Sam Smith Says Changing Their Pronouns Felt ‘Like Coming Home’
Sam Smith spoke to Apple Music's Zane Lowe about their new album and their experience announcing to the world that they are nonbinary.
Sam Smith is opening up in ways they never have before with both a new album and an interview that sheds light on what the singer went through when they told the world their pronouns.
People shared excerpts from an interview Smith has done with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe about their new album and their experience announcing to the world that they are nonbinary, and the quotes reveal just how tough people who go through that process can have it.
“The amount of hate and shittyness that came my way was just exhausting,” Smith said, before talking about seeing the media discuss their big news. “This isn’t me sitting at home Googling my name… It was in the fucking news. It was hard not to look.”
Smith went on to detail that it wasn’t just what people were saying about them online or on TV, but real-world interactions also became much harder — and sometimes downright awful.
“Someone spat at me in the street. It’s crazy,” Smith shockingly revealed during the chat. “What people don’t realize with trans [and] nonbinary people in the U.K. is it’s happening in the street. I’m being abused in the street verbally more than I ever have. So that was the hardest part, I think.”
While Smith has clearly had to endure some horrible mistreatment due to their coming out as nonbinary, they also shared that there have been a lot of good things that have come from the experience.
“Since changing my pronouns, it felt like a coming home,” Smith said, telling the host and the audience watching how good making this decision has been for them, at least in some respects.
Smith then took it back to when they were young, conceding, “I wish I knew what the words were when I was in school, because I would’ve identified as that in school. Because it is who I am and it’s who I’ve always been.”
“In my personal life, there’s not one negative,” Smith also said during the interview. “My family, they can communicate with me. They always did. But they communicate with me now in an even better way.”
Living out loud as a nonbinary person has apparently also helped Smith in the romantic side of life: “My love life has become better from it. I feel lovable. I feel comfortable in my skin, but I wear what I want to wear.”
Smith is busy promoting their new album Gloria. The set is the Grammy and Oscar winner’s fourth full-length, and first in almost three years. The superstar has been pushing singles from the project for nearly nine months, and fans are surely thrilled to consume the latest from the powerhouse vocalist.
Gloria was first introduced to the world through its lead single “Love Me More,” unveiled in late April 2022.
The set picked up steam after the release of the second cut, “Unholy,” with Kim Petras. That smash went to No. 1 in the U.K. and the U.S., making Smith the first artist to publicly identify as nonbinary to reach the peak position, while Petras became the first openly trans musician to do so.
Not long before the album dropped, Smith doled out third promotional cut “Gimme” with both Jessie Reyez and Koffee.
Watch the full interview below.
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