Someone You Loved

"Someone You Loved" is a song recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi. It was released on 8 November 2018 as a download through Vertigo Records, 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.

"Someone You Loved" was a commercial success, peaking at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. The song became Capaldi's first No. 1 single, spending seven consecutive weeks atop the chart and was the best selling single of 2019 in the UK. It also peaked at No. 1 on the Irish Singles Chart, the Canadian Hot 100, and the Recording Industry Association of Malaysia singles chart. In the United States, "Someone You Loved" was a sleeper hit, topping the Billboard Hot 100 in its 24th week on the chart. The song is certified Diamond or higher in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Poland, and the United States. 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 2023, "Someone You Loved" is the 3rd most streamed song on Spotify, with over 3 billion streams on the platform.

Background and composition
"Someone You Loved" is played in the tempo of 110 BPM and key signature of D♭ major. In an interview with the French magazine Brut, Capaldi revealed he wrote the song about his grandmother who had died.

In an interview with the British website NME, Capaldi said 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."

Critical reception
Reviewer Dave Simpson of The Guardian gave the song four stars out of a maximum of five, calling it and its heartbreak theme "raw and real."

Music video
The music video, featuring the singer was released on 29 August 2019. Here, Capaldi wanders the streets, following his lost love as his friends and strangers try to stop him from chasing after her. His brother, Aidan, also made an appearance at the beginning of the video where he pulls Lewis from the bench. The director of the music video, Ozzie Pullin, said that "The first person Lewis encounters is his brother, who pulls him up from the bench. This was an almost perfect metaphor because family members are usually the first people to push you forward." 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."

Another music video for the song featured Capaldi's distant relative, actor Peter Capaldi as a bereaved husband who finds some joy when he visits the family of the woman his wife donated her heart to, and is able to listen to her heartbeat one last time.

Chart performance
"Someone You Loved" reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart and stayed there for seven consecutive weeks. It is also Capaldi's first entry on the US Billboard Hot 100, debuting at No. 85 on the issue dated 25 May 2019 and becoming the singer's first number-one single in the country on the issue dated 2 November 2019. It reached No. 1 after 24 weeks on the chart, becoming one of the longest climbs to the top position in Billboard history. After three non-consecutive weeks on top it was replaced by Post Malone's "Circles".

In Ireland, the single cumulated 26.8 million streams in 2019 and was the biggest-selling song in the country that year.

Track listing

 * Digital download
 * 1) "Someone You Loved" – 3:02


 * Digital download
 * 1) "Someone You Loved" (Future Humans Remix) – 3:09


 * Digital download
 * 1) "Someone You Loved" (Madism Radio Mix)– 2:37


 * CD single
 * 1) "Someone You Loved" – 3:02
 * 2) "Someone You Loved" (Madism Radio Mix) – 2:37
 * 3) "Someone You Loved" (Instrumental) – 3:02
 * 4) "Voice Note From Lewis"

Personnel

 * TMS – production, mixing
 * Phil Cook – strings
 * Lewis Capaldi – vocals, piano
 * Robert Voseign – mastering
 * Ryan Walter – artwork design
 * Ali Gavillet – photography

Covers

 * The Piano Guys covered the song in a piano and cello composition on their video featuring World of Dance season 2 contestants Charity Anderson and Andres Penate.
 * Nicola Roberts performed the song in her Queen Bee disguise on the first series of The Masked Singer UK.
 * Camila Cabello and the Jonas Brothers covered the song during BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge, while Bastille, Charlie Puth, and Alec Benjamin covered the song for Sirius XM.
 * Capaldi performed the song as a surprise guest with Nina Nesbitt and James Bay at their concerts, and with Alicia Keys at the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Festival.
 * Australian sibling duo Angus & Julia Stone released a cover of the song in 2024 for Triple J's Like a Version.