“Dancing with a Stranger” is a collaboration between singer-songwriters Sam Smith and Normani. It’s about finding someone new, expressed in the metaphor ‘dancing with a stranger’, and moving on from an old flame. The subject may have been prompted by Sam’s experience of heartache following his break-up with former boyfriend Brandon Flynn.

This track was written during a short break from Sam Smith’s The Thrill of it All World Tour in September 2018. Sam and Normani, by coincidence, were working at the same time in a Los Angeles studio with producer StarGate. In an interview to Zane Lowe, Sam said:

I was with StarGate […]when she [Normani] came in that day [ …]. I said to her ‘Do you want to hear the song?’ […]. She’s special […] she just jumped on the song there with me and she sang it and it was perfect.

The collaboration was timely for Sam, who had been a fan of Fifth Harmony, the girl group Normani gained recognition and fame with, and especially a fan of hers since seeing her performance with Khalid of ‘Love Lies’ for Billboard.