Get the latest gossip

The secret life of Noah Kahan: pop’s sudden superstar on No1s, packed arenas – and impostor syndrome

His album and single are at No1 in the UK, he plays to enormous crowds who sing along to every word, and he was up for a Grammy this year. So why is he still afraid of failure?

At the Grammys the other week, Noah Kahan looked around – at Beyoncé, at Taylor Swift – and thought: “No one’s going to tell me that I belong here.” Never mind that he had been nominated for best new artist, or that his album was riding high in the US and UK charts. Photograph: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for The Recording AcademyAt high school, his songs started attracting the attention of older kids who were producing and putting tracks online. I was lucky my team was supportive But there was something about being at home again with his siblings, as well as the beauty of Vermont, that brought Kahan closer to the songwriting teenager he had been, before he started trying to become a commercial pop star.

Get the Android app