Sam Smith celebrates debut album with London show

Sam Smith brought his debut album In the Lonely Hour to life on Friday night (May 30) with a sold out show at London’s Roundhouse – his first gig since the collection’s release.

Smith opened his hour-long set with Nirvana, a song from an EP he released last year that doesn’t actually feature on the new album. However, this didn’t stop the audience from singing along. The 22-year-old soul singer from Cambridgeshire then launched into Together, a funky number that got the crowd – a mixed bunch, but mostly enthusiastic – bopping along.

Smith’s album isn’t packed with uptempo bangers, quite the opposite in fact, but his relatively subdued material is often very emotionally affecting. When he performed Leave Your Lover with help from a special guest star, soul diva Jessie Ware, it was clear that the crowd was really connecting with the loneliness and yearning that looms large in its lyrics.

On stage, Smith is a likeable chap, his cherubic face perpetually beaming. His songs might not be the jolliest, and at times, it felt like his set could do with another uptempo number or two, but as he pours his heart out on stage, he cuts an endearing figure.

Opening up about the album’s main theme of unrequited love, Smith told the audience: “I fell in love with someone last year who didn’t love me back, and it killed me…” – and then proceeded to sing the lovely, string-led Good Thing. It was an emotional moment.

Obviously, last year’s chart-topping collaboration with Naughty Boy, La La La, got the crowd singing along, before fan favourites Lay Me Down and Money On My Mind rounded off the main set. The former was a highlight of the night, its simple (but not simplistic) songwriting and gorgeous vocals showcasing Smith’s talent perfectly.

The encore featured a stripped down version of his hit collaboration with Disclosure, Latch, but it was the show’s closer, Smith’s current single Stay With Me, that delighted the crowd the most. Perhaps it was because Smith’s performance of this song was being broadcast live on Channel 4 as part of an advert for Google Play, but this moment felt a little bit special.

At times tonight, this rising star appeared a little nervous – it was, after all, his biggest solo show to date – and for some, his set might have felt a little one-paced. But Sam Smith isn’t meant to be the next Rihanna or Robin Thicke. He’s a soul singer with heart, pouring his emotions out for the masses, and doing it very well indeed.

Sam Smith’s setlist in full:

Nirvana
Together
Leave Your Lover – featuring Jessie Ware
I’m Not The Only One
I’ve Told You Now
Like I Can
Restart
Good Thing/Berlin
La La La
Lay Me Down
Money On My Mind

Latch
Make It To Me – featuring Howard Lawrence from Disclosure
Stay With Me

Watch the entire show below courtesy of by Google Play: