Sam Smith announces intimate UK ‘To Be Free’ residency shows in September, including eight nights at London’s Coliseum, ahead of fifth album ‘Hazel Eyes’
Sam Smith has announced a run of intimate UK residency shows for September 2026, bringing the To Be Free series to Manchester’s Albert Hall for two nights and London’s Coliseum for eight nights. The announcement follows the release of “My Guy,” the lead single from their forthcoming fifth studio album Hazel Eyes, due August 21 via Capitol Records UK. The UK dates represent the next chapter of a residency model Smith has been developing throughout 2026, following sold-out runs at Brooklyn’s Warsaw and San Francisco’s Castro Theatre that combined catalogue favourites with previews of new album material and guests including Hozier, Ed Sheeran, Brandi Carlile, Kim Petras, and Feist.
The UK run begins in Manchester on September 3 and 4 at Albert Hall before moving to London’s Coliseum for eight consecutive shows across September 8 through 19. The London Coliseum, home of English National Opera, is one of the capital’s grandest theatrical venues and represents a deliberately elevated setting for the kind of intimate, emotionally exposed performance Smith has been building toward throughout the To Be Free series. The choice of venue tells you something about what Smith wants these shows to feel like: not arena scale, but theatrical in the classical sense, where the building itself creates the conditions for something more vulnerable and direct.
What ‘To Be Free’ Has Been Building Toward
The To Be Free series has been building anticipation for Hazel Eyes since Smith began performing new material live earlier in 2026. Several songs from the forthcoming record were introduced during the New York and San Francisco residencies, including “My Guy,” “Moondance” featuring Feist, and “Constant Companion,” a country-influenced track that represents a significant sonic departure from the pop maximalism of 2023’s Gloria.
Smith also debuted “My Guy” at the inaugural MAJ Awards in Japan before giving it its UK premiere on Later with Jools Holland, building a careful pre-release narrative around a record that took over three years to complete.
Hazel Eyes is co-produced by Smith alongside Simon Aldred and David Odlum, and was written in New York with collaborators including Feist, Shahzad Ismaily, and string arranger Rob Moose. The album was partly recorded at Electric Lady Studios and is described as “a heartfelt ode to the city of New York which Sam now calls home.” It draws from baroque pop, British folk, outlaw country, and left-field R&B.
“This album is an incredibly special record to me,” Smith said at announcement. “I have been writing it for over three years with a very small group of beautiful, dear friends of mine. This album is very personal, and I feel I have deepened myself as an artist through the making of it.”
Mexico, the Full Routing, and Why the Timing Matters
Before the UK dates, Smith will play four shows in Mexico in August: Auditorio Telmex in Zapopan on August 14, followed by three nights at the Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City on August 17, 18, 20, and 21. The August 21 Mexico City date lands on the same day as the Hazel Eyes release, making the Auditorio Nacional show the de facto album launch performance.
“My Guy,” the single leading into all of this, sets the emotional register for everything that follows. Co-written by Smith, Feist, and Shahzad Ismaily, it is a warm, stripped-back love song that Smith has described in direct terms:
Written with beautiful friends on a summer’s day in New York, this one fell out of the sky. In this sometimes cold and distant world, I hope you can feel the love and the closeness of this recording. I tried to capture the glow and the warmth of love in this one”
For an artist whose commercial career has included global pop hits on the scale of “Stay With Me,” “Unholy,” and “Dancing with a Stranger,” Hazel Eyes and the To Be Free residencies represent the clearest statement yet about where Smith’s creative priorities actually live.
Full To Be Free Tour Dates:
August 14 Auditorio Telmex, Zapopan, Mexico
August 17 The Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico
August 18 The Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico
August 20 The Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico
August 21 The Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico
September 3 Albert Hall, Manchester, UK
September 4 Albert Hall, Manchester, UK
September 8 Coliseum, London, UK
September 9 Coliseum, London, UK
September 11 Coliseum, London, UK
September 12 Coliseum, London, UK
September 15 Coliseum, London, UK
September 16 Coliseum, London, UK
September 18 Coliseum, London, UK
September 19 Coliseum, London, UK
