Samuel Falson (born 8 November 1982), better known by his stage name Sam Sparro, is an Australian singer, songwriter and music producer. His stage name was derived from a family nickname, which in turn was inspired by the Sydney radio announcer Gary O’Callaghan’s on-air character Sammy Sparrow. He was signed to the British record label Island Records
Sparro’s debut single, “Cottonmouth”, was released in late 2007. His second single, “Black and Gold”, peaked at number two in the United Kingdom in April 2008 and at number four in Australia, and has since been used in soundtracks and promotional campaigns for various television series, video games, and films. Sparro’s self-titled debut album, Sam Sparro, was released in the UK in April 2008and reached the top five on the UK Albums Chart, eventually receiving a gold certification from the BPI for selling 100,000 copies. Two subsequent singles, “21st Century Life” and “Pocket”, were considerably less successful on the charts.
During promotion of “Black and Gold”, Sparro covered “American Boy” by Estelle on Jo Whiley’s Live Lounge on BBC Radio 1. In September 2008, Sparro was nominated for five ARIA Music Awards. His tour that month formed part of the Wonky Pop tour; Wonky Pop is a new genre of music created by artists such as Sparro and Alphabeat. In December 2008, Sparro and co-writer/ producer Jesse Rogg received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Recording for “Black and Gold”.
Sparro is featured on the Basement Jaxx single “Feelings Gone”, released in September 2009. He also collaborated on a track called “Soles on Fire” with Chauffeur, which consists of Sparro, Theophilus London and producer Mark Ronson. In March 2010, a new single, “Corrected” was released to U.S. iTunes and is a collaboration with Mason (DJ) and rapper DMC.Sparro co-wrote Voodoo with Adam Lambert, a song that appears on the international and tour editions of Lambert’s album For Your Entertainment and digital ep Remixes.In July 2010, a new song titled “Pink Cloud” was premiered on East Village Radio’s Accidental Rhythm. The premiered song was stated to be un-mastered.The video for the song, directed by artist and designer Franc Fernandez, was uploaded onto Sparro’s YouTube channel in December 2010. Sparro stated via his Twitter that the video is an art project, and the song was not released as a single. Addressing rumours of a mostly instrumental album, he clarified that, unlike “Pink Cloud”, his second album would be full of tracks featuring his vocals. A free EP was released following the release of the video.
Sparro announced his second album, Return to Paradise, on his newly redesigned website. It was described as being inspired by soul and funk from the late seventies and early eighties.A new video premiered, featuring a new track from the album. In January 2012, “The Shallow End” was uploaded onto VEVO and YouTube. It is “compiled of home video footage of the making of the record and was filmed in LA, New York, London and Spain.” The album will be out in Spring 2012, accompanied by tours in the United States and Australia. A video was filmed for the upcoming track, “Happiness”.Sam collaborated with Adam Lambert again for Lambert’s second album Trespassing, co-writing Shady and Broken English with Lambert and Lester Mendez. Sam and Adam performed Shady together with Nile Rodgers at the We are Family gala on 31 January 2013.
In late 2013, Sparro released his first mixtape Mechanical to SoundCloud, featuring sixteen songs. On 17 September 2013, Sparro collaborated with The Bloody Beetroots on a track titled “Glow in the Dark” stating that “It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve written recently.” On 1 October 2013, Sparro’s new EP, Quantum Physical, was released, in which the lead single being “Hang on To Your Love” featuring Durand Bernarr Hang on To Your Love, Fascism, and Infinite were included from Mechanical. He is currently working on and directing the music video for “Hang on To Your Love”.
On February 14, 2014 “Stay In Love”, Sparro’s fourth single as a featured artist was released with producer, instrumentalist, and lifelong friend Plastic Plates to the producer’s SoundCloud account. The release was appropriately timed as Sparro posted a link to the track on his Facebook and Twitter accounts with the words “Happy Valentines Day Lovers”.The song was made available for digital purchase on February 19, contrary to the official release date of February 13 listed everywhere
Sparro’s mixtape Love Made Me Do It was released to his SoundCloud account on February 13, 2015.July 31 of that year he released the single “Hands Up” from the second volume of Quantum Physical,with a remix single following on September 25.Quantum Physical, Vol. 2 was released on October 16, 2015 with Intuit Records.
