There were a couple of years where it wasn’t clear we would get another night like this. Lewis Capaldi stepped away from the stage in 2023 to look after himself, and his return has been one of the more genuinely heartening comeback stories in pop. On May 6, 2026, he closed the North American leg of that comeback with a sold-out Rogers Arena, ambling out in a green Adidas track jacket with a guitar and opening on the aptly named “Survive” before sliding straight into “Grace.” From the first note, the relief and joy in the building were impossible to miss.
Opening the night was Joy Crookes, whose soulful, string-laced songs and easy stage presence made her an inspired choice; she returned later in Capaldi’s set for a lovely duet on “Almost,” one of the evening’s quieter highlights.
What makes a Capaldi show work is the whiplash between the between-song patter and the songs themselves. He is genuinely, disarmingly funny - self-deprecating, a little filthy, entirely charming - and then he opens his mouth to sing and levels the room. That contrast never undercut the material; if anything it made the heavy moments land harder. “Wish You the Best,” “Bruises” and “Pointless” drew the kind of full-throated singing that turns an arena into one enormous choir.
He proved you do not need an overblown production to wreck a room emotionally. The staging was simple - a pair of side screens, a colourful textured backdrop, not much else fighting for attention - which left all the focus on that voice. Newer songs like “Something in the Heavens,” “The Day That I Die” and “Forget Me” proved the time away sharpened rather than dulled him, while “Before You Go” closed the main set in a wash of phone lights.
The encore leaned intimate, opening with an acoustic take on the Traveling Wilburys’ “Handle with Care” before “Hold Me While You Wait.” Then, inevitably, came “Someone You Loved” - the song that made him a household name - and the arena sang it so loudly that Capaldi barely needed to. It was the perfect end to a night that felt less like a concert than a homecoming for someone a lot of people are very glad to have back.
