Samuel Frederick Smith (born 19 May 1992) is an English singer and songwriter who rose to fame in October 2012 after being featured on Disclosure’s breakthrough single “Latch“, which peaked at number eleven on the UK Singles Chart. Their[a] subsequent feature—on Naughty Boy‘s “La La La“— became a number one single in May 2013. In December 2013, Smith was nominated for the 2014 Brit Critics’ Choice Award and the BBC‘s Sound of 2014 poll,[3][4] winning both.[5][6]
In December 2014, Smith was nominated for six Grammy Awards, and at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2015 they won four: Best New Artist, “Stay with Me” for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and In the Lonely Hour for Best Pop Vocal Album. At the 2015 Brit Awards, they won the awards for British Breakthrough Act and Global Success. At the 2015 Billboard Music Awards, Smith received three Billboard Awards: Top Male Artist, Top New Artist, and Top Radio Songs Artist.[9] Their musical achievements have also led them to be mentioned twice in the Guinness World Records.[10]
In May 2014, Smith came out to the public as gay. They acknowledged a relationship—since ended—with actor and model Jonathan Zeizel.[70][71] At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards when “Stay with Me” won an award for Record of the Year they said, “I want to thank the man who this record is about, who I fell in love with last year. Thank you so much for breaking my heart because you got me four Grammys!”[72] In 2017, they stated their latest album, The Thrill of It All, showed “the gay guy I’ve become.”[73] In September 2017, Smith said in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that they were in a relationship; celebrity tabloid media reported Smith was dating actor Brandon Flynn. In June 2018, it was announced that Smith and Flynn had split after nine months of dating.[74]
In October 2017, Smith came out as genderqueer[1] and said “I feel just as much a woman as I am a man”.[73] Smith said they went through a period in their youth where they “didn’t own a piece of male clothing” and would wear full makeup while attending school.[75][76] In September 2019, Smith announced that they came out as non-binary and changed their gender pronouns to they/them, stating, “after a lifetime of being at war with my gender I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out…”[2][77]