Sam Smith

This article is about the singer-songwriter - for other people see Samuel Smith or Samantha Smith .

Sam Smith (2015)

Sam Smith (2014)

Samuel Frederick "Sam" Smith (born May 19, 1992 in London ) is of British nationality and became known as a singer-songwriter . Smith's debut single Lay Me Down was released in 2013, the first solo album In the Lonely Hour in 2014 on Capitol Records . In 2016, Smith received the Oscar for the title song Writing's on the Wall from Specter .

Life

youth

Sam Smith was born in London in 1992 and grew up in the small village of Linton in the English county of Cambridgeshire . While the father took care of Smith and the two younger sisters in the common house in Great Chishill, the busy mother was very successful as a banker in the financial industry. According to Smith, the great-aunt was already active in banking and one of the first female bankers .

Even in early childhood, Smith was fascinated by female voices and, above all, powerful singers and ballads. At the age of eight, the parents recognized Smith's great talent and began to promote it. In his early youth, Smith was the backing singer for jazz singing teacher Joanna Eden at performances in the capital. Smith completed his education at St. Thomas More Primary School and St. Mary's Catholic School in Bishop's Stortford in Hertfordshire, among others .

In his early youth, Smith moved to London for further vocal training at the Youth Music Theater UK. In 2007, Smith entered the local South Coast Idol singing competition and won. Contact with a manager was established for the first time during a performance by Adele , in which Smith was in the opening act. Smith, then 16 years old, did not have his own manager at the time and did not manage to get in touch with him that evening. It was only about three years later that the collaboration came about through another meeting. It was also thanks to the manager that Smith met and worked with songwriter Jimmy Napes .

Career

Through Napes Smith finally came to the band Disclosure , with the first national successes could be celebrated. Smith helped the British duo Disclosure, which specializes in house , electronica and dance-pop , to achieve their breakthrough by working on their single Latch . Soon thereafter there was a collaboration with the DJ, singer-songwriter and producer Naughty Boy . After Smith had released his first own single Lay Me Down on the Method label and later on Capitol Records in February 2013 , the final international breakthrough followed in May 2013 with Naughty Boy's song La La La , for which Smith had also written the lyrics. The song was a number one hit on the charts in several countries. In the British charts , the song was ranked in 2013 a week in the first place . In addition to the high chart positions, the song reached double platinum in Australia, platinum in New Zealand and Italy and gold in Belgium and Denmark . After the success of working with Naughty Boy, Smith released the EP Nirvana with four songs in early October 2013 . During this time Smith worked with producers such as Fraser T Smith, Two Inch Punch and Eg White.

In mid-February, Smith's debut single, Money on My Mind , made it into the international charts. In the UK, the song climbed within one week to the first place . While Lay Me Down had received almost no attention in February 2013, the song made it into the UK charts and rose after better marketing by Capitol Records and the song's mention at the BRIT Awards by actor James Corden in February of the following year here in 46th place. In December 2013 it was announced that Smith's debut album In the Lonely Hour would be released in May 2014 under the major label Capitol Records.

At the BRIT Awards in 2014, the song La La La was nominated for “Best British Single of the Year” and in the “British Video” category. Smith received the "Critics' Choice" award. In addition, in late 2013 / early 2014, Smith was nominated for “Brand New for 2014” by MTV , and was awarded the “ Sound of… 2014” award from the BBC .

Smith was nominated six times at the 2015 Grammy Awards and received four awards, including the three main categories of "Best New Artist", "Single" and "Song of the Year" (Stay with Me) . At the award, Smith thanked the ex-boyfriend the album was about: “I would like to thank the man that I fell in love with last year - the man who this album is about. Thank you so much for breaking my heart, because you got me four Grammys! ".

In a radio report on WDR 2 it was announced that Smith pays royalties to Tom Petty for the hit Stay with Me because the song is similar to I Won't Back Down . In September 2015, it was announced that Smith would sing the theme song Writing's on the Wall of the 24th James Bond film Specter . For the song Smith was awarded an Oscar in February 2016 in the category "Best Song". Owing to the fact that very few openly gays receive an Oscar , Smith dedicated the award to the LGBT community . In September 2017, Smith released the single Too Good at Goodbyes . The music video for it was produced by Mikey Levelle and Tom Birmingham.

Private life

With the model dating Jonathan Zeizel, Smith announced in May 2014 homosexual to be. Smith said in an interview that the album In the Lonely Hour was about love for a man that was not reciprocated. In May 2015, Smith had to undergo vocal cord surgery, which was successful.

In October 2017, Smith declared his own gender identity as non-binary (genderqueer) in an interview with The Times in London . In September 2019, Smith announced on Instagram that he no longer wanted to be referred to with masculine pronouns , but in a gender-neutral way with the singular pronoun they (untranslatable in German).

Discography

→ Main article : Sam Smith / Discography

Studio albums

year	Title music label	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
2014	In the Lonely Hour Capitol	DE17th gold (53 weeks)DE	AT15th platinum (27 weeks)AT	CH3 platinum (82 weeks)CH	UK1 × 8 Eight times platinum (… Where.)UK	US2 × 2 Double platinum (302 weeks)US	First published: May 26, 2014 Sales: + 5,765,000
2017	The Thrill of It All Capitol	DE8 (12 weeks) DE	AT7th gold (9 weeks)AT	CH3 (19 weeks) CH	UK1 × 2 Double platinum (59 weeks)UK	US1 (60 weeks) US	First published: November 3rd, 2017 Sales: + 962,500

Awards

• Grammy Awards 2015 : Best New Artist , Record of the Year / Song of the Year (Stay with Me) , Best Pop Vocal Album (In the Lonely Hour)
• Golden Globe Awards 2016 : best film song for Writing's on the Wall from James Bond 007: Specter
• Academy Awards 2016 : best film song for Writing's on the Wall from James Bond 007: Specter

Web links

• Sam Smith at Allmusic (English)
• Sam Smith's Soundcloud page

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Message: Great Chishill singer-songwriter Sam Smith wins BBC Sound of 2014. ( Memento from April 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Cambridge-News.co.uk. January 13, 2014, accessed November 22, 2019.
2. ^ Review of Britt Julious: Sam Smith: "Lay Me Down". In: Pitchfork.com . February 15, 2013, accessed November 22, 2019.
3. ↑ Announcement: Sam Smith announces debut album "In The Lonely Hour", shares tour dates. In: FactMag.com. December 16, 2013, accessed November 22, 2019.
4. ↑ Message: Meet MTV's Brand New For 2014 Nominees! In: MTV.co.uk . November 27, 2013, accessed November 22, 2019.
5. ↑ Portrait: BBC Music Sound Of: 1. Sam Smith. In: BBC.co.uk . 2019, accessed on November 22, 2019.
6. ^ Maggie Panos: Watch Sam Smith's Adorably Humble Grammys Acceptance Speeches. In: PopSugar.com. February 9, 2015, accessed November 22, 2019.
7. ↑ Message (dpa): 007 adventure “Specter”: Sam Smith sings new Bond theme song. In: Spiegel Online . September 8, 2015, accessed November 22, 2019.
8. ↑ Benjamin Lee: Oscars 2016 - Sam Smith: I want to dedicate my Oscar to the LGBT community. In: TheGuardian.com . February 29, 2016, accessed November 22, 2019.
9. ↑ Brett Malec: Sam Smith Opens Up About Being Gay, Reveals Album Is About a Guy Who Didn't Love Him Back. In: eOnline.com. May 28, 2014, accessed November 22, 2019 . 
10. ^ Message: Sam Smith confirms break-up on stage in Toronto. In: BBC.co.uk/newsbeat . January 22, 2015, accessed November 22, 2019 . 
11. ↑ Jessica Robertson: Cover Story: Sam Smith - The about-to-explode pop singer opens up about love songs and his sexuality. In: theFader.com. May 28, 2014, accessed November 22, 2019.
12. ↑ Message (dpa): People: Sam Smith must continue to spare his voice. In: Focus Online . May 5, 2015, accessed November 22, 2019.
13. ↑ Sam Smith, interviewed by Louis Wise: Interview: Sam Smith on coming out, and The Thrill of It All. In: TheTimes.co.uk . October 22, 2017, accessed November 22, 2019; Quote: "Sam Smith: 'I feel just as much woman as I am man'".
14. ↑ Message (cw): "Oh shit, that's me": Sam Smith sees himself as a genderqueer. In: Queer.de. March 18, 2019, accessed November 22, 2019; Quote: "The British artist tells in an interview that he sees himself neither as male nor as female."
15. ↑ Sam Smith: My pronouns are: they / them. In: Instagram . September 13, 2019, accessed November 22, 2019; Quote: “Like 641,374 times”.
16. ↑ lath: Sam Smith no longer wants to be called "he" - but rather "They / Them". In: Jetzt.de . September 14, 2019, accessed November 22, 2019; Quote: “At the moment I cannot put into words exactly and in detail what non-binary actually means. At the moment I just want to make that visible. "
17. ↑ News (SpotOnNews): Sam Smith: He chooses a gender-neutral pronoun. In: Stern.de . September 13, 2019, accessed November 22, 2019; Quote: “Sam Smith came out as non-binary . Now he announced that he no longer wanted to be referred to with a masculine pronoun. "