"Stay with Me" is a song by English singer Sam Smith from their first studio album, In the Lonely Hour (2014). It was released in the United States on April 14, 2014, and in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2014. The song is a gospel-inspired ballad that describes the narrator asking someone they met for a short time not to leave them. The song was written by Sam Smith, James Napier, and William Phillips. Later, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne were added as co-writers because the song’s melody was similar to Petty’s song "I Won't Back Down."

"Stay with Me" became Sam Smith’s most successful single. It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart (making it Smith’s third number one there, the second as a solo artist), topped charts in Canada and New Zealand, and reached number two on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also entered the top ten in more than twelve countries worldwide. At the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, Darkchild’s version of "Stay with Me" won two Grammy Awards: Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Background

In an interview with NME, Smith explained that the song was written in a studio on Old Street with James Napier (also known as Jimmy Napes) and William Phillips (also known as "Tourist"). Phillips began playing three chords on the piano, and Napier quickly added a drum pattern. Smith said, "the song just flowed out of us so naturally," and the song was written in about thirty to forty minutes. After finishing the song, Smith added multiple vocal tracks, singing in different parts of the studio and harmonizing. The result sounded like a choir singing together, but it was only Smith's voice. This demo was later used in the final version of the song.

Smith described the song as being about the moment in the morning after a one-night stay, when the person you are with leaves your house, and you are left alone. In that moment, Smith said, "you are just like: 'I wish, I wish.'" Smith added that the person was not loved or strongly liked, but it felt 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. During the acceptance speech for Record of the Year, Smith said, "I want to thank the man 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 March 25, 2014, the song was first played on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show at 7:30 p.m. On March 29, the song was performed live on NBC's Saturday Night Live in the United States. On May 16, the song was performed on The Graham Norton Show. In June, the group returned to the United States during their tour, performing the song on Good Morning America, at the Apollo Theater in New York with Mary J. Blige, and on David Letterman's show.

On August 22, 2024, a new version of the song featuring Japanese American singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada 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 made public that an agreement had been reached with Tom Petty's publishing company to add Petty and Jeff Lynne as shared writers of a song. They would receive a 12.5% credit for writing the song. Petty's publisher contacted the team of singer Sam Smith after noticing a similarity between the song "Stay with Me" and the melody of Petty's 1989 song "I Won't Back Down." Petty explained that he did not believe Smith intentionally copied his work, stating, "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." Smith's team said they had not heard "I Won't Back Down" before writing "Stay with Me," but they acknowledged the similarity after listening to the song. They described the likeness as "a complete coincidence." However, Petty and Lynne were not eligible for a Grammy award because the Recording Academy determined that "Stay with Me" used parts of "I Won't Back Down" by other writers. Instead, Petty and Lynne would receive certificates to recognize their contribution, as is standard for writers whose work is used in other songs.

Composition

"Stay with Me" is written in the key of C major (a key with no sharps or flats) and is composed in common time, with a tempo of 84 beats per minute.

The song was written by Smith, James Napier, and William Phillips, with additional credits to Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne. According to Erine Keane of Salon, "Stay with Me" combines a "contemporary drumbeat," blue-eyed soul singing, and a refrain sung in a gospel style. Stereogum's Tom Breihan described it as "a soft-focus piano-soul ballad." Smith explained the writing process and meaning of the song:

For the tenth anniversary edition of In the Lonely Hour, set to release on August 2, 2024, Smith re-recorded the song. A lyric was changed from "But I still need love 'cause I'm just a man" to "But I still need love, baby understand." Smith described this change as "really important to [them]," noting it was made in response to their coming out as non-binary in 2019.

Critical reception

The song "Stay with Me" received mostly positive feedback from music critics. Amy Davidson from Digital Spy described the song as an "emotional build-up" and noted that the chorus was "slightly overly sentimental." She mentioned that the singer's "powerful voice" made the song feel like the singer was "left feeling defeated after a short relationship." She gave the song four out of five stars. Joe Gross from Rolling Stone provided a mixed review, rating the song three out of five stars. Isabel Pearson from Nouse gave a positive review during her album analysis, calling the song a "happy, slowly growing love song that is honest and clearly one of the best tracks on the album." Sarah Milton from The Upcoming praised the song, describing it as "exciting because of its direct honesty and beautiful use of gospel music."

In July 2014, Billboard included "Stay with Me" in its list of "10 Best Songs of 2014 (so far)," stating that the song is "a delicate song that becomes stronger when a gospel choir helps the British singer during the difficult chorus." Variance Magazine named the song its 2014 Song of Summer. The song was ranked number twelve on Rolling Stone's list of the 50 Best Songs of 2014. In January 2015, "Stay with Me" was placed at number fifteen on The Village Voice's annual year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

Commercial performance

In the UK Singles Chart, the song made its first appearance at number one, becoming Smith's third number one single. It was the eighth best-selling song in the UK in 2014 and ranked seventh overall when including streaming data. On the Billboard Hot 100, the song reached its highest position at number two for two weeks. This was Smith's first top ten song in the US as a lead artist and their second-highest charting single after "Unholy" (2022). The song was prevented from reaching number one by MAGIC!'s "Rude." By the week of 2 May 2015, "Stay with Me" had spent 21 weeks in the top ten and 54 weeks on the Hot 100. In the United States, it was the tenth best-selling song of 2014, with 3.34 million copies sold that year. By June 2015, the song had sold 4.1 million copies in the US. In Canada, "Stay with Me" reached number one on the Canadian Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks. In Australia, the song first appeared at number 22 on the ARIA Singles Chart on 5 May 2014 and later reached number five on 16 June 2014. The song also entered the top ten in over twelve countries worldwide, making it Smith's most successful single to date.

Music video

A music video for the song "Stay with Me" was first posted on YouTube on March 27, 2014, and is three minutes and twenty-nine seconds long. The video shows Smith leaving a house and walking down a street in De Beauvoir Town, London, sitting in a room and singing the song, and performing the song in a church with a choir. The video was directed by Jamie Thraves. "Stay with Me" was nominated for Best Male Video and Best New Artist at the MTV Video Music Awards. As of April 2025, the video has been viewed more than 1.2 billion times.

Cover versions

In June 2014, Ed Sheeran performed "Stay with Me" at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. He said the song was his favorite of the previous year and called it an instant classic. Florence and the Machine performed the song at the Orange Warsaw Festival. In July, Vin Diesel sang it during an interview with Capital FM. In August, Chris Brown shared a video on Instagram where he sang the song with changed lyrics. Josh Kaufman, the eventual winner of a singing competition, performed the song during his top 12 performance on the sixth season of The Voice US. Reigan Derry sang the song during a themed week on The X Factor Australia and her performance reached number 20 on the ARIA Singles Chart. In September 2014, FKA twigs performed the song at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge. Charli XCX also performed it at Live 95.5's Bing Lounge. Luke James sang the song, and it was included on his 2014 self-titled album. Kelly Clarkson performed the song at a free concert to celebrate the opening of a new Microsoft store in Charlotte, North Carolina. Patti LaBelle sang the song during her concert tour in November 2014. Romain Virgo created a reggae version of the song. In September 2017, Pink performed "Stay with Me" at BBC Radio 1's Live Lounge.

In January 2015, Angus & Julia Stone released a live version of the song titled "Stay With Me – Live From Spotify Berlin" as part of their Spotify Sessions EP. The song was certified Platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) in 2024.

In November 2017, US country singer Coffey Anderson released the song as part of his Sad Love Songs series. The release included a music video directed by Terry W.

The song was used in the track "Freak" from Avicii's posthumous album Tim, which was released on June 6, 2019.

In 2018, American R&B group The Temptations performed the song on their album All The Time. English folk group Bear's Den performed the song for the Sunday Sessions project.

In 2023, T-Pain performed a version of "Stay with Me" on his covers album On Top of the Covers.

Live performances

• Smith first performed the song live as a guest performer on Saturday Night Live on March 29, 2014.
• Smith sang the song at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards on August 24, 2014, at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
• US R&B artist Mary J. Blige performed with Smith in a live version of the song in Los Angeles at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards. Blige sang the second verse instead of Smith. The performance is available on the artist's Vevo channel.

Media usage

The song appears 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 during a scene in the television series Reign, where Mary, Queen of Scots (played by Adelaide Kane), and Francis II of France (played by Toby Regbo), who is dying, dance together.

In the 2016 animated film Sing, Johnny (voiced by Taron Egerton) sings this song during his audition for a singing competition.

The song is also used as background music in the Inspiron 17 5000 commercial, which features Liev Schreiber and Chris Pratt.