Sam Smith in furious row backstage at the Brit Awards after huge glitch causes secret chaos behind-the-scenes
SAM Smith was left furious after their Brits Awards performance was almost axed following a technical glitch.
Insiders revealed how Sam, 30, grew increasingly upset backstage at London’s O2 Arena when their £500,000 set malfunctioned — causing a delay.
Insiders said tempers flared as the crew backstage desperately tried to fix the errors.
Organisers secretly moved Stormzy forward on the billing to cover the issue.
Then, to the bafflement of the millions of TV viewers at home, they played a video montage of Adele on stage to kill time while they were reconstructing the set for Sam’s performance of Unholy with Kim Petras.
A source said: “Sam’s performance might have appeared seamless but behind-the-scenes it was a nightmare.
“The whole set was built and ready to go but then a malfunction meant it had to be pulled off.
“Stormzy was moved forward and Sam was told there was a possibility their performance might be pulled altogether.
“Sam was understandably furious and it was pretty tense backstage.”
It is believed the technical issue that caused the drama was linked to the cars used in the set.
Three-time Brit award winner Sam, 30, who wore a black latex bodysuit with bulbous arms and legs on arrival at the show, was expected to attend the Universal afterparty at 180 Strand with Kim.
But Sam failed to appear on Saturday night after the event was over.
Kim, 30, who won the Best Pop Duo Grammy with Sam last week for Unholy, went to the bash solo.
A second source said: “Sam was pleased with how the performance went in the end but the stress beforehand took the shine off the night completely.”
They added: “What should have been a huge night for Sam ended up being pretty stressful and they made a quick exit from the ceremony and didn’t bother going to celebrate at any of the label parties.”
- Additional reporting: Ellie Henman