Something changed in Sam Smith’s life from the moment he played at Lollapalooza Brasil last time, in 2019, until this Sunday’s performance, the 24th, on the same stage and time as that year.
At the time, Smith already had most of the Grammy awards of his career on the shelf and the romantic songs released on his first album, “In the Lonely Hour”, from 2014, accommodated in the repertoire of the country’s public.
Months after the Lolla performance, however, Smith declared that he was a non-binary person who would like to respond by neutral pronouns — that is, no “he” or “she”.
Artistically, he released two new albums, “Love Goes”, in 2020, and “Gloria”, last year. With the latter he goes on a world tour and won another Grammy for the resounding success of the single in partnership with Kim Petras, “Unholy”.
On stage, these changes translate into performance, scenery, appearance and speech. Smith sang on a Samsung stage with a huge body lying face down from end to end, where his band played and where his dancers circulated. Messages such as “protect trans children” and “liberation” appeared on the structure.
“I can’t believe it’s been five years since we’ve been here. I wanted to thank you for continuing with me. A lot has happened in my life and knowing that you’re here is incredible,” he said in the opening part of the presentation. “This show is about the freedom to wear whatever you want to wear, sing whatever song you want to sing and be whatever you want to be.”
Smith started the show with the melodic sequence “Stay With Me”, “I’m Not the Only One”, “Like I Can”, all from his celebrated first album and which gave plenty of space to show off his vocal ability right away, which made the audience vibrate with each song and follow along like a big karaoke.
The feeling is that Smith seemed more comfortable in her own body as she changed costumes, danced and sang songs with themes such as sex, love and identity. This expansion was also accompanied by the audience, visibly larger and more engaged than the last presentation in Brazil.
Halfway through the show, he left the romantic ballads behind and switched to those on the dance floor. Smith has a vast repertoire of party hits that begins with his first appearance in music, when he collaborated with the electronic music duo Disclosure on “Latch”, and goes through partnerships with DJ and producer Calvin Harris such as “Promises”. , “I’m Not Here to Make Friends” and “Desire”.
In “Gimme”, with Jessie Reyez, the artist who performed at the festival this Saturday, the 24th, took the stage to sing amid dancers who were kissing. Smith even appeared with the Brazil shirt — and later without it, as did all his dancers — to sing the rest of the setlist, which ended with the most recent “Gloria” and “Unholy”.
In a festival edition with few new features, Smith showed that he has what he needs to hold the younger part of the Lollapalooza audience — in any of its many versions.
