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01st June, 2015
Sam Smith - A Profile

Sam Smith is in the news and this time for good reasons. At the 57th Annual Grammy awards the young man won four Grammys, his first ever. Smith won the big honours for the night including the most coveted Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album for his debut album “In the Lonely Hour”, to the biggest awards of the night, Record of the Year for his heartbreaking singleStay With Me and Song of the YearStay With Me. The 57th Grammy awards were held on Sunday, February 8th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and had live performances by Madonna, Usher, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett and many others, it was night to remember.

2014 saw Sam go from newcomer to international superstar having now collected an impressive array of prestigious music awards with four more to his name after last month’s Grammys. It was also recently announced he was the only artist in the world last year to reach over 1 million album sales in both the UK and the US.

As he accepted the award for `Record of the Year’, the 22-year old Brit born Smith said, "I want to thank the man who this record is about, who I fell in love with last year. Thank you so much for breaking my heart because you got me four Grammys."

Smith also sent out a message to viewers earlier during the telecast urging audiences to accept themselves for who they are saying, "Before I made this record, I was doing everything to try and get my music heard, I tried to lose weight and I was making awful music and it was only until that I started to be myself that the music started to flow and people started to listen."

For those who don’t really know about this artist, it’s time we introduced you to the balladeer who has taken such a huge Grammy haul.

Samuel Frederick "Sam" Smith was born on 19th May 1992 in London, England, and is the son of Kate Cassidy and Frederick Smith. He is an alumnus of Youth Music Theatre UK and starred in their 2007 production of "Oh! Carol". Before entering the musical theatre, Smith tried his hand playing in a few jazz bands. Growing up in a small town 25 miles north of London, Smith began training as a jazz singer when he was 8 and had his first manager by age 12. For a number of years he studied singing and songwriting under jazz vocalist/pianist Joanna Eden and also attended St Mary's Catholic School in Bishop’s Stortford. He was a member of the Bishop's Stortford Junior Operatics (now Bishops Stortford Musical Theatre Society) and the successful Cantate Youth Choir.

He listened exclusively to female "power singers" Whitney Houston, Chaka Khan and Amy Winehouse, where you can make out the soul and gospel undertones in his music. At 18, he moved to London to tend bar while playing gigs around the city. He met electronic duo Disclosure in the fall of 2012 through common managers who suggested he sing over the duo's new track Latch.

Smith balanced study with music, soaking in the raw and passionate approach to performance exemplified by his favorite artists at that time such as Adele and Amy Winehouse as his main influences and would also bracket bigger names like Chaka Khan, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey as other influences who played a part in making him understand music much more.

His success came through his collaboration with Disclosure. He was about 21 years old when in October 2012 he was featured on the Disclosure’s breakthrough single Latch which peaked at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. The song brought him to most people's attention immediately and became the first single from Disclosure's debut album Settle, which received a 2013 Grammy nomination for Best Dance Album. Soon after Smith recorded with Disclosure, Nick Raphael, the U.K. president of Capitol Records, offered to sign him within three days. By December, Smith had quit his bar job and begun preparing a single, Lay Me Down and an EP titled Nirvana. Sadly, neither made big waves in the U.K., but Latch catapulted Smith into the global spotlight.

To date, the song's music video Latch has been viewed more than 26 million times on YouTube. After it went viral, Smith released an acoustic version that features just his vocals and has been viewed more than 1.5 million times. The song reached No. 11 on the U.K. singles chart and led to collaboration, Together, that featured Nile Rodgers and Jimmy Napes.

His subsequent feature was with Shahid Khan – aka Naughty Boy with the infectious, Bollywood sample-driven La La La which earned him his first number 1 single in May 2013. Featuring Smith’s powerful lead vocal, it became an instant May 2013 U.K. number one single following his spring tour in support of soul artist Emeli Sande. Smith also recorded a solo track which became another hit track for Disclosure titled Lay Me Down. The February 2013 release featuring the dance floor duo Disclosure once again cemented the path for Smith’s success. Soon Smith was on his way to make more music. By the end of February 2014 he was at the top of the U.K. singles chart once again with Money on My Mind, an infectious track that inventively married his relaxed vocal with a frenetic beat.

Finally in May 2014, Smith released his debut full length album in the UK titled In the Lonely Hour through Capitol Records. It made its presence felt in the US a month later. In an interview he describes the album as "all about unrequited love" because he has never been loved back by any of his love interests.” The album reached number one in the UK Albums Chart and number two on the Billboard 200 and by November it had become the second biggest selling album of 2014 in the U.S. behind only 1989 by Taylor Swift. In January 2015, In the Lonely Hour was named the second best selling album of 2014 in the UK, behind co patriot Ed Sheeran’s album X

In May 2014, when he was on the verge of releasing his album, Smith revealed to the public that he is gay. His former partner is Jonathan Zeizel. Smith says his album In The Lonely Hour is about a guy who didn’t love him back. In an interview with a magazine Smith opened up about his struggles with obsessive – compulsive disorder. "I actually have OCD really bad, and it's getting a bit worse at the moment," he said. "I have to check taps... before I leave the house, to make sure I've checked everything in case it floods.” He is a third-cousin of singer Lily Allen and actor of Alfie Allen.

Smith’s album is quite different from his club-friendly music he has recorded in the past. Placing an emphasis on lyrics, it offers intimate details about his life. Smith who has never been in a relationship, said he wanted to be a voice for people who "haven't been loved back."

In August 2014, Smith's single Stay with Me was named Variance Magazine's Song of Summer. He performed Stay With Me live at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards on 24th August 2014 in California. On 15th November 2014, Smith joined the charity group Band Aid 30 along with other British and Irish pop acts, recording the latest version of the track Do They Know It’s Christmas in London.

Just when all was going well for Smith, he found himself in a legal tussle with songwriters Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, co – writers of Petty’s 1989 hit I won’t back down. Theyclaimed Smith had taken a part of the song and used it in his gospel tinged Stay with me. Smith subsequently awarded 12.5% of the royalties from his hit Stay with Me to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne upon being confronted with the similarities between the two songs. Petty and Lynne are now listed as co-writers on the track.

In December 2014, Smith was nominated for six Grammy awards including Best New Artist, Stay with Me for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, and In the Lonely Hour for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. At the Grammys held last month he walked away with four trophies.

In December, he won the 2014 Brits Critic's Choice Award and later he won the BBC's "Sound of 2014" music critic’s poll, which often predicts commercial success. (Past winners include Adele, 50 Cent and Ellie Goulding.)

He's also demonstrated strong ticket sales. Most of his European tour dates have sold out well in advance. All of his U.S. performances sold out last year including two nights at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, the first of which sold out in less than 24 hours. He recently announced a 10-city North American tour to promote his forthcoming album, In the Lonely Hour, due out in the U.S. in June this year. The San Francisco date sold out in a day. Critics praise the fluid quality of Smith's voice as well as his emotional lyrics and almost bashful stage presence.

For Universal Music (India) which brought out Sam Smith’s album, he is labeled as one of the exciting new artists that broke in India in 2014 and it’s time every music fan in India got a chance to experience the brilliance of Sam Smith.

2015 is shaping up to be bigger than the last year with Sam’s escalating success and multi-national sales making him one of the UK’s most exciting home-grown talents.

By Verus Ferreira


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