BBC Proms: How Sam Smith became one of Britain’s most versatile performers
Sam Smith will play BBC Proms on 2 August. (Getty/Canva/Unsplash)
As Sam Smith prepares to play BBC Proms tonight (2 August), and re-releases their seminal debut album In The Lonely Hour, PinkNews’ senior entertainment reporter Marcus Wratten reflects on how their astonishing career became what it is today.
Few diaries become as public as Sam Smith’s did. That’s how the musician, then just 22, described their seminal debut album In the Lonely Hour on its release in May 2014. “Everyone’s going to know my business,” Smith told The Line of Best Fit at the time. “I just hope people get that and listen to it and understand how much I put out there on the line.”
People did listen to it – in their millions. While the world was first introduced to Smith via their dance hits “Latch” and “La La La”, with Disclosure and Naughty Boy respectively, it was In the Lonely Hour that introduced us to Sam Smith the artist. They were lovelorn, having fallen for a man who didn’t return their affection, and arrived in the music industry with their heart firmly on their sleeve.
With “Stay with Me”, a gospel-tinged story in which Smith pines for a one-night stand not to leave, their honeyed falsetto became their trademark. On “Leave Your Lover”, where Smith’s vocals are so delicate they sound as though they might break, they lament having to hide their true emotions in the shadows. “I’m Not the Only One” is melancholic neo-soul with hints of scorn, as Smith grieves time lost on unrequited love.
The experiences that inspired the album were isolating, but the feelings Smith sang of were universal. In the Lonely Hour went global: in its year of release, they became the only artist to sell more than one million albums in both the US and the UK. In 2015, they bagged four Grammy Awards, including two for “Stay with Me (Darkchild Version)”, plus nominations for album of the year and best pop solo performance.
It seems success was always going to come knocking at Smith’s door. Music, particularly soul, jazz and R&B, had permeated their childhood. Their mother would play Whitney Houston and Chaka Khan in the car; their first musical memory is of hearing Houston’s “My Love Is Your Love” while out on a drive. From the age of eight, Smith began belting out the songs in their bedroom, where Aretha Franklin and Etta James were favourites.
Aged eight, they also started lessons with jazz singer-songwriter Joanna Eden. Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone were on the lesson plan. Then came performances in front of their mother’s friends at dinner parties, musical theatre training and after-school trips to recording studios with their father.
Smith’s breakthrough solo single, “Lay Me Down”, was written while they worked in a bar, after moving to London. They grafted to make it all happen.
This year marks a decade since Smith’s startlingly accomplished debut and, in the years since, their career has undergone a spectacular metamorphosis. “Writing’s on the Wall”, Smith’s song for the 2015 film Spectre, became the first Bond song to reach the summit of the UK singles chart, as well as winning an Oscar for best original song.
Three further albums, The Thrill of It All (2017), Love Goes (2020) and Gloria (2023), which veer between dance pop, soul and R&B, followed. Recent years have seen Smith on scorching collaborations with some of pop’s greatest, from Madonna to Calvin Harris.
In the process, they have become one of the most notable queer musicians of all time. Their 2022 single “Unholy”, featuring German singer-songwriter Kim Petras, made Smith the first openly non-binary artist to win a Grammy Award.
But Smith’s roots in classic soul and timeless jazz standards are never far below the surface. Even Gloria featured a handful of the crisp, virtuosic ballads, akin to those that made their name 10 years ago.
Tonight, in their only UK appearance of 2024, Smith is taking us back to that time, to mark In the Lonely Hour‘s special anniversary, pouring their heart out as they reflect on the album that changed their life.
Expect to also hear some of the jazz and soul classics that shaped the early years of their musical journey, and the records which have continued to shape their career since.
Smith will be joined by the BBC Concert Orchestra, alongside their long-term guitarist Ben Totten and pianist Ruth O’Mahony-Brady. At the helm is renowned BAFTA and Tony-Award-winning composer Simon Hale, adding further cinematic flair to Smith’s soaring vocals from the conductor’s podium. It’s a full-circle moment, too: Smith and Hale first worked together on In the Lonely Hour way back when.
Following the album’s release, Smith dreamt aloud about what would happen if it, with all its sorrow, insecurities and gut-punch yearning, was a hit. Success, they hoped, would “bring some magical things” their way. It certainly did. Tonight, we’ll see that magic spill out on stage.
Prom 18: Sam Smith will be broadcast live on Radio 3 and on BBC Sounds. It will be on TV and BBC iPlayer later in the season.
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