BRITISH soul singer Sam Smith has given Jamaican reggae act Romain Virgo the thumbs up for his cover of Stay With Me. The single is from Smith’s debut album In the Lonely Hour released in May.
BBC1 Extra radio disc jock DJ Toddla T brought the song’s attention to Smith. After listening to Virgo’s cover, he turned to Twitter.
“Wow, I Just saw it! So sick!!!” he tweeted.
Virgo feels the acknowledgement will further generate interest to his version of the song which was recorded in May.
“Niko Browne from Lifeline Music introduced me to the song after watching Sam Smith perform it on NBC’s Saturday Night Live”. I thought it was a simple but beautiful song that we could introduce to the Jamaican and reggae fans across the world if we gave it a reggae sound. We honestly thought that the ladies especially would love it,” Virgo told the Jamaica Observer.
While Virgo’s cover of Stay With Me has been doing the local rounds, the single is number one on reggae charts in Trinidad, St Vincent, Grenada and St Lucia.
Virgo, a 2007 winner of the local talent competition Digicel Rising Stars, has also received fair airplay with Adele’s Do You Remember and Michael Bolton’s Soul Provider.
Asked whether he was surprised at the reception for the song, Virgo said: “Every time we do a cover of a song, fans — local and abroad — always love. I just see it as having fun with the music and also showing respect to other genres that would show the same respect to Jamaican music.”
Smith is currently the hottest male vocalist globally. In the Lonely Hour has sold gold in the US and platinum in the United Kingdom. It topped the UK album chart and peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200 album chart. In addition to Stay With Me, the album produced the hit singles Money on My Mind and I’m Not the Only One. He won the 2014 BRIT Critics Choice Award and the BBC’s Sound of 2014 poll.
Prior to his album, Smith was featured vocalist on Naughty Boy’s number one single La La La in 2013.