Sam Smith: Throwing Goodbye Shade Against Adele?

We all, ‘we’ as in everyone who has access to the internet, have heard Adele’s new single, “Hello.”

As I’ve written before, it made us feel real things.

There is something rather interesting that Sam Smith did, though, only a week and a half later: He released his “saddest song yet,” named “Drowning Shadows.” It is a song about the choice that Smith makes to either go home and drown his emotional shadows or to go the clubs to look for casual love.

Now, there may be absolutely no correlation here. In fact, there have been reports and interviews, a particular Rolling Stone article, namely, that Sam Smith has said that being compared to Adele “may piss her off… and annoys me.”

It is a bit convincing when faced with such a proposition – that they are very comparable – and such a notion is hard to deny: both are British; both sing very emotional, vulnerable songs; both have had very troubled love lives (or, in Smith’s situation, no love life at all); and both artists have gone through similar vocal surgeries (fun fact). I think it is interesting, too, how they both have, now, a James Bond song. I’ll just leave that thought here.

In an interview with Out Magazine, Sam Smith says that, “[Smith] wants to lead a normal life for a year so he can be more relatable. That being said, he’s not taking himself totally out of the game.” With that being said, then, was this his “goodbye” to Adele’s “hello”? I guess we will have to check in next year when Sam Smith decides to come back on the radar. Whether this shady move goes unnoticed is still yet to be determined, as well as whether there’s any shade to be noticed. Either way, good luck, Mr. Smith. We’ll be saying hello in a year or so.