Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter. In 2012, they rose to prominence when they featured on electronic music duo Disclosure's breakthrough single "Latch", which peaked at No. 11 on the UK singles chart. The following year, they featured on record producer Naughty Boy's single "La La La", which became a number one single in the UK.
Smith's debut studio album, In the Lonely Hour (2014), was released by Capitol Records UK and debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart. The album's lead single, "Lay Me Down", was released prior to "La La La". The album's second single, "Money on My Mind", became their second number one single in the UK. Its third single, "Stay with Me", was internationally successful, reaching number one in the UK and number two on the US Billboard Hot 100, while subsequent singles "I'm Not the Only One" and "Like I Can" reached the top ten in the UK. The album won four awards at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, including Best Pop Vocal Album, Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and nominations for Album of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Smith's song "Writing's on the Wall" served as the theme for the James Bond film Spectre (2015), and won Smith a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award for Best Original Song. Smith's second studio album, The Thrill of It All (2017), debuted atop the UK and US album charts. The album's lead single, "Too Good at Goodbyes", reached number one in the UK and Australia and number four in the US. Following the 2018 single "Promises" (with the Scottish DJ and record producer Calvin Harris), which peaked at number one in the UK, Smith released "Dancing with a Stranger" (with the American singer Normani) in 2019, which peaked within the top ten in the UK and the US, also receiving a nomination for Song of the Year at the Brit Awards 2020. The singles, along with "How Do You Sleep?", would precede the release of their third studio album, Love Goes (2020). In 2022, Smith's single "Unholy" (with the German singer Kim Petras), would become their first number one single in the US and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. The song would precede their fourth studio album, Gloria (2023).
Smith's numerous accolades include five Grammy Awards, three Brit Awards, three Billboard Music Awards, and an American Music Award, as well as a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. On the UK Albums Chart, In the Lonely Hour was the best-selling debut album of the 2010s and the sixth best-selling album of the decade, while collectively Smith's albums spent the fourth-most weeks at number one in the 2010s, behind Ed Sheeran, Adele and Eminem. Smith is the first openly non-binary musician to both release a song that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and to win a Grammy Award.
Samuel Frederick Smith was born in London on 19 May 1992 to Frederick Smith and broker Kate Cassidy. Smith grew up in the village of Great Chishill in Cambridgeshire, where they attended Thomas More Primary School. They are the third cousin of the singer-songwriter and actress Lily Allen.
They were bullied for having breasts as a child and underwent liposuction at age 12. As part of Youth Music Theatre UK, Smith appeared in the troupe's 2007 production of Oh! Carol, a musical featuring the music of Neil Sedaka. Before entering the musical theatre, they had been in jazz bands. While studying singing and songwriting under jazz pianist Joanna Eden for a number of years, Smith attended St Mary's Catholic School in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire and was a member of the Bishop's Stortford Junior Operatics (now Bishop's Stortford Musical Theatre Society) and the Cantate Youth Choir. Smith attended the Anglican church St Mary the Virgin in Saffron Walden, Essex, with family members, as a youth. Smith released two singles, "Bad Day All Week" in 2008 and "When It's Alright" in 2009.
Smith was featured on the Disclosure song "Latch", which was released on 8 October 2012 and peaked at No. 11 on the UK singles chart. In February 2013, Smith released the first single from their debut studio album, "Lay Me Down", and later in the year featured on Naughty Boy's single "La La La". It was released on 19 May 2013 and peaked at No. 1 on the UK singles chart. Smith's debut extended play (EP) Nirvana was released the following year. The first song on the EP, titled "Safe with Me", is produced by Two Inch Punch and was first broadcast on MistaJam's BBC Radio 1Xtra show on 24 July 2013. The second song on the EP is titled "Nirvana" and is produced by Craze & Hoax and Jonathan Creek. The EP also includes Smith's acoustic solo version of "Latch" and a live version of "I've Told You Now". Smith released the Disclosure, Nile Rodgers, and Jimmy Napes collaboration "Together" on 25 November 2013 as the only single from Settle: The Remixes. In December 2013, Smith was nominated for the Brit Critics' Choice Award 2014 and the BBC's Sound of 2014 poll, winning both.
The second single from Smith's debut studio album, titled "Money on My Mind", was released on 16 February 2014. It was announced on 16 December that Smith's debut studio album, titled In the Lonely Hour, would be released on 26 May 2014 through Capitol Records UK. Smith described the album as "all about unrequited love" stemming from personal experience, having never been loved back by any previous love interests. The album reached number one in the UK Albums Chart and number two on the US Billboard 200, and by 5 November it had become the second biggest selling album of 2014 in the US 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 x by Ed Sheeran.
A live version of album track "I've Told You Now", performed at St Pancras Old Church in St Pancras, London, was made available as a free download as part of an Amazon.com promotion on 27 December 2013. The album track "Make It to Me", co-written by Howard of Disclosure and Jimmy Napes, was made available as a free download as part of an iTunes Store promotion on 13 January 2014. Smith went on their debut American headlining tour in the second quarter of 2014, with a setlist of primarily new material. On 20 January 2014, Smith made their American television debut performing "Latch" with Disclosure on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Smith also performed on Saturday Night Live (SNL) on 29 March 2014, performing the gospel-tinged "Stay with Me" and an acoustic version of "Lay Me Down". "Stay with Me" reached number one on the UK singles chart and number two on the US Billboard Hot 100. The fourth single from the album, "I'm Not the Only One", reached No. 3 in the UK and No. 5 in the US. Smith performed "Stay With Me" live at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards on 24 August at The Forum in Inglewood, California. On 15 November 2014, they 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?" at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, to raise money for the Western African Ebola epidemic.
In 2015, it came to light that the American singer Tom Petty, noting similarities between "Stay with Me" and his 1989 hit song "I Won't Back Down", had negotiated an out-of-court settlement with Smith in October 2014. Petty and co-composer Jeff Lynne were awarded 12.5 percent of the royalties from "Stay with Me", and the names of Petty and Lynne joined James John Napier (known professionally as Jimmy Napes) in the ASCAP song credit. At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, held on 8 February 2015, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, Smith performed "Stay with Me" and also received four Grammy Awards: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year (for "Stay with Me") and Best Pop Vocal Album (for In the Lonely Hour). At the Brit Awards 2015 held at The O2 Arena in Greenwich, London on 25 February, they performed "Lay Me Down", and won the Brit Awards for British Breakthrough Act, and Global Success. In March 2015, "Lay Me Down" was re-released as the sixth single from the album, peaking at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Smith's third US top 10 single). The same month, Smith recorded another version of the song, featuring John Legend, for the British charity telethon Comic Relief, which reached number one in the UK. At the 2015 Billboard Music Awards on 17 May, Smith received three Billboard Awards: Top Male Artist, Top New Artist, and Top Radio Songs Artist. They featured on Disclosure's single "Omen", which was released on 27 July 2015.