THE countdown is on for Lewis Capaldi’s new record – and he has enlisted some serious star power to make sure it’s a success. I can reveal he has pulled out the big guns for his difficult second album by getting in the studio with Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid. Tunesmith Johnny is one of the […]
THE countdown is on for Lewis Capaldi’s new record – and he has enlisted some serious star power to make sure it’s a success.
I can reveal he has pulled out the big guns for his difficult second album by getting in the studio with Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid.
Tunesmith Johnny is one of the most successful hitmakers in pop, having co-written some of Ed Sheeran’s No1 singles Bad Habits, Shape Of You and Shivers.
The songwriter, who is in a relationship with Friends actress Courteney Cox, has also provided tracks for Robbie Williams, Rag’N’Bone Man, Pink, BTS and Shawn Mendes.
It’s a good sign for Lewis, as there are high expectations for him following the monumental success of his debut album Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent, which was the UK’s best-selling album of 2019 and 2020.
A music insider said: “Lewis understands people are expecting big things from his second record — and he has put so much hard work into it.
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“He is an amazing songwriter on his own but getting people like Johnny involved too has taken things to the next level.
“Lewis has written so many songs that it has just been hard to whittle it down to a tracklist for the album. But it’s all coming together now and there’s not long to wait.”
I told last year how the singer had also been in the studio with hit songwriter Ryan Tedder, from OneRepublic, and JC Stewart, who co-wrote the song Hollywood with Lewis for his debut.
There is only a matter of weeks before Lewis is expected to return with the first single from the album.
Announcing a break from social media a year ago this week, he said: “I’m really sorry I won’t be out there with you this year but I’ll be back in 2022 with new music and a s***load of shows in as many places as I can possibly get to across the world.”
He has already fulfilled the latter part of that promise with a busy summer of festival shows planned, the first in Germany in early June — a mere ten weeks away.
He is even on the same line-up as Johnny, with Lewis and Snow Patrol headlining Latitude Festival in Suffolk in July.
As the funniest man in music, I can’t wait to have him back.
CHARLI XCX is on top of the world after going to No1 with her fifth studio album Crash, but her new documentary shows a different side to the pop star.
Charli XCX: Alone Together documents the making of her 2020 album How I’m Feeling Now, created in five weeks during lockdown, and sees her break down in tears while revealing her crippling insecurities.
She talks at one point in the emotional film about how her therapist has encouraged her to tell herself, “I am good enough”, which she struggles to repeat.
Fighting tears, she explains: “I find it really hard to say I’m good enough and I find it hard because when I say it I just immediately hear this voice and it says, ‘You don’t deserve to be good enough’.
“It’s like my head and my body feel different things.
“I’m supposed to be confident and inspiring. I hate myself for saying it, but I’m not and it makes me feel like a liar.”
In the documentary, which will be in cinemas nationwide on April 14 and released digitally on April 18, she also admits she feels like she has to work to be interesting.
She says: “I’ve got serious issues with the way I handle my work and the way I depend on work to make me feel like I’m a good person. I don’t think I’m pretty enough, I don’t think I’m smart enough, I don’t think I’m interesting enough or funny enough of a person to function without my work.
“I feel like my work and everything around it is what makes me different and interesting from people. And without it I just feel like I’m nothing.”
But by the end of the film, when she completes her album, she has made some progress.
Charli says with a smile: “It takes a lot for me to say this but I’m really proud of myself.”
Good for her.
KANYE WEST’s ex Julia Fox did my stomach a favour and left her human hair handbag at home when she headed out for a stroll in Los Angeles.
The actress, who wore this revealing black crop top, caused a stir at the Vanity Fair Oscars after-party with her toupee-inspired tote bag.
She said: “I’m going to get roasted for this tomorrow. The comments are going to be ridiculous. But, you know what? I’m having fun.”
Tell that to the person that was scalped for your bag, Julia.
Kanye ended their short-lived relationship last month and he has moved on with Kim Kardashian lookalike Chaney Jones.
I look forward to being introduced to his next missus in a few weeks.
MABEL reckons she is always cool, calm and collected around other celebrities . . . bar one.
She said: “You know how people say they get awkward about meeting people? I’ve never really had that apart from the one time I met Camila Cabello. I saw her backstage at the Summer-time Ball and I’m a big fan.
“She obviously had no idea who I was and rather than me going up to her and being like, ‘Hi, I’m an artist as well . . . ’ I just went, ‘I love you!’. Bless her, she was nice but was a bit like, ‘Why is there a superfan backstage? Who let this weirdo in?’”
Mabel managed to act naturally around Harry Styles when she supported him on tour in 2018 and is now keen to team up on a song.
Mabel added during an Instagram Live: “I want to work with Harry. Also Doja Cat. I feel like I’m always saying Doja because that is the dream.”
COUNTRY music’s Thomas Rhett is making a crossover into pop by working with Katy Perry and planning a collaboration with Niall Horan.
Thomas, a superstar in the States, has today released his sixth album Where We Started, which sees him duet with Katy on the title track.
He is now working on making the ultimate hit with Niall.
In an exclusive chat from his home in Nashville, in the US, Thomas explained: “I feel like every time me and Niall are together we threaten to do some sort of collaboration.
“We have written a couple of times but I don’t think we have written the song yet for us to do.
“We stay in touch, especially when he’s in town. He’s just a good buddy. I love Niall and his solo projects.
“It would be a lot of fun to just find a week and be like, ‘We’re going here and we’re going to write and whatever the best one is, we’re going to do it together’.
“I can see there being a me and Niall collaboration in the next couple of years.”
For now though, he is still in shock at getting to work with Katy.
He explained: “We had never met until she said, ‘I love this song, how can I be part of it?’
“We exchanged phone numbers and the next thing you know I’m FaceTiming Katy Perry in my kitchen and my wife’s like, ‘Who’re you talking to?’ I was like, ‘Just Katy, no big deal’.
“Hearing her on this track was overwhelming. Like, ‘Good Lord, you can freaking sing!’.
“To be able to work with someone who is an icon, who put a stamp on a period of music and changed pop music when she first came out, I was honoured.”
ATOMIC KITTEN’s LIZ McClarnon has got engaged, but is keeping the identity of her fiance a secret.
The Whole Again singer, the longest-serving member of the girl group, revealed the news while celebrating her partner’s birthday in a gushing social media post.
Liz, who was engaged to BLUE’s Lee Ryan two decades ago, wrote on Instagram: “Happy birthday to my husband-to-be.
“YEP! I’m going to marry the most beautiful human I’ve ever known and it’s his birthday today. Double yay!”
SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR played Cupid and helped a couple get engaged on the final night of her Kitchen Disco tour.
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The Murder On The Dancefloor singer picked fans Monica and Robin, seemingly at random, to join her on stage at the London Palladium on Wednesday night and Robin got down on one knee.
Sophie admitted she had feared Monica might say no. The singer told the bride-to-be: “Congratulations. I have to say, you gave a slightly alarming head shake just as he got down on one knee.”
Catch my showbiz round-up on The Jeremy Kyle Breakfast Show, Fridays at 9.45am.
Tune in to Jeremy from 6.30am on talkRADIO – online and on DAB
