Last year, Capaldi spoke out about his diagnosis with Tourette syndrome, a condition which involves involuntary repetitive movements, such as jerking the head or shrugging the shoulders, or unwanted sounds — both of which are known as tics.
One clip of this week’s performance was viewed almost 32 million times on TikTok, with fans praising the singer for continuing to perform despite his symptoms, and describing his openness about his condition as inspiring.
“i feel so comforted knowing i could still be a singer like this someday regardless of my tourettes,” one user wrote.
“As a singer who has Tourette’s… this means so much,” another responded.
“Just gained so much love and respect for him,” a separate commenter posted. “I never knew he struggled with Tourette’s.”
Capaldi first spoke publicly about his experience with Tourette syndrome in September, saying in one interview that the diagnosis he received in 2022 “made a lot of sense.”
“I’m quite a jittery person. A lot of people think I’m on drugs a lot of the time when they meet me,” he said, adding that he had feared he was “dying” or had a degenerative illness. He also revealed he had been given Botox in his shoulder to help stop the twitching.
More recently, the singer addressed fans’ concerns after his symptoms surfaced during another concert.
“I’ve got Tourette’s so I’m just twitching quite a bit here,” he said in a video posted on TikTok in January. “I’m absolutely fine, it’s just this happens when I get, like, tired, nervous, excited, whatever, so it gets more intense.
“But this is at the end of an hour-and-a-half gig, and I’m singing in front of 15,000 people — so yeah, I’m tired and I’m also very excited ‘cause this whole arena’s singing my songs back to me.”
Singer Billie Eilish, who also has the syndrome, revealed in 2018 that she was diagnosed as a child.
According to the CDC, around 1.4 million people in the United States are affected by Tourette syndrome, with boys three times more likely to be diagnosed than girls. In most cases, symptoms subside during adolescence and early adulthood.
The cause of the disorder is not known, according to the Mayo Clinic, but it is thought to be the result of a combination of genetics and environment. Tics often get worse during stressful or exciting events, and lessen once the individual is calm or focused, the CDC says.
No cure for the condition exists, but treatments can help to manage symptoms if they interfere in daily activities or cause pain or injuries. These include medication and behavioral treatments, the CDC says.
In addition to the Botox injections, Capaldi has tried a watch-like device being developed at Britain’s University of Nottingham, with the professor involved in the research noting that the device “suppressed” the singer’s painful head and shoulder tics with “remarkable” results.
