Sam Smith & John Legend To Release Official Red Nose Day Single / The multi award winning transatlantic megastars collaborate for Comic Relief
Comic Relief is delighted to announce that Brit and Grammy award winning superstar Sam Smith will be collaborating with Oscar winner John Legend to record a very special version of Sam’s song Lay Me Down, making it the official single for Red Nose Day.
Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief’s appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief. Comic Relief is one of the two high profile telethon events held in the United Kingdom, the other being Children in Need, held annually in November.
The original song is from Sam’s multi-platinum debut album In the Lonely Hour and this new version is being re-released as a one off single to raise money for Comic Relief. The track is available from today to download on iTunes and the single is available to buy exclusively in Sainsbury’s.
UK born Sam Smith and American born John Legend will perform the ballad together for the first and only time on Comic Relief – Face the Funny on Friday 13th March on BBC One, where their special one off performance will be broadcast live from the London Palladium.
Sam Smith said: “Lay Me Down holds a very special place in my heart, not only did I perform it at the Brits I’m now going to perform it live on the Red Nose Day show with the extremely talented John Legend which is so exciting. I recently visited a Comic Relief funded project in my home town which supports the young LGBT community in London, I’m extremely proud that my single will help raise money for projects like this and many others in the UK and across Africa.”
John Legend said: “Sam is such a talented artist. We’ve been looking forward to working together for a while now. I’m so glad we could collaborate on such a great song and for such a great cause.”
The pair recorded the track together in Los Angeles, earlier this year. The single is produced by Jimmy Napes and Steve Fitzmaurice and was written by Sam Smith, James Napier and Elvin Smith. Universal will donate 100% of its profits from the sale of the single to Comic Relief.
Check out the video of both the stars performing here