Sam Smith Talks 'Second Coming Out' At Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards

Sam Smith became emotional during their speech on Wednesday night's (October 9) 2019 Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards, where they were honored as Person of the Year and reflected on their "second coming out."

"This is incredibly overwhelming," the star, 27, said at the podium during their almost-four minute speech. "Thank you so much to everyone in this room. Tonight, just watching all of you has just been amazing, and I'm so honored to be in this room with you all."

During their time on-stage, they addressed Dustin Lance Black, who had previously apologized in the night for comments he made after Smith's acceptance speech at the 2016 Oscars. "You didn't have to say sorry," they explained. "The truth is I did f**k up my speech, royally, at the Oscars, in front of 90 f**king million people. So I have written down my speech tonight, so I don't f**k it up."

They said: "This is incredibly overwhelming. Thank you so much to everyone in this room. Tonight just watching all of you has been amazing and I'm so honored to be here. There's so much love in the room, so thank you so much to everyone...The last year has been a wild ride of self-realization and has almost felt like a second coming out. The reason I've been able to show all of the sides of myself to the public and express myself in these ways is because I felt incredibly safe."

"I am so lucky to not only have an incredible family and team around me but I also have access to talk and seek help from the leaders and trailblazers of our community. Certain people have put my under their wings and supported every breath of mine for the last few years," they continued. They went on to thank several people who inspired their journey throughout the last year, including performance artist Alok Menon, writer Tom Rasmussen, transgender model and actress Munroe Bergdorf, Sink the Pink director Glyn Fussell, their publicists, managers and family.

"Thank you everyone for your kindness. Let's live as loudly and queerly as humanly possible," they concluded the speech.

Photo: Getty Images


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content