“It took me a long time to show my sensual part”, confides Sam Smith

• Sam Smith's fourth studio album,

  Gloria

  , is out this Friday, January 27.

• “When I worked on the album, I was not in a relationship and I felt very good as a single person.

  I wanted to express that.

  There weren't many stories of broken hearts to tell, ”says the British artist to

  20 Minutes

  .

• They will be performing in Paris on May 13: “I'm working hard on this tour, much more than on any of my other projects.

  My goal is to combine my love of theater with that of pop music.

  »

A brilliant comeback.

Three years after

, Sam Smith returns this Friday with a fourth album,

.

An opus full of optimism, sexy, where unhappy loves only hold a very small place.

Released in the fall, one of the first singles,

, his duet with Kim Petras, went gold in France, Belgium, Spain and Germany, and certified platinum in the United States, United Kingdom , in Italy, in Australia… The British artist, now in his thirties, repeats that he “wants to have fun”, to have fun.

They chose

for their only interview with the French press…

Unholy

Doing this song with Kim Petras was a pure pleasure for both of us, we had wanted to work together for a long time.

We have more in common than people might think because, even though I did ballads like

, I come from house music and dance music.

is special for me, I even think it's one of my best songs but I never imagined it would become such a success.

Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I ACCEPT

Does this success reassure you before the release of the album?

Or does he pressure you?

Neither.

I'm just proud and excited to share my music.

The only pressure I feel is to challenge myself, not to indulge in complacency by doing the same things over and over again.

In this album, you show a new side of yourself, more sensual, sexual...

People forget that I started my career quite young.

At 20, I didn't feel comfortable, especially as a queer person, with the idea of ​​showing a sexual facet to the crowds that came to see me.

It took me time and I wanted to do it well.

But I've always been authentic, myself, it's just another part of my personality that I show.

In the song

This is the first song I wrote for this project.

I wanted to convey that this was an album about joy – or rather about being honest about joy.

It is often a fleeting emotion, one cannot be happy or happy all the time.

I wanted to show people where I was mentally at that time.

It's really a fun album.

You wanted to leave the stories of broken hearts aside to tell more optimistic things?

Yes, that was my goal.

I write what seems consistent with who I am.

When I worked on the album, I was not in a relationship and I felt very good as a single person.

I wanted to express that.

There weren't many heartbroken stories to tell.

How is a Sam Smith song born?

My source of inspiration is always life.

As artists, our mission is to observe the world.

I like to watch the people around me, tell stories, capture powerful emotions and put them into a song so they can help people going through difficulties.

When I write I always have in mind the notion of healing, of scarring.

Is it wrong to say that this album can be understood as a guide to navigating the ups and downs of queer life?

All my albums are queer because I'm queer.

But it is close to my heart to consider music as a universal language, something that brings people together.

These songs are not just for queer people but yes, you could say they come from a queer prism.

In the space of ten years, you have come out twice...

My coming out gay, I did it when I was a child, at school.

It should not be confused with my coming out in the media.

I have always been out.

As for non-binary, again, I find the term coming out irrelevant, because I've always felt non-binary.

In the United Kingdom, as in the United States or in France, transphobic positions abound in the media space.

We also see conservative movements attacking drag queen shows.

What does this remind you of?

Even though things seem, at times, to be moving in the right direction, we are also targeted by so many painful things.

The [LGBTQ+] community is strong, it always has been.

All I want is for us to continue to come out of our homes with our heads held high, to learn from each other, to share our stories, to be kind and caring.

That's all I hope for.

Back to album.

On

Because this interlude is placed before the song

which was inspired by a lesbian friend.

She was in a relationship with a woman and she experienced her first gay heartbreak.

I wanted to transcribe on this devastating feeling that is a broken heart.

I was looking for quotes on the Internet and I came across images of the first Pride parade in New York [in 1970].

The voice is that of a journalist who talks about queer lives.

I found what he was saying to be very profound and very true.

The second interlude,

He launches the dance part of the album.

That's what I would like to hear in a club, just before a disco song is played.

We hear the voices of Judy Garland, Divine, RuPaul… I wanted to bring these incredible icons together in the same movement.

I love that !

RuPaul's Drag Race

devotees

RuPaul's sentence is just great.

I look forward to hearing it resonate at each of the concerts on my tour.

It uplifts the spirit.

is about dating.

I was tired of going on

in front of people who didn't want to have a romantic relationship with me and who came instead to meet me as an artist or to become my friends.

The day after one of those meetings, I went into the studio and made this song about the frustration I was feeling. 

The song

I haven't always done it on purpose but, in my music, my voice has very often been accompanied by choirs.

I was in a choir, younger.

I went to a Catholic school.

And when it comes to talking about music that comes from my heart and soul, I think those elements come back.

"Gloria" is a word that I heard for the first time as a kid, in a church:

["Glory to God"].

When I was older, when I went out to gay clubs, I heard Laura Branigan's song

everywhere [the English cover of Umberto Tozzi's hit] and it stayed with me.

The title of the album refers to this hymn and nursery rhyme that I wrote for my former self.

, it's a spirit that is in each and every one of us, it's a female voice that tells us to hold on, that we can do it.

You will be in concert on May 13 at the Accor Arena, in Paris.

What can the public expect?

I work hard on this tour, much more than on any of my other projects.

My goal is to combine my love of theater with that of pop music.

I want to give the public a real show, articulated around an ensemble and not centered on me.

I will be surrounded by great artists and musicians.

I will be working with La Horde, the French dance collective that, among other things, did the choreography for

.

My concerts will therefore have a French flavor (smile).

Culture

“Bedroom Walls”: November Ultra, bedroom pop (own)

Culture

Angèle, JuL, Ninho… Discover the most listened to artists on Spotify in 2022

• Culture

• Music

• Pop

• LGBT movement