Multi-Platinum, GRAMMY, BRIT, Golden Globe and Academy Award-winning artist/songwriter Sam Smith has unleashed their fourth studio album, Gloria!
Listen to Gloria here now!
Described as a creative revelation and something of a personal one, too – Gloria is the sound of constricting shackles crashing to the floor, of boundaries joyfully breached, of a still-searching talent discovering what it means to be truly free – to be in touch with their innermost self.
Building on the success of their critically acclaimed 2020 predecessor, Love Goes, Gloria was described as a creative challenge for the celebrated hitmaker, with Sam setting out to craft the opposite of a heartbreak album. Instead, they constructed the armour they craved growing up, the record they wished they had to accompany their formative years.
Gloria leans on some celebrated female figures from Sam’s musical world (Jessie Reyez, Kim Petras, Koffee) and explores themes of sex, passion, self-expression and imperfection.
The album’s title is not a nod to a person, past or present, but to that bristling, enigmatic life force, which Smith has christened, Gloria.
When speaking about their album, Sam explains: “Gloria is also a celebration of all the genres and all the female divas, vocalists and pop writers that I love. I harnessed all those memories and put them into one album. And I wanted to be defiant. My diva album? I think so! I think I’ve finally let my Gloria out.”
Long-term collaborators Jimmy Napes, Stargate and Max Martin stablemate ILYA further helped fuel the 13-track album, which boldly weaves between glitterball electro-pop, glorious melodic reverie, Jamaican dancehall freak-pop, exquisite piano balladry and a choir-sung hymn.
Featuring recent dancehall-tinged offering ‘Gimme’ with Colombian-Canadian R&B singer-songwriter Jessie Reyez and Jamaican reggae star Koffee, Gloria also boasts the gut-wrenching ‘Who We Love’ with Ed Sheeran, the euphoric dance floor staple, ‘Lose You’, a beautiful lullaby ‘Gloria’ and the global behemoth, ‘Unholy’ (Sam’s eighth #1 hit, garnering just under 2 billion streams worldwide) featuring Kim Petras.
‘Unholy’ was also Sam’s first Billboard Hot 100 #1, making history with collaborator Kim Petras as the first non-binary and transgender artists to land on the top spot. It has been nominated for a GRAMMY and remained at #1 on the Spotify and Apple Music global charts for over four weeks following its release – making Sam amongst only three other international artists who debuted at #1 on the UK Official Charts in 2022; holding four weeks at the top.
Sam Smith – Gloria Tracklist
- Love Me More
- No God
- Hurting Interlude
- Lose You
- Perfect (with Jessie Reyez)
- Unholy (with Kim Petras)
- How To Cry
- Six Shots
- Gimme (with Koffee & Jessie Reyez)
- Dorothy’s Interlude
- I’m Not Here To Make Friends
- Gloria
- Who We Love (with Ed Sheeran)
Sam Smith has enjoyed 38 million album sales, 283 million single sales, and 51 billion career streams. Their multi-platinum debut album, In the Lonely Hour, became the biggest-selling debut album of the decade.
Sam is also set to kick off their world tour starting in the UK before travelling across Europe and the globe, including performances right here in Aotearoa, New Zealand, on Saturday, the 11th of November 2023, at Auckland’s Spark Arena.
Listen to Gloria here now!
