Sam Smith--The Biography

On the morning of 9 February 2014, when Sam Smith woke up and saw the four statuettes he'd taken home from the previous night's Grammy Awards Ceremony, it must have felt like a dream come true. At only twenty-two years old and coming just eight months after the US release of his debut album, In the Lonely Hour, calling Sam Smith's victory an 'overnight success story' seemed wholly appropriate.

In fact, Sam had been working towards releasing his own music for over a decade and training his voice for even longer. After falling under the spell of Whitney Houston and Chaka Khan as a child, straining his voice to imitate them and match their incredible vocal ranges, tuition from a local jazz singer and time spent in a local theatre group and youth choir encouraged Sam to pursue singing as a career.

But Sam's first attempts to become a professional singer floundered and left him disillusioned and jaded. By the time he turned eighteen, Sam had seen six different managers...