Okay, for real now: Where is Paolo Nutini and why haven’t we heard from him?

It’s a tale of almost mythical proportion, and it goes a little like this.

Paolo introduces himself to the world during a golden age of British music, alongside such great artists as Razor Light and Newton Faulkner. His first album, These Streets, sets the precedent for his astronomical rise as an easy listening/soul music genius, and every release since ensures to dip its toes into instant classic territory – you still hear a handful of the tunes from Sunny Side Up in various adverts on TV to this very day.

But then, suddenly, everything took a turn for the worse and it seemed like the greatest from that era just… disappeared. No more Razorlights. No more Newtons. The thing is, they eventually returned. But Paolo did not.

WHERE IS HE?! I can’t be the only one wondering where he is. I can’t be. I refuse to be. And if you hadn’t been wondering, you definitely are now. His Twitter bio still reads “Caustic Love Out Now”, but that album was six frickiNG years ago (I mean, technically the statement isn’t wrong). So, where the bloody heck are ya Pablo?

He called the grieving mother of one of his fans

The first evidence that Paolo hasn’t stopped being a legend since removing himself from the spotlight comes from a story in which he called the mother of one of his fans who had passed away.

Andrea Anderson’s son Ryan was 15 years old when he was in a fatal car crash. She told The Paisley Express: “It was so thoughtful of him to call. It was amazing to speak to him and it meant so much to me as Ryan was such a big fan.”

He joined a performer on stage during a stag do that he was on

What a bloke. WHAT A BLOKE.

Paolo was on a stag do with a group of 25 mates when he entered St Vincent’s, a bar in Glasgow. He decided to join the performer on stage for a few songs and then, later, he came back on and they performed a few of his classics, including Candy. Moving to Scotland as we speak…

He has been spotted multiple times in Paisley recently

He is a proper Paisley local, and as such is regularly spotted in the area according to Twitter. There was even an entire article written solely about how he picked up a takeaway – if anything signifies that we NEED to hear new music from Paolo Nutini again, it’s that we’ll willingly read an entire article written solely about how he picked up a takeaway.

He paid for a man’s food shop at Aldi

The next ridiculous Paolo story to crop up is from April of this year when he paid for a man’s food shop at Aldi after he’d forgot to bring his wallet. Apparently the embarrassed shopper, Michael, went to shake Paolo’s hand, to be told: “You can’t do that just now.”

Phwoar – “You can’t do that just now” – you can literally envision the glint in Paolo’s eye and knowing smile when delivering that one. I would’ve jelly-legged myself out of the joint.

To be fair, if I turned around and saw that there was a celebrity in the queue with me, I’d probably “forget my wallet” too. Good thinking Michael, even if it was just for £12.45 of shopping.

He even drunkenly sang karaoke at a local bar last year

If there’s any type of celebrity that deserves our attention, it is one that’s unashamedly a man of the people. Paolo got up and performed a little bit of karaoke at a local pub in 2019 and, as you can tell, he’s still really got it.

He won an auction for Lewis Capaldi’s Chewbacca mask, donating thousands to charity in the meantime

Lewis was auctioning the mask he wore onstage at TRNSMT Festival for charity in 2019, and Paolo became the winning bidder with an undisclosed amount. He also went on to donate a further £10,000 to mental health charity Tiny Changes.

Basically, we need Paolo to return as soon as possible. Middle-aged mums need his music, nae, the WORLD needs his music. However, that begs just one question:

Is he releasing a new album?

Nope. There have been swirlings and rumours about a new album, but nothing has been properly confirmed. Fuck.

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