Lewis Capaldi has landed his second UK number one, but he would have been totally, completely fine if he hadn’t.
The 23-year-old has jumped up four places to achieve the top spot with Before You Go, which achieved almost 66,000 combined sales, including 13,000 physical copies of the single.
And as he prepared for whether or not he beat The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights to number one, Lewis gave two speeches – one for if he reached number one, and one if he fell at the final hurdle.
He said: ‘You know, it’s so nice to kinda get another one in the bag – second number one, for my song Before You Go – and it means the world. Thank you so much if you went and bought it.
‘Obviously, becoming number one is absolutely everything to me and I would be disgusted if I had the number two spot. It’d be absolutely gross. I’m so glad I’m not that guy. If I did, I don’t know what I would do. I’d probably go home, cry into my hands and just have a really, really awful time. So thank you so much.’
His number two speech? ‘Guys, you know what, we didn’t get number one this week but it’s absolutely fine, the chart positions aren’t everything, and number two is just as good as the number one spot. It won’t keep me up at night tonight, don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll be fine. We’ll get ’em next time.
‘Congratulations to the number one holder. We keep on pushing, chart positions aren’t everything.’
The Scottish star finished off his video by hedging his bets, saying: ‘Thanks again, or I hate you.’
The Weeknd’s Blinding Lights took number two, Roddy Ricch is at three with The Box, Godzilla by Eminem ft Juice Wrld is at number four, and Stormzy, Ed Sheeran and Burna Boy’s Own It round out the top five.
Before You Go was written about Capaldi’s aunt, who died by suicide.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1 Radio, Lewis explained: ‘The song’s kind of, it comes from a place of … it’s about suicide and it’s about not necessarily the act of it itself obviously, but people after it happens, the aftermath of it and people blaming themselves or starting to think, what could I have done to help that person? Or whatever.’
Capaldi went on to explain that his mother’s sister had taken her own life when he was younger. He said: ‘When I was about five or six I think, my aunt committed suicide and just remember recently speaking to my mum about their feelings, her feelings about going through that sort of rigmarole in your head of, “What could I have done here? Could I have done anything?” Sort of thing.
‘But she said it was the thing of, at first you’re angry. You’re obviously upset and then you kind of get angry at them, and then you get angry at yourself. She said it was this whole kind of … it’s very, very strange.’
Before You Go features lyrics including: ‘So, before you go, was there something I could have said to make your heart beat better?’ and ‘It kills me how your mind can make you feel so worthless’.
It is Capaldi’s second number one after the global smash Someone You Loved – believed to have been written about Love Island star Paige Turley.
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