Sam Smith’s backstage malfunction at the Brit Awards ‘a nightmare’

The star turned heads with their wild outfit – but behind the scenes, tempers were flaring. Photo / Getty Images

Sam Smith was fuming after their performance at the Brit Awards was almost cancelled following a technical malfunction.

Close sources reported that the singer’s anger was heightened backstage at London’s O2 Arena when their $870,000 (NZ$1.37 million) set, which included various cars, experienced a glitch and caused a delay.

Insiders revealed tempers were hot while the backstage crew desperately tried to fix the issue.

Event organisers covertly moved Stormzy’s set to earlier in the show to hide the problem.

Then, adding to the confusion of millions of watchers, they played a video montage of Adele to buy more time for the backstage staff, who were reconstructing Smith’s set for their performance of Unholy with Kim Petras.

A source revealed: “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.

A source claims: “Sam was pleased with how the performance went in the end, but the stress beforehand took the shine off the night completely.” Photo / Getty Images

“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.”

The cause of the drama is thought to be due to a technical issue related to the cars that were being used in the singer’s set.

Sam Smith, who is a three-time Brit Award winner, arrived to the show wearing a much-talked-about black latex bodysuit with inflated arms and legs.

The cause of the drama is thought to be due to a technical issue related to the cars that were being used in the singer’s set. Photo / Getty Images

Smith was expected to attend the Universal afterparty at 180 The Strand with Petras. However, they failed to make an appearance after the event on Saturday night.

Petras, who won the award for Best Pop Duo at the Grammys last week for Unholy, attended the afterparty alone.

Another source claims: “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.”