Sam Smith analysis

Sam Smith born in may 1992 in London is the latest British soul singer-songwriter to take the entire world by storm. He broke though the industry by featuring on a disclosure track 'Latch' in 2012 and then followed up with the famous Naughty Boy track 'La La La'. In December 2013 he was nominated for a Brit award critics choice awards and BBC's sound of 2014, both of which he won. 5 months later, he released his debut album 'In the lonely hour' with Capitol Records. The lead single was Lay Me Down followed by Money On My mind and then Stay With Me which topped both the UK and the US charts and was insanely popular worldwide. Although he released EP's prior to his album and his first solo single 'La La La' from 2007 onwards, it was only in recent years in which he rose to fame. For an artist that shot to fame so quickly he has managed to keep his private life private with no one bothering to speculate. To this day we only know very little about him because he wants to keep his private and his music life very separate.

The song Money On My mind was based on this idea. The lyrics say a lot about Sam and how he unlike many, isn't interested in the money, he is in it purely for the music. For example the lyrics "don't wanna see the numbers" and "I do it for the love" this lyrics emphasise his feelings towards the music. He loves making music but he loves it for the music and not for the money it can make him. He also talks about how the record label industry is very controlling and allows very little freedom for artists such as him but he made a stand against that and is doing it his way as he mentions in his song "please, can you make this work for me? Cause im not a puppet, I will work against your strings".

 One of Sam's most recent song and video 'Stay With me' is a very smart video for someone who is keeping his privacy. He lyrics talk about he isn't "good at a one night stand, but I still need love cause I'm just a man" and he goes on to say how he doesn't want his lover to leave him and that he wants them to stay with him but at no point does he specifically mention a girl or a boy. The lyrics match the visuals in this case because the video consists of him and shots of someone lying on the bed but it is impossible to tell if it is a man or women. He also had a mixed gender choir to further emphasises that he is keeping his sexuality a secret because he doesn't want to get judged on that or treated a certain way because of his sexuality.