All through his most recent American tour, the British singer Sam Smith has been stunned by the size of his crowds.
When he first played in Philadelphia, last March, it was at a bar too small to fit his full band; last month he filled Temple University’s basketball arena. His New York debut, in August 2013, was at the tiny Mercury Lounge, and a few weeks ago Mr. Smith sold out Madison Square Garden, where thousands of fans sang along to his slow-burning anthems like “Stay With Me.”
“This is a really big, big place, isn’t it?” Mr. Smith, who at 22 has cherubic cheeks and a high-piled wedge of brown hair, said as he surveyed the crowd at the Garden. “I never thought that I’d be standing on this stage in only a year and a half.”
Barely known to American audiences a year ago, Mr. Smith became a breakout pop star in 2014 with an emotive brand of blue-eyed soul that drew comparisons to Adele. His first album, “In the Lonely Hour,” a song cycle about a troubled affair, tugged at the heartstrings of listeners and radio programmers alike, and was one of only three new releases last year to go platinum. On Sunday, he is up for six Grammy Awards, with nods in all four top categories, including album of the year.
Key to Mr. Smith’s success has been his sweet tenor voice, which climbs to intense, androgynous peaks. Yet his rise is also a sign of what can still happen in the struggling music industry when everything clicks — when the right balance is struck between online seeding, mass-media blitzing and live appearances. To a degree rarely seen in brand-new acts, Mr. Smith and his label seemed to get nearly everything right, from an early appearance on “Saturday Night Live” to business details like the management of digital sales.
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At the Grammys this year, Mr. Smith is up for best new artist, album of the year and best song and record, for “Stay With Me.” If he sweeps those top categories, he would be the first to do so since Christopher Cross in 1981. That may be difficult, given stiff competition from Beyoncé, Ms. Swift and Beck, but Mr. Smith is widely favored as best new artist, in which he is up against the rapper Iggy Azalea, the country singer Brandy Clark and the rock bands Bastille and Haim.
Beyond the Grammys, Mr. Smith is already working on his next album. “This will be the most honest thing I’ve ever written in my entire life,” he said. “It’s about my mom and dad splitting up, and it’s going to be even more honest and even more brutal.”
He has already begun playing two songs for his family and associates, he said.
“I showed my makeup artist the other day,” Mr. Smith said, “and she burst into tears.”
A version of this article appears in print on February 8, 2015, on page AR1 of the New York edition with the headline: The Crowds Stay With Him, and Grow. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
