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The first male artist in 34 years and the first UK male artist ever to be nominated for all “Big Four” GRAMMY categories after his debut album release is 22 year old Sam Smith.
At the 57th Annual GRAMMY Awards Sam Smith will be part of the nominations for a total of 6 categories: Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best New Artist, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Record of the Year.
Smith is no newbie to awards. Since the release of In The Lonely Hour album in May 2014, he has won Critics’ Choice BRIT award, BBC Sound of 2014, Q Award’s Best New Artist, American Music Awards Favourite Male Artist for Pop/Rock honours, four MOBO awards, and a VH1 You Oughta Know Artist Of The Year award.
The 10-Track record achieved 4x Platinum and a #1 spot in 44 countries, and in addition to this, 2.5 million copies were sold globally; placing him as the most sold UK artist with a debut album in the US in 23 years.
The 22 year old Londoner describes his album as “just a diary from a lonely 21-year-old … it’s my way of defining what is love, and how unrequited love is just as painful, just as powerful, as what we call ‘normal’ love.”
The critically-acclaimed album was released just two years after Smith’s burst onto the music scene with collaborative track “Latch” that he performed on with garage-house duo Disclosure.
The song peaked at number eleven in the charts, leading him onto his first number one as he featured on Naughty Boy’s “La La La” a year later in May 2013.
There is no doubt that In The Lonely Hour is the cause for his meteoric rise to fame.
The record-breaking album received gleaming reviews across the board.
The Associated Press cited it as “a passionate, heart-wrenching album” whilst The Washington Post observed that “In the Lonely Hour shows off every facet of Smith’s voice to goose pimple-raising effect.”
Track three on the album, “Stay With Me”, is the nomination for three GRAMMYs: Song of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.
Written by Sam Smith, James Napier and William Phillips, the pop-ballad entails a protagonist pleading with his one-night stand to not leave him.
The song sold over 600,000 copies in the UK and over 3 million in the US as well as reaching Billboard’s Top 10 Songs of 2014.
Billboard cited the song as “a fragile ballad that finds its backbone when a gospel choir assists the British singer on the harrowing chorus.”
It hit Number One in the UK Charts, making it his second solo number one after “Money On My Mind”. It remains his most successful song up to date.
The GRAMMY nomination list can be compared to Adele back in 2012, who won a massive 6 awards: Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Short Form Music Video.
Smith has been compared to Adele a lot.
In fact, oddly enough, both were discovered by their first labels after playing Blue Flowers pub venue in West London; however, both their soars to fame is what is most similar between the two.
Both became a part of the British Invasion of America in their early 20s – Adele 21 and now Sam 22 – and both have wildly successful albums about unrequited love – Adele with break-up album 21 and now Sam with album In The Lonely Hour.
Smith has also cited Adele as a huge influence to his work, saying “I actually do look up to her a lot. She still comes across as so normal which is what I would like to come across as.
“And also the honesty in her music remained through her second album and that’s something that I’m really passionate about keeping” in a recent interview with Capital FM.
Creative appreciation has also been extended from Adele towards Smith, as she tweeted in October 2013,
“This Sam Smith song is so so good” with a link to title track Nirvana off Sam’s EP from that same month.
Sam Smith, who is third cousin of singer Lily Allen and Game of Thrones actor Alfie Allen, will return to the US in January 2015 for his third North American headline tour in less than a year.
He tours for a total of 17 nights in arenas across America and Canada, including a two-night stand at The Forum in Los Angeles.
His American welcome is not only clear in his GRAMMY nominations and album sales, but also in his tour ticket sales for January 2015.
Of the 17 North American and Canadian dates, 12 are sold out – including Madison Square Garden in New York – which holds over 18,000 people – proving him to be the new British invasion of America.
For tour details, visit http://samsmithworld.com/live/