Sam Smith Extends Intimate To Be Free: New York City Residency

08-01-2025

(ICLG) Due to overwhelming demand, multi-Platinum, GRAMMY, BRIT, Golden Globe, and Oscar-winning artist and songwriter Sam Smith is extending their upcoming residency "To Be Free: New York City." As all 12 original dates of the rare, up-close and intimate run at Brooklyn's historic Warsaw club sold-out immediately, Sam announces twelve additional dates stretching into November and December.

The residency extension follows Sam's soaring new single, "To Be Free," released by Capitol Records last week. The soulful acoustic song, which explores how vulnerability can unlock bravery and freedom, includes moving vocals by The TwoCity Chorus and debuted alongside the official music video filmed at Warsaw, where the residency will take place. The (LA)HORDE-directed visual bristles with an electric energy and a contagious sense of joy.

The feeling is clearly catching. Rolling Stone shared the residency news and wrote that "Sam Smith feels light as a feather," while Billboard raved, "For their latest single, 'To Be Free,' Smith returned to the roots of their talent and delivered one of their most striking songs in years," and Stereogum noted, "Sam Smith is back with another heart string-pulling single... a graceful ballad with a soulful chorus [highlighting Sam's] immensely powerful voice."

"I've never had a recording experience like I did making this song. It's one vocal and guitar take from start to finish - one live performance of me and my friend Simon Aldred in a pure state of music and expression," Sam Smith explains. "I wrote it five years ago while writing my last album Gloria and then parked it because I knew it was not a song for that album. It was created during a time in my life where I became free within myself."

Sam adds, "With this song, the visual of rivers kept coming into my mind and into my heart. I grew up next to a little river in Cambridgeshire in the countryside of England. Then I moved to London and lived by the Thames, and now I live by the Hudson River. Rivers have been in my life a lot. So I found it interesting to think of my music and my expression as an artist as a river. Over the last five years, Simon and I started to create music that fit into this world of 'To Be Free' and during this time, I've continued to turn to this song in happy moments, sad moments, lonely moments and angry moments. It's become my sister, my family member and ultimately calms me. Now, I'm ready to let it go and hopefully it can do the same for someone else."

Sam Smith is one of the most celebrated musical artists to emerge in recent history. A five-time GRAMMY winner, Sam holds two Guinness World Records - for the most consecutive weeks in the U.K. Top 10 Album Chart (for their 2014 debut, In the Lonely Hour) and for having the first James Bond theme to reach No.1 on the U.K. charts (for the Oscar and Golden Globe-winning "Writing's on the Wall"). Sam has amassed over 40 million equivalent album sales, 300 million single sales, and over 56 billion career streams across their catalog of critically acclaimed albums In the Lonely Hour, The Thrill of It All, Love Goes, and Gloria, which Rolling Stone praised as "their deepest album yet" and includes global smash single, "Unholy," featuring Kim Petras. The track spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and four weeks at No. 1 on the UK Official Singles Chart, marking Sam's eighth to top the tally. In June 2025, Sam released the stunning live album BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.

Sam Smith - "To Be Free: New York City" 2025 Warsaw Residency Dates
Wednesday, October 8
Friday, October 10
Saturday, October 11

Wednesday, October 15
Friday, October 17
Saturday, October 18

Tuesday, October 21
Wednesday, October 22
Friday, October 24

Wednesday, October 29
Thursday, October 30
Friday, October 31

Wednesday, November 19
Friday, November 21
Saturday, November 22
Wednesday, November 26
Friday, November 28
Saturday, November 29

Wednesday, December 3
Friday, December 5
Saturday, December 6
Wednesday, December 10
Friday, December 12
Saturday, December 13