Live in St. Pölten

Calum Scott: Real pop needs a lot of melancholy

With Calum Scott, the musical sky is always permeated by an ominous darkness.

(Bild: Universal Music)

Gentle songs full of melancholy and sadness run through the discography of British pop star Calum Scott. But the 35-year-old can also be more upbeat and is increasingly daring to come out of his cocoon. On August 14, he will be playing with Ed Sheeran in St. Pölten's Green Park - the "Krone" spoke to him in advance about his colorful life.

Good luck and bad luck went hand in hand for British crooner Calum Scott in 2024 - at least in Austria. Bad luck got the better of him back in July, when he was due to perform as Robbie Williams' opening act in Carinthia, but the concert had to be canceled the day before due to severe storms. "That was really awful. I had already been ill at a few concerts with him beforehand and somehow managed to pull it off. I was finally fit again before the Carinthia gig and then this." Three weeks later, the 35-year-old shone at the Frequency Festival and provided one of the rarer finer notes in a line-up full of rap and EDM. Scott has long been on a first-name basis with top English stars. In addition to Robbie, he has also toured with The Script, and this summer he is on tour with Ed Sheeran and will be back in St. Pölten's Green Park on August 14. A tour with Take That is also already set in stone.

On stage with Sheeran
On the current live slide with Sheeran, he even shares the stage with the superstar. Ed loves Scott's hit "You Are The Reason" so much that he asked him not to play it himself, but to sing it with Sheeran in his song block - in front of up to 70,000 fans every night. For the contestant on the 2015 version of "Britain's Got Talent", this is just another milestone in his unstoppable career so far, which has only known the accelerator pedal. He made his breakthrough with the cover version of Robyn's "Dancing On My Own", and his own rendition of the song then hit the charts again. This was followed by the studio albums "Only Human" (2018) and "Bridges" (2022) and successful collaborations and features with artists such as Lost Frequencies and Felix Jaehn - and of course the many concerts with the Champions League of the current British pop world.

Fiber flatterer Scott is also increasingly focusing on dance songs. Basically, it is important to him to make his audience cry and to provide the big emotions. Sometimes - such as recently in Bangkok with Sheeran - they even burst out of him when he is overwhelmed with encouragement and love from the audience. "I was very much inspired by my mother's taste in music," he says in the Krone interview, harking back to his childhood in British-raw Hull, "George Michael, Elton John, Michael Jackson and Céline Dion. They all have and had great voices and wonderful ballads that really appealed to me. So when I write my own music, my heart lies in these sounds. It happens quite unconsciously that I write romantic songs". Scott's performance at the Dutch EDM festival Tomorrowland in 2022 was an awakening experience in the other direction: "That was the first time I realized that I can also exist in this world."

Honesty and authenticity
Scott was born with a love of ballads, as he describes himself as a "sad boy". "I like ballads because they are so real and genuine. They come from direct emotions like sadness, darkness, loss or a relationship ending. People want to hear something real. We have so much music out there and there are so many channels where you can hear this music that listeners want to probe. They want to feel that they're being met honestly and authentically." As an eight-year-old, Scott used to sing Michael Bublé songs in his bedroom. The fact that he is now on stage in front of tens of thousands of people and that his songs are streamed millions of times still doesn't quite sit right with him. "It's unbelievable. But imagine that there are millions of great songs out there and some people have chosen one of mine for their wedding - it's beyond me."

As well as being a musician, Scott is also a voice who speaks openly about his initial insecurities about homosexuality and invests a lot of money in mental health projects. "I'm very passionate about supporting the LGBTQ community and mental health facilities. There are a lot of songs on 'Bridges' that I wrote during very dark moments in my life. People deserve to not be left alone with their problems and I want to be there for them with my experiences. I have had to come out several times in my life and it was difficult. To my family, to my friends and then to my work colleagues at the time, when I worked as an employee at the town hall. Boy George and Elton John opened up a new world for me with their openness. They supported me and gave me self-confidence. Music was incredibly important for my personal development."

Problems with happiness
Strictly speaking, Scott can only write his songs from a personal perspective. "Only when I feel like I'm giving a piece of myself does it feel real to me. Robyn's 'Dancing On My Own', for example, is not my song, but I've made it my own because I associate a personal story with it - that's also possible." Writing upbeat songs is much harder for him. "A number like Pharrell Williams' 'Happy'? Oh my god. I might only succeed with a song like that once in a million attempts. And even then it would probably be way too cheesy. I don't think Adele had an easy time writing her last album. She was privately happy, the child was there - how can you write about broken hearts in a situation like that? I think, as an attentive listener, you can tell which songwriter has experienced really bad things and which hasn't." Whether upbeat or balladic - Scott is guaranteed to enchant again in St. Pölten.

Live in St. Pölten
On August 14, Calum Scott will be playing as Ed Sheeran's support act on the opulent Frequency stage in St. Pölten's Green Park. Tickets for the concert highlight are still available at www.oeticket.com.