"Stay with Me" is a song by English singer Sam Smith from their debut studio album '' In the Lonely Hour'' (2014). It was released in the United States on 14 April 2014 and in the United Kingdom on 18 May 2014. "Stay with Me" is a

gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...

-inspired

ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...

that details the protagonist pleading with their one-night stand not to leave them. The song was written by Smith, James Napier, and William Phillips, with

Tom Petty Thomas Earl Petty (October 20, 1950October 2, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. He was the leader and frontman of the Rock music, rock bands Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Mudcrutch and a member of the late 1980s sup ...

and Jeff Lynne later receiving co-writer credits due to the song's noted melodic similarity to Petty's single "

I Won't Back Down "I Won't Back Down" is a song by American rock musician Tom Petty. It was released in April 1989 as the lead single from his first solo album, '' Full Moon Fever''. The song was co-written by Petty and Jeff Lynne, his writing partner for the alb ...

". The song has become Smith's most successful single to date, peaking at number one in the UK Singles Chart (becoming Smith's third chart-topper there, second as a solo artist), topping the charts in Canada and

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, and reaching number two on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It has also reached top ten status in over twelve countries worldwide. At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, Darkchild's version of "Stay with Me" won two

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

s for

Record of the Year The Grammy Award for Record of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without re ...

and Song of the Year.

Background

In an interview with ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'', Smith said that the song was written in a studio in Old Street with James Napier ( Jimmy Napes) and William Phillips (also known as "Tourist"). Phillips started playing with three chords on the piano, and Napier quickly provided a drum pattern, and according to Smith, "the song just flowed out of us so naturally," and the song was written in thirty to forty minutes. After finishing the song, Smith started to layer vocals about twenty times, singing in different parts of the studio and harmonizing. The result sounded like a gospel choir, but all from Smith's own voice, and this demo was then used in the released song. According to Smith, "the song is about the moment in the morning after a one night stand, where the person you are with leaves your house, and you are left by yourself, and it's just a second, where you are just like: 'I wish, I wish'. You don't even love them, you don't really fancy them that much, it's just nice to have someone in the bed next to you." The song won the Grammy Awards for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, and in their acceptance speech for winning the Record of the Year, Smith said that "I want to thank the man who this record is about who I fell in love with last year. Thank you so much for breaking my heart because you got me four Grammys." On 25 March 2014, the song was played for the first time on

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reed Lowe (born 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence through pr ...

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show at 7.30 pm. On 29 March, they performed the song live on NBC's ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' in the U.S. On 16 May, they performed the song on '' The Graham Norton Show''. In June, they returned to the U.S. as part of their tour where they performed the song on ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'', often abbreviated as ''GMA'', is an American breakfast television, morning television program that is broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends wit ...

'', at the Apollo Theater in New York with Mary J. Blige, and

David Letterman David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer, and auto racing team owner. He hosted late-night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut of ''Late N ...

. On 22 August 2024, a new version of the song with Japanese American singer-songwriter

Hikaru Utada , also known mononymously as Utada, is a Japanese and American singer, songwriter, and producer. She is considered to be one of the most influential and best-selling musical artists in Japan. She is best known by international audiences for w ...

was released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Smith's album In The Lonely Hour.

Agreement with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne

In January 2015, it was revealed that a settlement had been reached with

's publishing company to add Petty and Jeff Lynne as co-writers, and that they would receive a 12.5% songwriting credit. Petty's publisher contacted Smith's team after it noticed a likeness between "Stay with Me" and the melody of Petty's 1989 song "

". Petty clarified that he did not believe Smith intentionally plagiarized him, saying "All my years of songwriting have shown me these things can happen. Most times, you catch it before it gets out the studio door, but in this case, it got by. Sam's people were very understanding of our predicament and we easily came to an agreement." According to Smith, they had never heard "I Won't Back Down" before writing "Stay with Me", but they acknowledged the similarity after listening to the song, and said that the likeness was "a complete coincidence". Petty and Lynne, however, were not eligible for a Grammy as the Recording Academy considered "Stay with Me" to have been interpolated from "I Won't Back Down" by Napier, Phillips and Smith; instead Petty and Lynne would be given certificates to honor their contribution to the work, as is usual for writers of sampled or interpolated work.

Composition

According to Musicnotes.com, "Stay with Me" is written in the key of C major (an accidental-free key signature) and is composed in common time, and played at a

tempo In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for 'time'; plural 'tempos', or from the Italian plural), measured in beats per minute, is the speed or pace of a given musical composition, composition, and is often also an indication of the composition ...

of 84

beats per minute Beat, beats, or beating may refer to: Common uses * Assault, inflicting physical harm or unwanted physical contact * Battery (crime), a criminal offense involving unlawful physical contact * Battery (tort), a civil wrong in common law of in ...

. "Stay with Me" was written by Smith, James Napier, William Phillips, with additional credits to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. According to Erine Keane of ''

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon A beauty salon or beauty parlor is an establishment that provides Cosmetics, cosmetic treatments for people. Other variations of this type of business include hair salons, spas, day spas, ...

'', "Stay with Me" combines a "contemporary drumbeat", blue-eyed soul singing, and a

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sung in a

style, while

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's Tom Breihan called it "a soft-focus piano-soul ballad". Smith described the writing process and the meaning of the song:For the tenth anniversary edition of ''In the Lonely Hour'' set to be released on 2 August 2024, Smith re-recorded the song. It includes a lyric change from "But I still need love 'cause I'm just a man" to "But I still need love, baby understand". The change, which Smith described as "really important to

hem A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...

, was made in light of their coming out as non-binary in 2019.

Critical reception

"Stay with Me" received generally positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. Amy Davidson from

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its initial launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television pro ...

called the song an "emotional crescendo" and said the chorus was "slightly over-sentimental" and felt that their "soulful voice" made the singer left in "defeat by fleeting fling". She gave the song four out of five stars. Joe Gross from ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' gave the song a mixed review, awarding it three of five stars. Isabel Pearson of Nouse gave the song a positive review during her album review, calling the song a "euphoric, slow building love-song that's raw and undeniably one of the best tracks on this album." Sarah Milton of ''The Upcoming'' lauded the song, calling it "electrifying with its blunt honesty and exquisite gospel influence." In July 2014, '' Billboard'' listed "Stay with Me" as one of the "10 Best Songs of 2014 (so far)" saying that the song is "a fragile ballad that finds its backbone when a gospel choir assists the British singer on the harrowing chorus." Variance Magazine named the song its 2014 Song of Summer. The song was placed at number twelve on ''Rolling Stone''s 50 Best Songs of 2014 list. In January 2015, "Stay with Me" was ranked at number 15 on ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

''s annual year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

Commercial performance

In the UK Singles Chart it debuted at number one, making it Smith's third number one. The song became the eighth best-selling song of 2014 in the UK, and the seventh overall when streaming is included. On the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, the song peaked at number two for two weeks, making it Smith's first top ten song in the US as a lead artist and their second-highest charting single after " Unholy" (2022). It was held off from the top spot by MAGIC!'s " Rude." As of the week of 2 May 2015, "Stay with Me" has spent 21 weeks in the top ten and 54 weeks on the Hot 100. The song was the tenth best-selling song of 2014 in the United States with 3.34 million copies sold in that year. As of June 2015, The song has sold 4.1 million copies in the US. In Canada, "Stay with Me" topped the Canadian Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks. In Australia, the song debuted at number 22 on the ARIA Singles Chart on the chart dated 5 May 2014 and later peaked at number five on the chart date 16 June 2014. The song also reached top 10 status in over twelve countries worldwide, becoming Smith's most successful single to date.

Music video

A music video to accompany the release of "Stay with Me" was first released onto YouTube on 27 March 2014 at a total length of three minutes and twenty-nine seconds. The video shows Smith coming out of a house and walking down a street in De Beauvoir Town, London, sitting in a room performing the song, and performing the song in a church with a choir. It was directed by Jamie Thraves. "Stay with Me" received nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards for Best Male Video and Artist to Watch. As of April 2025, the video has received over 1.2 billion views.

Cover versions

In June 2014,

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran ( ; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

covered "Stay with Me" at

's Live Lounge. He explained his choice saying "It's my favourite song of the last year. I think it's an instant classic." Florence and the Machine covered it at the Orange Warsaw Festival. In July, Vin Diesel sang it during an interview with Capital FM. In August,

Chris Brown Christopher Maurice Brown (born May 5, 1989) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and actor. A Pop music, pop and hip-hop-influenced contemporary R&B, R&B musician who works in a variety of genres, he has been called the "Honorific nic ...

posted a video on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

in which he sings the song with lyric changes. Eventual winner Josh Kaufman covered the song for his top 12 performance on the sixth season of '' The Voice US''. Reigan Derry performed the song for "Top 10 Hits" themed week on the sixth series of '' The X Factor Australia'', and her performance debuted at number 20 on the ARIA Singles Chart. In September 2014,

FKA twigs Tahliah Debrett Barnett (born 16 January 1988), known professionally as FKA Twigs (stylized as FKA twigs), is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, and dancer. She was a backup dancer for numerous musicians, and made her musica ...

also covered it at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. Also in September,

Charli XCX Charlotte Emma Aitchison (born 2 August 1992), known professionally as Charli XCX, is a British singer and songwriter. She began posting songs on Myspace in 2008 before entering the London rave scene. Signing a recording contract with Asylum Re ...

covered it at Live 95.5's Bing Lounge. Luke James also covered the song, which appeared on his 2014 self-titled album.

Kelly Clarkson Kelly Brianne (born Kelly Brianne Clarkson, April 24, 1982), known professionally as Kelly Clarkson, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Rising to fame after winning the American Idol season 1, first season of ''Ameri ...

covered the song at her free concert in honor of the new Microsoft store at the SouthPark Mall in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

. Singer

Patti LaBelle Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American Rhythm and blues, R&B singer and actress. She has been referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godmother of Soul". LaBelle began ...

performed it in November 2014 on her concert tour. Romain Virgo did a reggae cover. In September 2017,

Pink Pink is a pale tint of red, the color of the Dianthus plumarius, pink flower. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, p ...

covered "Stay with Me" at

's Live Lounge. In January 2015, Angus & Julia Stone released a cover of the song titled "Stay With Me - Live From Spotify Berlin" as part of their EP ''Spotify Sessions''. The song was certified Platinum by the

Australian Recording Industry Association The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is a trade association representing the Australian recording industry which was established in the 1970s by six major record companies, EMI, Festival Records (Australia), Festival, Sony Music ...

(ARIA) in 2024. In November 2017, US country singer Coffey Anderson released it as part of his Sad Love Songs series accompanied by a music video directed by Terry W. The song is sampled in the track "Freak" from Avicii's posthumous album '' Tim'', which it was released on 6 June 2019. In 2018, American R&B group The Temptations covered the song in their 2018 album, "All The Time". English folk group Bear’s Den covered the song for the Sunday Sessions. T-Pain recorded a cover of "Stay with Me" for his 2023 covers album '' On Top of the Covers''.

Live performances

*Smith debuted the song live as the musical guest on

on 29 March 2014. *Smith performed the song at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards on 24 August 2014 at The Forum in

Inglewood, California Inglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the city had a population of 107,762. ...

. *US R&B artist Mary J. Blige performed alongside Smith in a live version of the song also in Los Angeles at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. Blige provided her vocals in the second verse in place of Smith. The performance is on the artist's Vevo channel.

Media usage

The song is featured in the television series '' Mistresses, Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce,'' '' Bad Education,'' and '' The Mindy Project.'' Actor Marlon Wayans lip-synced this song on Spike's '' Lip Sync Battle''. The song is played in the emotional scene where

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legit ...

( Adelaide Kane) and a dying Francis II of France ( Toby Regbo) dance together in the television series ''

Reign A reign is the period of a person's or dynasty's occupation of the office of monarch of a nation (e.g., King of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, List of Belgian monarchs, Belgium, Co-princes of Andorra, Andorra), of a people (e.g., List of Frankish kin ...

''. In the 2016 animated film '' Sing,'' Johnny (voiced by Taron Egerton) sings this song as his audition for the singing competition. The song is also used as the background music for the Inspiron 17 5000 commercial, with Liev Schreiber and Chris Pratt.

Formats and track listings

*;CD single #"Stay with Me" – 2:52 #"Stay with Me" (Radio Mix) – 2:53 *;Digital download (Darkchild Version) #"Stay with Me" ( Darkchild Version) featuring Mary J. Blige – 2:53 #"Stay with Me" (Darkchild Version) – 2:54 *;Digital download (EP) #"Stay with Me"(Soul Clap Mix) – 5:02 #"Stay with Me" (Darkchild Version) – 2:54 #"Stay with Me" ( Shy FX Remix) – 3:32 #"Stay with Me" (Wilfred Giroux Remix) – 4:39 *; Rainer + Grimm Remix single #"Stay with Me" (Rainer + Grimm Remix) – 3:34

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications and sales

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2014 songs 2014 singles Sam Smith (singer) songs Pop ballads 2010s ballads Soul ballads Capitol Records singles UK singles chart number-one singles Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Canadian Hot 100 number-one singles Number-one singles in Israel Number-one singles in New Zealand Number-one singles in Poland Number-one singles in Scotland Contemporary R&B ballads South African Airplay Chart number-one singles Songs involved in plagiarism controversies Grammy Award for Record of the Year Grammy Award for Song of the Year Songs written by Jimmy Napes Songs written by Sam Smith (singer) Songs written by Tom Petty Songs written by Jeff Lynne Songs about casual sex Songs written by Tourist (musician)