They are saying what doesn’t break you makes you stronger. Although Sam Smith’s coronary heart might have been shattered, not many individuals emerge from a failed romance with 4 Grammy Awards and a profession that appears sure to stretch forward for many years. Lifted from their debut album, In The Lonely Hour, “Stay With Me” is the tender peak of all that emotional heartbreak.
“I was in a very dark place”
A lot of all the ten-track album was written about Smith’s troubled love life. “I was in a very dark place,” they admitted, and the gospel-flavored ballad speaks of the measured desperation of that sluggish, burning second when you recognize a one-night stand is main nowhere, regardless of its arresting potentialities.
Written with James “Jimmy Napes” Napier, who has labored with Disclosure, Clear Bandit and Ellie Goulding, and William Phillips (from electronica act Vacationer), “Stay With Me” got here collectively shortly after a easy set of piano chords steered the foundations of a success tune. With drums that construct over the sequence, Smith then added layers and layers of vocal takes to the monitor. Recorded in a studio on London’s Previous Road, there was an aching simplicity to the music – one in every of that small membership of cuts that feels like a classic-in-the-making the primary time you hear it.
The breakout star of the yr
A lot of the success of Smith’s debut album lay in its emotional honesty. “I’ve only been in unrequited relationships where people haven’t loved me back,” the singer mentioned on the time. Listeners responded strongly to the emotional bravery as a lot because the staggeringly assured songwriting, and Within the Lonely Hour was an out-of-the-park blockbuster from the beginning.
With promotion for “Stay With Me” taking Smith to Saturday Night time Reside within the States and The Graham Norton Present within the UK, the reduce – launched as a single on April 14 within the US and Might 18 within the UK – went all the best way to the highest of the UK charts and peaked at No.2 on the Billboard listings. Together with its poignant – doubtless autobiographical – video, filmed in London, all the things was constructing quick, and “Stay With Me” turned the monitor that established Sam Smith as the largest breakout star of the yr.
“Thank you so much for breaking my heart”
Named Document Of The 12 months and Tune Of The 12 months on the 57th Grammy Awards, “Stay With Me” was an enormous achievement for a barely-established artist – as Smith was on the time. In the event that they had been stunned, nonetheless, the success didn’t completely go away them speechless. Displaying the articulate honesty they’ve since turn out to be well-known for, Smith let rip throughout their acceptance speech on the finish of the night time (they had been to win additional trophies for Greatest New Artist and Greatest Pop Vocal Album): “I want to thank the man who this record is about who I fell in love with last year. Just a quick one: thank you so much for breaking my heart because you just got me four Grammys.”
It was the sharpest two-finger salute in awards acceptance historical past!
Searching for extra? Uncover the perfect Sam Smith songs.
