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West Lothian pupils proudly unveil ‘unusual’ Lewis Capaldi statue
Lewis Capaldi was left stunned after being presented with a statue of himself by pupil’s from his former high school.
Pupils at St Kentigern’s Academy in Blackburn, West Lothian, were sworn to secrecy over the project, which was six months in the making.
S4 pupils Anna Tumilowicz, Ella Benussi, Ellie Currie, Paige Cantley, Lola Foley, Molly Swift and Cadee Moore were all involved in the project.
The statue was dedicated to the release of the 26-year-old’s second album, ‘Broken by Desire to Be Heavenly Sent’, which was released shortly before his show last month.
But there was a twist to the gift – with the sculpture deliberately not bearing a particularly striking resemblance to the Scots crooner.
Bryan Johnston, Principal Art Teacher at St Kentigern’s Academy, told the Daily Record: “The art department got involved with the concept after speaking to Lewis’ team and we decided to follow James Corden’s concept when he made the statue of David Beckham a few years ago.
“The statue for Beckham didn’t really look like David Beckham, so we did something similar to that, but wanted to link it to Lewis’ new album which has now been released.
“The art department at the school came up with the concept, and it went from there – we sourced a mannequin from a guy in Glasgow, took it back to school and built around it.
“The biggest challenge we faced was getting the face to look not quite right and a bit unusual and it went from there.”
Bryan explained how fourth-year students at the school were invited to get involved. But were sworn to secrecy prior to the unveiling.
“We thought it would be perfect to get some of our fourth-year students involved, and they were really enthusiastic and they even came in a couple of days over the Easter holidays,” he said.
“They were very committed, but the big thing obviously was keeping it hush, hush. Only those seven kids in the full school knew and a few other members of staff. So for them to keep it quiet for that long was pretty incredible. They’re a trustworthy bunch.”
The school pupils were invited to the Someone You Loved hitmaker’s intimate gig in SWG3 on Sunday as a thank-you from the Bathgate-born superstar.
Previously, Lewis attributed part of his success to his time as a student at St Kentigern’s Academy, or St Kents as its known.
He said: “It was a really good school to go to. I think it helped me in terms of becoming better at music.”
Lewis started writing songs when he was only 12 years old and was encouraged by the music department at St Kentigern’s to keep going with his love for music.
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