How Sam Smith Orchestrated That Surprise Cameo on ‘SNL’: ‘It Has to Be Sharon Stone’
Written by djfrosty on January 26, 2023
Sam Smith stunned onstage for a moving performance of “Gloria” during Saturday Night Live, and the four-time Grammy winner surprised fans when Sharon Stone joined them for a cameo.
During the song, the Oscar-nominated actress lounged on a gold-covered couch. Surrounded by a group of darkly robed singers, Smith — who was draped in a gold sequin blazer — beautifully crooned the track while Stone slowly rose from her reclined position and gazed off into the distance.
Smith opened up about the decision to have Stone join them for the performance in a new interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, airing on Thursday (Jan. 26).
“I wanted to do the hymn ‘Gloria’ that I wrote for the record, which is a wild one because I’m not even … I’m hardly singing on it,” they shared. “I sing at the end of it, but it’s a whole choir. On my tour, the stage is shaped like Aphrodite, so, like, the golden Aphrodite body. And that’s the shape of the stage. I was like, ‘How can we bring that vibe to SNL?’”
They continued, “Sharon Stone is going to be in the middle of the stage at SNL in gold as like a piece of life art. The whole performance is just the choir around her singing ‘Gloria’ to her in this golden light. Isn’t it so sick? … I was like, ‘It has to be Sharon Stone,’ and I messaged Sharon. She’s just such a powerful woman. But she’s a powerful woman, and she exudes vulnerability and beauty in a way that to me is real and authentic.”
Gloria, the follow-up to 2020’s Love Goes, features the previously released singles “Love Me More,” “Gimme” and the Kim Petras-assisted hit “Unholy,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2022 and is nominated for best pop duo/group performance at the 2023 Grammy Awards.
Watch the full interview here at 10 a.m. PT on Thursday.