Born on June 24: Curt Smith, one of the two pillars of Tears For Fears

He was born in Bath (Somerset) in 1961 and sings many of the English duo’s biggest hits.

Curt Smith got into all sorts of mischief with Roland Orzabal starting in their teenage years in Bath, the venerable spa town in Somerset. Since they shared a passion for music, they decided to experiment together, first forming Graduate, a ska band influenced by the emergence of the 2-Tone label, notably featuring The Selecter and The Specials. You can still find “Acting My Age,” their only album released in 1980, fairly easily.

The Tears For Fears saga began a few months after their split and came to fruition in 1983 with the album The Hurting, preceded as early as 1981 by a handful of singles such as “Suffer The Children”(1981) and “Change” and “Mad World” (1982), which created quite a buzz. From the start, Curt shared songwriting duties with Roland and even took on the role of lead singer on the three singles released in 1982, including “Mad World,” which helped them solidify their burgeoning popularity. “Songs From The Big Chair” (1985) and “The Seeds Of Love” (1989) propelled the duo to the top—or, if you prefer, to number one on the U.S. Billboard charts. It was Curt who handled the vocals on “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” another one of their major hits. But within Tears For Fears, Roland applied this maxim to his own advantage, and the tensions became almost unbearable. Fed up, Curt Smith finally walked out in 1991.

For almost a decade, the two former best friends communicated only through their lawyers before settling their differences and toning down their respective egos. In the meantime, the bassist and singer used this hiatus to release a few solo albums, such as "Soul On Board" (1993), and then formed Mayfield with guitarist Charlton Pettus, though these albums never really set the world on fire.

With a typically English sense of humor, the two old partners finally reunited to record the aptly titled "Everybody Loves a Happy Ending", which proved—even without a global hit—that they clearly produce their best music together. From then on, Curt and Roland each took time for personal projects. They waited eighteen long years before returning to the studio together for "The Tipping Point", released in 2022. Curt Smith thus had plenty of time to refine other projects such as “Deceptively Heavy” (2013), The Social Media Project (with artists he met, as the name suggests, on social media), and even, in 2024, a surprising cover of Michel Polnareff’s “La poupée qui fait non” with his daughter Diva. It was during the COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2020, that they collaborated publicly for the first time, performing a touching version of “Mad World” on Facebook.

In January 2026, he took the stage alongside his eldest daughter, Diva Smith, to perform Tears for Fears classics (such as “Pale Shelter”) as well as covers, notably “The Maze” by Manchester Orchestra, to raise funds for epilepsy research. A limited-edition T-shirt designed by his second daughter, Wilder, was also made available for purchase for the event. Curt Smith truly wears his heart on his sleeve more than ever!

Photo: Curt Smith with Tears For Fears on stage at L’Apocalypse in Brussels (Belgium) on March 18, 1983