “polished popstar” he wished to steer away from, Capaldi has been successful in separating himself from his career, almost showing an alternate reality for his audience. By remaining authentic and showing some of the realities that come with being a successful musician, he has allowed himself to be more relatable than artists who may ‘fake it’. (Bartlett, 2022) During an interview with Steven Bartlett, Capaldi explains how due to his anxiety, he hates photoshoots, interviews, making music videos and most other things that are typically used to promote or market songs. The only thing that pushes him through doing the things he isn’t exactly comfortable doing is that he is able to perform live at the end of it, which is something he really enjoys doing. (Bartlett, 2022) A marketing tactic used often by Capaldi is humorous self-deprecation. He recalls in an interview with Zach Sang that the reason his debut album is titled ‘Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent’ is not only because he thought it was comical, but because he believed that by criticizing his work within its title, it prevents critics or newspapers from doing it themselves. (Sang, 2019)
As a result of Capaldi’s social media dedication, alongside his self-deprecation and self-humiliation marketing techniques, he has been productive in enabling his track ‘Someone You Loved’ to become the topmost streamed song in the UK, as well as one of the top 10 most streamed tracks globally. Capaldi’s contribution to both the narrative of the song, and the campaign for its music video played a part in its global success and popularity. In a couple of short years, he has established himself and his brand. Alongside this, his non-traditional approach in marketing has resulted in him becoming a social media phenomenon, adding to the increase in his music’s popularity . Capaldi’s connection and dedication to his fanbase as well as being a likeable character has most definitely aided him in becoming the successful artist he is today.
references
(Bartlett, 2022)
Lewis Capaldi: The Untold Story Of Becoming A Global Superstar At 22 (2022) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktl0UdZtL1A
(Capaldi, 2019)
Someone You Loved (2019) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xueqtD3weHA
(Capaldi, 2019)
Capaldi, L. (2019) Lewis Capaldi – Someone you loved, YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCuhuePlP8o
(Capaldi, 2022)
(2022) TikTok. Available at: https://www.tiktok.com/@lewiscapaldi/video/7171233755548404998?_r=1&_t=8Z6ibEnIVIj
(Copsey, 2020)
Copsey, R. (2020) The official top 40 biggest songs of 2019, Official Charts. Available at: https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/the-official-top-40-biggest-songs-of-2019__28072/
(Genius, 2019)
Genius (2019) Lewis Capaldi “Someone you loved” official lyrics & meaning | verified, YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEHDAFW7fSc
(Masters, 2022)
Masters, C. (2022) Most streamed songs on Spotify (daily update), ChartMasters. Available at: https://chartmasters.org/spotify-most-streamed-songs/
(McTear, 2014)
McTear, B. (2014) A modest proposal for fixing the music industry | Brian McTear | TEDxPhiladelphia, YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNszX77y8mk
(Moore, 2019)
Moore, S. (2019) Lewis Capaldi explains meaning and inspiration behind his number one single ‘someone you loved’, NME. Available at: https://www.nme.com/news/music/lewis-capaldi-someone-you-loved-lyrics-song-meaning-2465520
(Official Charts, no date)
Charts, O.U.K. Someone you loved: Full official chart history: Official Charts Company, Official Charts. Available at: https://www.officialcharts.com/search/singles/someone-you-loved/
(Pintea, 2019)
Pintea, D. (2019) Amazing!!Lewis Capaldi invites 2 fans to sing-amazing voice- live madrid 28 October 2019, YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKIitITjB5s
(Sandbox, 2019)
Sandbox (2019) “Sandbox : Music Marketing for the Digital Era.” Musically.
(Sang, 2019)
Sang, Z. (2019) Lewis Capaldi Talks Someone You Loved, His Best Friend Niall Horan & Instagram, YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbZ26NXfQWQ
(Shaffer, 2020)
Shaffer, M. (2020) Yungblud talks new music, his fan base and connection in the age of Isolation, VALLEY Magazine. Available at: http://www.valleymagazinepsu.com/yungblud-talks-new-music-his-fan-base-and-connection-in-the-age-of-isolation/
(Wikipedia 2023)
Lewis Capaldi (2023) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Capaldi#2014–2016:_Beginnings
(YouTube, 2018)
YouTube (2018) Harry Styles // live on tour – fan projects, YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hh7xavqSSNU