Out singer Sam Smith performed two
singles on NBC's late-night sketch comedy show Saturday Night
Live.
Smith performed Too
Good at Goodbyes and Pray
from his upcoming sophomore album The Thrill of It All.
In an interview with Billboard,
Smith, 25, said that Pray, his newest single, is about the
time he spent in Iraq.
“I spent five days in Mosul and came
back embarrassed that I had known so little about the world and other
people’s lives,” Smith said. “I went back to that great Nina
Simone quote, that it is important to speak about the times you live
in. I hadn’t done that; I’d just written a bunch of songs about
love. So I wanted to write about how I’m now starting to open my
eyes, at 25, to what is going on in the rest of the world, and that
it’s not always pretty.”
Smith also made headlines on Monday for
voicing support for same-sex marriage in Australia. Australian
voters are currently taking part in a postal survey which asks
whether the government should extend marriage rights to gay and
lesbian couples. Results, which are not binding, will be announced
on November 15.
“We shouldn't be having this
discussion in 2017, but it's great that it is happening,” Smith
said during an appearance on Australia's Sunrise morning show.
“Yeah, I'm so happy.”