Following Lewis Capaldi’s heartbreaking Glastonbury show, Ed Balls reflected on his own stammering experiences.
The Scottish artist, 26, had an outstanding performance on the Pyramid Stage on Saturday, but owing to his Tourette’s, he failed to finish his smash song Someone You Loved.
Fans rallied behind him, though, as the thousands-strong Worthy Farm throng screamed out the song while a heartbroken Lewis took it all in.
Lewis apologised for his performance at the end of his set, claiming he will be taking more time away from the limelight to concentrate on his mental health, prompting fans to gather around him and offer messages of support.
On Good Morning Britain on Monday, host Ed, 56, heaped admiration on the Bruises hitmaker.
Susanna Reid, 52, praised him as “amazing” and marvelled at how the audience concluded the song for him.
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‘It’s very essential to convey because there was some reporting stating, “The crowd performed great while Lewis Capaldi suffered,” but the reality is, it’s simply part of who he is,’ Ed says of the 17-year-old musician who has Tourette’s.
‘He did it, he came through it, and the crowd loved him for it.
‘I know with the work I’ve done with the children with stammering, the idea that it’s something you should try and hide or conceal or worry about actually makes it worse, so you just have to say, Lewis has this, and he deals with it.’
‘Yeah, you have to own it,’ praised Wilamena Dyer.
‘And for him, what’s so inspiring is this is a recent journey. Parts of this are very new so for him to still be owning it, still be on stage doing his best, is really incredible.’
She went on to explain how ’emotional’ it was to see Lewis be so supported by the audience.
‘You could see they were just willing him to keep going and they really wanted to support him,’ said the musician, who has had ticks since she was four and say they can impact her breathing, just like Lewis.
Following the interview, Susanna said in conversation with Ed: ‘So, we were just talking about wonderful Wilamena and her experience with ticks and Tourette’s, and you really relate to that, don’t you? Because of the stammering issue.’
Ed replied: ‘I think that the tough thing for Wilamena is that, when she’s with her family, her friends, performing, after a while chatting with us, it’s just who she is.
‘But the challenge is, every time she meets a new person, she has to explain it all over again, or she has to go through that first stage of them thinking, “Well, this is unusual, how do I deal with this?”, and that is a lot of pressure and stress to carry.’
Former Cabinet Minister and Gangnam Style participant The Strictly Come Dancing judge has been vocal about his stutter, serving as Vice President of Action for Stammering Children and convincing Colin Firth to join him.
The former Labour MP claims he didn’t understand he stammered until he was “already in the Cabinet” and constantly speaking in public.
‘I spent two or three years trying to find out what it was and trying to work out how to handle the fact that sometimes my speeches dried up in TV interviews and in the House of Commons,’ he previously told The Independent.
‘It got worse when I became a Cabinet minister. We went off to investigate and was told it was an interiorised stammer.’
But, Ed believes his stammer has made him stronger.
‘The reality is that lots of things I’ve done since, like Strictly, have been much easier to do after dealing with a stammer,’ he went on.
‘It’s given me the confidence to do many difficult and fabulous things since. If I was choosing again, I’d choose a stammer.’
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV1 and ITVX.
