Premier Peter Malinauskas says he didn’t know who Sam Smith was when he invited pop star to SA

The premier has not yet revealed the cost of bringing international superstar Sam Smith to SA – but has admitted he didn’t know who the famous singer was.

Despite revelations Sam Smith’s visit to South Australia cost close to a million dollars of taxpayers’ money, the premier has revealed he had no idea who the global superstar was.

Premier Peter Malinauskas made the shock confession as he spoke about the exclusive 300-person invite-only concert that took place in McLaren Vale earlier this month.

“I personally must confess, and I don’t know if I should be proud of this, but I didn’t know who Sam Smith was until a few weeks ago,” said Mr Malinauskas to ABC Radio Adelaide on Wednesday morning.

“But I’m of a different ilk, I guess.”

The sunset performance at D’Arenberg has been slammed by taxpayers for not only its cost, but also for the concert’s exclusivity.

English singer and songwriter Sam Smith in Adelaide while visiting Australia. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

The premier said it was a requirement of Sam Smith’s touring company to host a small-scale, invite-only event.

“That, I think, has been frustrating to a lot of people too - including the Sam Smith fans out there,” Mr Malinauskas said.

Part of South Australia’s bid against other states for the opportunity to pay the singer to perform included hosting the superstar’s Australian tour announcement.

The opposition claimed Sam Smith could be hired to perform from anywhere between $999,999 and $1,499,000.

Both the premier and Tourism Minister Zoe Bettison refuted the claim, saying the final bid came to a lot less than the opposition’s figure.

“Our bid … wasn’t anywhere near that, not anywhere near that, it was off by an order of magnitude,” Mr Malinauskas said.

The premier revealed the price of the Sam Smith concert was “less than half” the opposition’s claim.

British singer/songwriter Sam Smith pictured with a koala at Cleland Wildlife Park in the Adelaide Hills. Picture: Instagram

Premier Peter Malinauskas. SA. Picture Emma Brasier

“We competed, we won, but it comes out of this budget that we allocated which we unapologetically do because we’ve got short memories sometimes,” he said.

English singer and songwriter Sam Smith in Adelaide while visiting Australia. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

“This time four months ago, tourism and hospitality were literally on their knees, still enduring restrictions and we went to the election less than 12 months ago and said we’re going to boost the tourism marketing funding by an additional $40m across the four testaments, which we’ve done.”

The premier said he believed that paying celebrities and influencers to market South Australia was a practice that must be “scrutinised”.

“Did we get the followers? Did we get the output that we’re looking for? Those decisions have to be made on a horses for courses basis,” Mr Malinauskas said.

“To be plain, I get the angst about this because it’s, I think, in the context of traditional advertising methods, unorthodox - but this is where it’s going.”

Mr Malinauskas said his government’s $15m tourism boost in the first term of the budget, with an extra $10m after that, was a “substantial” increase from the previous government.

But the premier conceded that allocation of those funds would be scrutinised on their success.

“Of course, you turn to the experts to say how best to utilise those additional funds to be able to deliver what it is that we’re aiming to achieve,” Mr Malinauskas said.

The premier’s comments come after the state government paid one the world’s richest families, the Tindalls, to attend the rebooted Valo Adelaide 500 last year.

Zara Tindall, granddaughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II and niece of King Charles III, and her husband Mike Tindall were brought to Adelaide for the race.