Sam Smith is an English singer-songwriter who rose to fame in October 2012 when featured on Disclosure’s breakthrough song “Latch” which peaked at number 11 on UK Singles Chart. His style of music is melodic and blues with soulful falsettos and a soft contemporary jazz, velvety feel to his voice. This has made him enormously successful by singing emotional ballads that connect with a high number of people worldwide. Before entering musical theatre, Smith had been in jazz bands and was and was a student at Youth Music Theatre UK and was also a member of Bishops Stortford Musical Theatre Society and the Cantate Youth Choir.

His subsequent collaboration on Naughty Boy’s “La La La” earned Sam his first number one single in May 2013 and the following December 2013 he was nominated and won both the 2014 Brit Critics’ Choice Award and BBC’s Sound of 2014 poll. After such a quick success he released his first studio album, In the Lonely Hour in May 2014 which included his second release and number one in the uk “Money on My Mind” and his third single “Stay with Me” earned him international success and recognition. Following this, in December 2014 Smith was nominated for six Grammy Awards and actually won four (Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album).

Sam himself described this album as “all about unrequited love” as he has never been loved back by any of this love interests. In November 2014 the album reached number one in UK Albums Chart and number two on the Billboard 200 and was the second biggest selling album of 2014 in the US behind “1989” by Taylor Swift. In 2015 Sam and London music producer Jimmy Napes composed “Writing’s on the Wall”, theme song to Spectre, the 24th James Bond Film and in 2016 for his efforts he won a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Written by Candice Eastman