The voice arrived before the persona around it was fully formed. Samuel Frederick Smith grew up in England, studied singing with jazz vocalist Joanna Eden and performed in youth music and theater before electronic producers provided the first substantial audience. Disclosure placed Smith at the center of “Latch” in 2012, where a supple falsetto and carefully controlled phrasing floated through house production without being swallowed by it. Naughty Boy’s “La La La” followed in 2013 and reached No. 1 in the United Kingdom. Smith’s own “Lay Me Down” moved in the opposite direction, reducing the arrangement around the vocal and revealing the emotional directness that would soon define their first album.
In the Lonely Hour made unrequited love the organizing principle in 2014. “Stay With Me” transformed a brief encounter into a gospel-sized plea and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, while “I’m Not the Only One” and “Like I Can” kept returning to desire that was unequal, unavailable or already slipping away. The album reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200, and Smith won four Grammys in 2015, including Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year. “Writing’s on the Wall,” created for the James Bond film Spectre, extended that dramatic balladry into cinema and won both the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Original Song. Within a few years, private romantic disappointment had become the material Smith could project at enormous scale.
The emotional and musical frame gradually widened. The Thrill of It All debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2017 and kept piano, gospel and soul near the foreground through songs including “Too Good at Goodbyes” and “Pray.” Smith came out as nonbinary in 2019 and adopted they and them pronouns, while subsequent records gave dance music and queer self-expression more room. Love Goes placed “Diamonds” and the Normani collaboration “Dancing with a Stranger” beside quieter material, then “Unholy” with Kim Petras pushed decisively toward dark, theatrical pop. The song became Smith’s first Hot 100 No. 1 and won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Gloria followed in 2023 with club production, gospel, sexual confidence and increasingly elaborate staging, making public liberation as important to the presentation as heartbreak had once been.
Hazel Eyes turns that trajectory inward without returning to the loneliness of the debut. Released August 21st, 2026, the 12-track album developed over roughly three years as Smith’s relationship with fashion designer Christian Cowan deepened, and its opening song “Everlasting Love” traces back to the night before their first date. Smith co-produced an album for the first time, working with Simon Aldred and David Odlum as part of a consistent creative circle that also included Feist, Shahzad Ismaily, Rob Moose and the 28-member TwoCity Chorus. British folk, baroque pop, country, gospel and R&B appear without turning the record into a genre exercise. “My Guy” settles into the warmth of companionship, “When He’s Gone” confronts the fear created by having someone real to lose, and “Constant Companion” closes the album on commitment rather than romantic pursuit. Smith has spoken about once wondering whether being happy in love would make sadness harder to access as a songwriter, only to find that a lasting relationship opened different emotional depths.
The rooms have become smaller at the same moment the subject has become more secure. Smith introduced the To Be Free concept through intimate residencies rather than immediately sending Hazel Eyes into arenas, with 2026 performances including San Francisco, Mexico City, Manchester and eight nights at the London Coliseum. The London run also became the setting for a BBC concert special, while Sam Smith: Music Room brought another close-range performance to Apple Music from Los Angeles in September. Those settings place “Stay With Me,” “Unholy” and newer songs such as “Constant Companion” close enough together to reveal how much the emotional center has moved. Early Smith enlarged unreturned affection until strangers could sing it together. Gloria found release through provocation, spectacle and public queer expression. Hazel Eyes asks what songwriting sounds like after the person stays, when intimacy no longer has to be imagined from the outside. Sam Smith no longer needs loneliness to make the room feel full.