“Someone You Loved” is a song recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi. It was released as a download in November 2018 through Vertigo Records and Universal Music as the third single from his second extended play, Breach (2018), and was later included on his debut album, Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent (2019). The song was written by Capaldi, Samuel Romans, and its producers Thomas Barnes, Peter Kelleher and Benjamin Kohn. It was serviced to radio stations on 16 April 2019 as the first US single.
In an interview with the French magazine “Brut”, Capaldi revealed he wrote the song about his grandmother who had passed away. In an interview with NME, Capaldi revealed that it took him six months to write the song. He said, “A lot of people say that ‘the best songs fall into your lap’ and that they’re the easiest ones to write and take the shortest amount of time: I wholeheartedly disagree with that. I think my best songs come from me sitting at a piano, bashing my head against a brick wall for hours and hours on end to get one good melody.”.
There are two music videos to accompany “Someone You Loved”. The first music video was released on 8 February 2019, starring actor Peter Capaldi, who is Lewis Capaldi’s second cousin once removed. It was directed by filmmaker Phil Beastall. Filming took place in Buxton in late January 2019. The video was made in partnership with charity organisation Live Life Give Life in order to raise awareness for the issue of organ donation. It contains a message of loss and hope, telling a story of a husband who is trying to cope with the death of his wife. She became the heart donor for the young mother of another family, saving her life. Eventually the two families are brought together and the main character knows that his wife’s heart continues to live on.
The official video, featuring the singer was released in August 2019. Here, Capaldi wanders the streets, following his lost love as his friends and strangers try to stop him from chasing after her. Capaldi said: “For me the video is about the people we surround ourselves with that have the strength when we don’t and help us continue to make the right decisions in moments of fear or hardship. In the moment we often choose to ignore friends and family, thinking our judgement is better, but of course in hindsight when you’re in that headspace it’s almost impossible to make the right decisions
“Someone You Loved” was a commercial success, peaking at number one on the Uk Singles Chart. The song became Capaldi’s first number one single, spending seven consecutive weeks atop of the chart and was the best selling single of 2019 in the UK. It also peaked at number one in Ireland in March 2019. In the United States, “Someone You Loved”, a piano ballad, was a sleeper hit, topping the Billboard in its 24th week on the chart. It was nominated for Song of the Year at the 62nd Grammy Awards. It also received an award for Song of the Year at the 2020 Brit Awards. As of 2021, “Someone You Loved” is the 5th most streamed song on Spotify with 2.2 billion streams.
