Sam Smith went from Cambridgeshire choirs to a Bond theme

Sam Smith was born in London in 1992 and grew up in the village of Great Chishill in Cambridgeshire. The route to pop success went through choirs and stage musicals. Smith studied singing and songwriting for several years under jazz pianist Joanna Eden, sang in the Cantate Youth Choir and appeared with Youth Music Theatre UK in a 2007 production of Oh! Carol, a musical built around Neil Sedaka's songs. Two early singles, “Bad Day All Week” and “When It's Alright”, appeared in 2008 and 2009.

The break came in 2012 when Smith featured on Disclosure's “Latch”, which reached number eleven in the UK singles chart. A year later came “La La La” with Naughty Boy, a UK number one. Smith's debut album, In the Lonely Hour, entered at number one in the UK in 2014 and produced “Money on My Mind”, “Stay with Me”, “I'm Not the Only One” and “Like I Can”. At the Grammys the record won four awards including Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album.

In 2015 “Writing's on the Wall” became the theme for the James Bond film Spectre and won a Golden Globe and an Academy Award. The Thrill of It All followed in 2017 and debuted at the top of both the UK and US album charts. “Promises” with Calvin Harris went to number one in the UK, and “Dancing with a Stranger” with Normani reached the top ten in both the UK and US, earning a nomination for Song of the Year at the Brit Awards 2020.

Then came Love Goes in 2020 and, in 2022, “Unholy” with Kim Petras, which became their first number one in the US and won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. In total there are five Grammys, three Brit Awards, a Golden Globe and an Oscar. Smith is the first openly non-binary musician to release a song that topped the Billboard Hot 100 and to win a Grammy.