Sam Smith was announced today as the winner of BBC’s Sound of 2014. Each year BBC polls music experts and influencers (journalists, producers, bloggers etc.) about which new artists are on their new year’s radar. A list called the “long-list” is then drawn of 15 acts that received the most votes. How influential can winning “The Sound of….” be? Well, you may have heard of Adele, Ellie Goulding and Jessie J. They all won.
I always check out the Sound of… long list, and this year I wrote down two names: Say Lou Lou (more about them next week) and Sam Smith. You may not have heard of Sam Smith before, but I bet you have heard this: (If you live in Europe that is. The track was released in the US just a few days ago.)
That’s Naughty Boy’s massive summer hit “La, La, La” ft. Sam Smith on vocals. It wasn’t only Sam’s soulful falsetto that made me jot down his name, it was his passionate way of singing. There is a very touching undercurrent of sadness about his vocals. Like he knows something about you. In the Observer he told about inspiration for his music: “I’m kind of sick of listening to albums about the turmoils of relationships, never having had one. So I wanted to write an album for people who have never been in love. I want to be a voice for lonely people.” Aww…. bless. And heartfelt.
There are always critics who detest any sort of awards and are vehemently against anyone who wins, but I believe these sort of new music rankings serve a purpose in introducing artists to a wider mainstream audience. Getting your name on a list is not a guarantee of chart or popular success (Case in point: Jamie Woon. He came in fourth in 2011, the year Jessie J got the number one slot. Seriously, why isn’t he massive by now?!) but it is a huge platform.
Sam’s debut album “In The Lonely Hour” will be released in May. In the meanwhile...listen. That voice, that voice… this is what took my breath away.
MORE ON THE WEB
Explore the artists on BBC’s Sound of 2014 list
Images: Google.
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