HOPELESS ROMANTIC

Sam Smith Officially Comes Out, Wants “A Guy Who Can Love Me The Way I Love Him”

Photo by Leonie Hampton, courtesy The Fader
Photo by Leonie Hampton, courtesy The Fader

British singer Sam Smith is officially addressing his sexuality in a new interview with The Fader. Last week, his implied gayness became a topic of discussion when his latest video “Leave Your Lover” showed him romantically involved with another man.

In the Lonely Hour is about a guy that I fell in love with last year,” he tells The Fader, “and he didn’t love me back. I think I’m over it now, but I was in a very dark place. I kept feeling lonely in the fact that I hadn’t felt love before.”

He continues:

I told him about it recently, and obviously it was never going to go the way I wanted it to go, because he doesn’t love me. But it was good as a form of closure, to get it off my chest and tell him. I feel better for it. I feel almost like I signed off this part of my life where I keep giving myself to guys who are never going to love me back. It feels good to have interviews like this, to chat about it and put stuff to bed. It’s all there now, and I can move on and hopefully find a guy who can love me the way I love him.

Smith was assumed to be gay for years after revealing himself as a future pop “diva,” aspiring to become like his idols George Michael and Elton John. He also had a personal Twitter account several years ago, on which he was extremely open about being gay.

He tells The Fader:

I am comfortable with myself, and my life is amazing in that respect. I’m very comfortable and happy with everything. I just wanted to talk about him and have it out there. It’s about a guy and that’s what I wanted people to know—I want to be clear that that’s what it’s about. I’ve been treated as normal as anyone in my life; I’ve had no issues. I do know that some people have issues in life, but I haven’t, and it’s as normal as my right arm. I want to make it a normality because this is a non-issue. People wouldn’t ask a straight person these questions. I’ve tried to be clever with this album, because it’s also important to me that my music reaches everybody. I’ve made my music so that it could be about anything and everybody— whether it’s a guy, a female or a goat—and everybody can relate to that. I’m not in this industry to talk about my personal life unless it’s in a musical form.

On fans being “curious” about his sexuality:

In the short time I’ve lived on this Earth, all I’ve seen are boxes. People put things in boxes; it makes it easier to digest information. People say I’m the new Adele. Why is [gender] a talking point? I’m singing, I’m making music, I’m performing my music—that’s what should be the talking point. If I come on record and start speaking about it in an interview, then mark my words, that’s your time to chip in; I’ve given you the passcode to my business and to my personal life. But I am an artist, and in interviews, speaking like this, it’s not my idea of art; it’s just my idea of exchange, talking human to human. It shouldn’t be an issue, but it will be an issue. It’s always an issue.

Check out the rest of The Fader‘s interview here, along with more stunning exclusive photos.

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