Sam Smith to headline Prom - but BBC insists show will be ‘appropriate’

Sam Smith is to headline a BBC Prom concert this year, with corporation executives promising that the pop star’s performance will be “appropriate” after complaints about his sexually explicit shows.

The Grammy-winning singer, who came out as non-binary in 2019, has become known for sexualised costumes and choreography.

BBC executives booked Smith for the Proms in an expansion of the pop programme and have said the show, on Aug 2, will be suitable for all audiences.

Smith, 31, caused a stir at last year’s Brit Awards, when a mock-Satanic show featuring the singer in a horned top hat and leather PVC attire provoked more than 100 complaints to Ofcom.

A video for the single I’m Not Here To Make Friends featured Smith dressed in a corset, cavorting with bare-bottomed dancers while lapping up an unknown liquid.

The singer’s Proms appearance follows recent bookings for pop stars including Rufus Wainwright, Self-Esteem, Paloma Faith and Stormzy.

Sam Jackson, the director of Radio 3, insisted Smith’s show would fit the philosophy of the largely classical music festival, saying: “I think what you’ll see is a performance that is entirely appropriate for the Proms and entirely appropriate for the audience in attendance.

“The focus will be on Sam Smith and their music and there will be a focus on the unique orchestral arrangement, and the fact that this will be the only opportunity to see Sam Smith in the UK this year.

“This is very much a Prom – it’s not Sam Smith at the Royal Albert Hall. The look and feel will be entirely appropriate for that festival.”

It understood Smith will perform a classically-accompanied take on Grammy-winning 2014 debut album, In the Lonely Hour.

This year’s pop music programme will also feature singer Florence Welch, of Florence and the Machine, and there will be a new Disco Prom.

There will, however, be a strictly traditional approach when it comes to the Last Night of the Proms, which will include Rule, Britannia! Land of Hope and Glory and other patriotic songs in the time-honoured repertoire.

The Last Night, on Sept 14, ends a season of 90 Proms beginning on July 19, with 73 scheduled for the Royal Albert Hall, and 17 for venues across the UK – the most outside London in the history of the festival.