Male pop stars like Ed Sheeran share more of their private struggles, creating music chart hits
Aussie country star Keith Urban has taken to TikTok to share a heartfelt moment. See how other music stars are connecting with fans.
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Ed Sheeran has bravely shared his mental health struggles over his 12-year reign as one of the world’s biggest pop stars.
But the 32-year-old has never been more vulnerable than on his new single Eyes Closed about the crippling grief and depression he suffered in the wake of the death of his close mate and music entrepreneur Jamal Edwards last year.
“So many people can relate to it in so many different ways,” Sheeran said in an Instagram post.
“They’ve got different stories across the board of either break-ups or grief and I just love that the song is connecting to people emotionally.”
In just five days after its release, Eyes Closed had generated more than 26 million Spotify streams and another 12 million YouTube views for the song’s blue monster video. Thousands of fans have shared how the song has touched them on his social media posts or via the more than one million videos related to the song on TikTok.
Vulnerability sells in the streaming and TikTok era, as Sheeran has helped usher in a new wave of male and non-binary singer songwriters offering musical therapy to the world.
Another music star who moved the world this week was Lewis Capaldi.
SAM SMITH
Sam Smith built their pre-Unholy career on drilling deep to find something new about the time-honoured pop tropes of heartbreak and yearning for love.
A more in tune with the times and empathetic masculine perspective on grief, broken hearts, depression and anxiety continues to be universally embraced by fans seeking solace in song, to feel a little less alone in their own private hells.
KEITH URBAN
Aussie country star Keith Urban lived up to his reputation as one of the nicest guys in music when he shared a heartfelt moment with a fan struggling with mental health issues on-stage.
During his performance at the iHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles last week, Urban spotted a handwritten sign in the crowd that said “My therapist says KU shows are good for me”.
In a video posted to Urban’s Tiktok, with the caption “this is why we do it”, the kind-hearted star called super-fan Heather up on stage and asked about her sign.
“Why does she say that?” he asked Heather, who has previously posted on TikTok that she has seen Urban perform live at least 30 times.
Urban was visibly moved when the fan replied: “Because you have helped me, your music has helped me with my depression and my anxiety for my whole life and it’s got me through some of the darkest times I’ve had.
“So she really, really likes you.”
As the audience cheered, Urban wrapped his arms around Heather to give her a massive hug.
ROYSTON NOELL
Australian Idol winner Royston Noell (his artist name) believes he claimed the title not only for his soulful voice but because his performances shared his struggles, from being bullied as a child for singing, to wrestling with coming out as a queer man.
“It was really hard for me to open up and be vulnerable with Australia but they embraced me and my stories, and I am so appreciative of them for believing in me,” he said the day after his win.
“Back in the day it wasn’t really heard of for men to be vulnerable and really open up about different aspects of their life – especially on national television.
“I just really wanted to be able to help other people out there that have been through similar situations as me.”
Emotionally brave singer songwriters have always been a fixture of pop music. But the new generation of artists who may have started their confessional exorcism of demons while strumming their guitar in their bedroom, now express themselves across the genres from hip hop to emo rock.
BUDJERAH
In the middle of those genre divides are the postmillennial pop artists whose cathartic expositions of unrequited love, relationship demise, existential angst and mental health challenges have made them chart stars and box office gold.
Among the new generation of Australian singers finding big audiences and building careers by ripping their souls open and spilling the pain into music and lyrics are Ruel, JXN, Flowerkid and Budjerah.
STEPHEN SANCHEZ
American singer Stephen Sanchez, who was in Australia last week on a promotional tour ahead of his return for gigs in June, has captured the world’s heart with his 50s and 60s retro pop love songs including current viral sensation and ARIA top 10 hit Until I Found You.
The 20-year-old rising star never thought his songs would have a life outside of the bedroom he wrote them in. But he understands why their underlying current of melancholic yearning has connected with fans even if they don’t have all the pieces of his life puzzle yet.
“I had a dark childhood and love was a very hard thing for me growing up. So relationships and love have always been kind of hard for me,” he said.
“I find my feelings to be inconsolable when I do feel something for somebody. The abandonment I’ve had in my life has shaped this person who refuses to not have a connection with a human being, despite the red flags, because of the desire to have love.”
DEAN LEWIS
Dean Lewis, whose 2018 smash Be Alright reverberated around the world for its gut-wrenching meditation on romantic betrayal, feared he would never have another big hit.
But How Do I Say Goodbye, the song written to help him cope with his father’s cancer diagnosis, has reignited his global touring career.
It was a fan-led comeback with millions of views for hundreds of thousands of TikTok videos of people crying as they sang along at his concerts or used it as the soundtrack for their own grief-related content.
Lewis said after the song’s release last year that he “broke down 15 times” trying to write the lyrics.
“There is a fundamental truth that I have followed my whole life, and which I think is more true now than ever, and that’s if I make great songs they will connect somehow, some way, because that’s what art does,” he said.
Originally published as Male pop stars like Ed Sheeran share more of their private struggles, creating music chart hits
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