Sam Smith recently unveiled "Drowning Shadows," "the saddest song [he's] ever written," on Beats 1 Radio. Today Annie Mac debuted more previously unheard material from Smith on BBC Radio 1: the singer paid tribute to Amy Winehouse with a cover of "Love Is A Losing Game."
"It is a monster of a song," Smith told Mac. "[Covering] it felt right... People forget my age sometimes. I was 11 years old when Frank came out... That album has really shaped me as an artist and just my views on music and my relationship with music lyrically. Seeing that film [Amy] just brought me back to that moment of being 11 years old. Her rawness on such beautiful chords, such expensive chords: just amazing... 'love is a losing game,' is possibly one of the most relatable lyrics I've ever heard. So I just pretended that all those things happened to me, which actually, they probably have."
Listen above. Smith's Winehouse cover will appear on the "Drowning Shadows" edition of his debut album, In The Lonely Hour. Read the singer's FADER cover story.
