In Conversation With Calum Scott
The new year has barely begun, and British singer Calum Scott is off to a flying start. The Britain’s Got Talent finalist has just kicked off a six-month stint opening for Ed Sheeran’s +–=÷× Mathematics Tour. And when we sit down with him ahead of their Dubai leg, he’s visibly buzzing. “What more could I ask for at the top of the year than to be supporting arguably the most talented artist in the world? I can’t really ask much more of life than to be given that,” he beams with an endearing Yorkshire accent. Despite rocketing to stardom nine years ago, he hasn’t lost sight of where he came from, and the things he’s achieved. “I remind myself constantly of my blessings and I'm always so grateful to be where I'm at and that helps me stay on a really steady path. I used to work for Asda!”
With no less than one billion views on YouTube, it’s not surprising that You Are the Reason is the song he looks forward to performing the most: “It's a song that seems to have transcended, it doesn't matter where in the world you live, doesn't matter what language you speak. You Are the Reason is a dedication of love from one to another, and I think that's why it's so widely understood.” But it’s his newest single, Lighthouse, that has Scott most excited. It’s scheduled for release on day one of the Dubai gigs (19 January) but the audience in Bahrain were given a sneak preview: “It's one hell of a song to sing live. I'm just going to say that. It's so powerful and so up in my range, but it feels so empowering and so hopeful. And it's such a big song to start the set with. I feel like it's quite brave,” he confesses. “If Bahrain was anything to go by, then Dubai is going to be insane”.
Scott’s relationship with Ed Sheeran was one that developed naturally, after working on a currently unreleased song written by Sheeran and performed by Scott for David Guetta. “I'd got hold of it, vocaled it and sent it to them. Then me and Ed got on a really great vibe on emails where it just felt very personal, like he'd known me all his life. I guess after that that I was top of his mind when he announced the tour.” With six months together in such close proximity, could there be a collaboration on the cards? “I have no doubt that we'll be besties by the end of it, but who knows what might happen on the road, with writing potentially. I don't want to push the agenda, he's done me such a huge thing by me being on the tour with him.” As two of the of the humblest artists in the music industry, it would be a shame not to see them release something special together, but we’ll just have to watch this space over the next six months.