Smith’s debut album, “In the Lonely Hour,” dropped last week “x,” the likely star-making release from countryman Ed Sheeran, follows this week.

The video is a revelation - Smith’s voice is an increasingly supple and wondrous instrument - and also a mistake. He isn’t reinventing this once-joyous song he’s sifting through its wreckage. Asking people to use the gender-neutral pronoun “they” instead of “he” to refer to me has been a big step in my journey toward self-love and self-acceptance,” Tobia wrote.There’s a new viral video making the rounds featuring British R&B supernova Sam Smith performing a slowed-down live cover of Whitney Houston’s “ How Will I Know.” Smith’s version is a funeral dirge, slow and inconsolably sad. I was assigned male at birth, but I’ve spent a good portion of my life trying to get away from the expectations that have been placed on me because of that. Jacob Tobia wrote in TIME in 2016 that non-binary programs can help transgender and gender nonconforming people avoid the gendered expectations for people who go by “he” or “she.” The use of non-binary pronouns has become increasingly common in recent years as a way for gender nonconforming people to express their identity. They first addressed their gender identity in October 2017, when Smith told the Sunday Times that they didn’t feel like a cisgender man, saying, “I don’t know what the title would be, but I feel just as much woman as I am man.” They came out publicly as gay in May 2014, telling Fader magazine that they felt comfortable with their self, but didn’t want to make a big deal out of their personal life, saying, “I want to make it a normality because this is a non-issue.”

Smith has been open about their gender identity and sexuality in the past. I’m scared shitless, but feeling super free right now. Smith repeated the same message in a string of tweets and changed their Twitter bio to “They/Them.” These are activists and leaders of the non binary/trans community that have helped me and given me so much clarity and understanding. If you have questions and are wondering what this all means I’ll try my best to explain but I have also tagged below the human beings who are fighting the good fight everyday. So for now I just want to be VISIBLE and open. I am at no stage just yet to eloquently speak at length about what it means to be non binary but I can’t wait for the day that I am. I hope you can see me like I see myself now. I’m so excited and privileged to be surrounded by people that support me in this decision but I’ve been very nervous about announcing this because I care too much about what people think but fuck it! I understand there will be many mistakes and mis gendering but all I ask is you please please try. I’ve decided I am changing my pronouns to THEY/THEM ❤ after a lifetime of being at war with my gender I’ve decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out.

Sam smith songs about making choices