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Stay With Me will make Smith a virtual shoo-in for Grammy nods in most major categories— paging Ken Ehrlich, and attention Neil Portnow, this is your ratings monster for 2015—and positions him as the next likely artist to capture the coveted Adele/Amy Winehouse audience.

ON RECORDS: SAM SMITH
SAVES THE DAY

Capitol's Soulful Singer/Songwriter Is Our Pick
to Take Home an Armload of Grammys

Will Sam Smith be the breakthrough artist of the year?

Smith’s debut album, In the Lonely Hour (streeting on 6/17 via Steve Barnett’s Capitol), is a virtually seamless set of the best soulful Pop. It will make him a virtual shoo-in for Grammy nods in most major categories— paging Ken Ehrlich, and attention Neil Portnow, this is your ratings monster for 2015—and positions him as the next likely artist to capture the coveted Adele/Amy Winehouse audience.

The native of Bishop’s Stortford, a tiny market town in Hertfordshire, England, will have his 22nd birthday this month. He first made waves with his guest vocals on two huge international hits: Disclosure’s "Latch" and Naughty Boy’s "La La La." He soon won both 2014 BRIT Critics Award (previously won by Adele, as it happens) and the BBC Sound of 2014 poll.

Signed by Capitol U.K. head Nick Raphael and his longtime head of A&R, Jo Charrington, Smith (who’s repped by Jack Street and Sam Evitt of Method Management and Elvin Smith) began capturing tastemakers’ hearts and solidifying radio support before a needle-moving 3/29 Saturday Night Live performance that let the U.S. marketplace know something special was on the way.

That appearance clearly galvanized the show’s normally passive, adult-skewing audience to rush to iTunes for the single "Stay With Me" and to pre-order the album, both of which rocketed into the download store’s Top 5. It was a clear indication that Smith has a shot at having that one record—like Adele’s—that everyone needs to own. It’s an album, like Adele’s 21, in which each successive song seems better than its predecessor.

"Stay With Me" has been a big Shazam jumper and is trending Top 20 at Hot AC ahead of its Pop bow, with Clear Channel putting the hammer down At Top 40 with an On the Verge program kicking off this week. In addition to cultivating this radio story, Smith has been killing in highly targeted live U.S. appearances, including a pair of rapturously reviewed L.A. showcases. He’s currently on the road in Europe.

Capitol’s forthcoming rollout will offer a number of big looks that demonstrate Smith’s multi-format appeal and reaffirm him as an heir to the great soul tradition. Stay tuned.

For a song-by-song tour of In the Lonely Hour by our resident editorial geek, go here.

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