Sam Smith has unveiled the beautiful title track to their new album Gloria, which will be released next week.
“Gloria” was written by the multi-platinum, multi-award-winning star during lockdown and later completed with the help of folk and blues musician Jimmy Napes. The recording that appears on the album was done with the London Voices choir at St Mary’s Church in Saffron Walden, Essex – the church that Smith attended as a child.
In a press release, the star described the song as “my queer love hymn, saying life is a song to Gloria, the thing I can’t put a word to.” “I don’t know if it’s nature or a feminine energy inside me that I’m setting free,” they added.
“Demons on my shoulder/Monsters in my head,” Smith sings in the one-minute-50-second song. “Shadow in the water/Will you be my friend?”
“Gloria” follows three previously released tracks from the album – “Love Me More,” the Koffee and Jessie Reyez-featuring “Gimme,” and the global smash hit collaboration with Kim Petras, “Unholy.”
The latter track gave both Smith and Petras their first Billboard Hot 100 Number Ones and has racked up over 1 billion streams worldwide. The single was also Smith’s first Billboard Hot 100 No.1, making the star one of only four artists to debut at the top of the Official UK Singles Chart in 2022.
Next month, “Unholy” could earn the modern British icon another Grammy, with the track in the running for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the ceremony. In 2015, he won Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year for “Stay With Me” and Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album for In The Lonely Hour.
Tomorrow (January 21), Smith will make their return to the stage of Saturday Night Live to play songs from Gloria. It will mark his third appearance as musical guest on the US show and will precede the release of the album, which arrives on January 27.