James Bond theme song for Spectre: Sam Smith is top choice, but who else is in the line-up?

Bookies William Hill closed betting at the start of the week with Sam Smith a clear favourite.

Hot on his heels is Ed Sheeran, followed by Ellie Goulding.

Ellie posted a cryptic tweet earlier this month, writing “Live and Let Die”, which many took as a reference to the Bond movie of the same name.

Director Sam Mendes hinted recently that the song was done, but gave away no further details.

He told the BBC: “I can say that the song’s been recorded and it’s fantastic and I’m very excited about it. You won’t have to wait long.”

Skyfall’s theme song was sung by Adele, and took the Oscar for Best Original Song.

Other names being mentioned are Lana Del Rey, Kanye West, James Bay, Taylor Swift and Lorde.

We look at reasons why each person could just be perfect:

Sam Smith

He’s often been described as the male version of Adele. He’s got the looks, the voice… We can hear his dulcet tones crooning those iconic notes already.

Ellie Goulding

As she once sang herself, “Anything Could Happen”, so she’d be a great choice. This year seems to be going swimmingly for Ms Goulding and what would top it off more than a Bond announcement?

Ellie could be a Bond girl herself with her smouldering looks, add to that her amazing voice and it’s a pretty powerful combination.

Ed Sheeran

While traditionally Bond crooners have been your big voice belters, we don’t see why they couldn’t switch it up a bit and have guitar-wielding Ed as their next choice? He’s bound to add his own spin to any song and you can pretty much guarantee it’ll top the charts all over the world.

Lana Del Rey

Lana has been quiet lately, maybe that’s because she’s been in the studio recording a Bond theme song?

Kanye West

Well, he IS the greatest living rock star on the planet (his words, not ours) so we guess it’d be rude if he wasn’t asked to record the song. How can you pass over such greatness?

And we’d probably get to see his wife Kim Kardashian in the music video too, so that’s a double whammy.

James Bay

A relative newcomer, but maybe this is just what James needs to propel him into superstardom? He’s climbing the charts and the festival line-up rankings, so it’d not surprise us in the least.

Taylor Swift

What if Bad Blood was just a dress rehearsal? What if Tay-Tay was *actually* just hinting at her Bond debut?

We can see it now – her with her smouldering red lippie, her beau Calvin Harris in his tux pretending to be Daniel Craig…

Lorde

A firm favourite the world over, and Lorde has been tucked away doing, well, music stuff. She’d be a top choice to do Bond.

Spectre hits UK cinemas on October 26.