Sam Smith has marked Valentine’s Day by releasing the title track from their forthcoming third album To Die For. Opening with a sample from the 2001 cult film Donnie Darko, the new track pairs soaring strings and evocative piano with Smith’s distinctive vocals and the plaintive confession, “I just want somebody to die for.” Smith recorded the song with Jimmy Napes and Stargate, who also collaborated with them on 2017’s Too Good At Goodbyes.
For the official video, Smith teamed up with Grant Singer, who also directed the video for 2019’s How Do You Sleep? The new clip takes place outside a wig shop in Los Angeles. Amidst the many mannequin heads with perfectly coifed hair, there is a wigless one in Sam’s likeness who sings To Die For. Couples and families pass the shop over the course of several seasons. Engulfed in their relationships, few even notice the bald singing mannequin. The other mannequin heads vanish, leaving Sam alone – until fate intervenes.
Sam Smith explains, “I wrote the song with Jimmy Napes and Stargate in L.A. during a time of self-discovery and heartbreak. This is for all the lonely hearts out there on another Valentine’s Day xx”
The album pre-order launched today. Anyone who pre-orders To Die For in digital format will instantly receive the new single, To Die For, plus How Do You Sleep? which has already amassed over 600 million streams worldwide, I Feel Love, a cover of Donna Summer’s disco classic, Fire on Fire (from the Watership Down soundtrack) and Smith’s collaboration with Normani, Dancing with a Stranger, which has sold more than 10 million units and racked up over two billion streams worldwide. A No. 1 airplay hit in the U.S. & U.K., Dancing with a Stranger achieved Platinum status in 19 countries, including the U.S., where it is certified 2x Platinum.
Since the release of their 2014 debut album, In The Lonely Hour, Sam Smith has sold over 25 million adjusted albums worldwide. They have won four GRAMMY Awards, an Oscar, a Golden Globe and three BRIT Awards. Smith’s sophomore album, The Thrill Of It All, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in 2017 and also topped the charts in the U.K, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium. Awarded four stars by Rolling Stone, the album included the hit single Too Good At Goodbyes, which recently became Smith’s second song to receive over a billion streams on Spotify, after Stay With Me.
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