"Unholy" is a song by English singer Sam Smith and German singer Kim Petras. It was released on 22 September 2022 through EMI Records and Capitol Records as the second single from Smith's fourth studio album Gloria (2023) and as a bonus track on Petras's debut studio album Feed the Beast (2023). It was teased by Smith on their TikTok account a month before its release and went viral due to its use in thirst trap-style videos. Produced by Ilya, Omer Fedi, Blake Slatkin, Jimmy Napes, and Cirkut and written by them alongside Smith and Petras, "Unholy" is a sexually charged electropop, dance-pop, and synth-pop song with choral and hyperpop influences, which marked a shift away from ballads for Smith. It uses the Phrygian dominant scale and its lyrics are about a family man who cheats on his wife at a strip club.
"Unholy" received mostly positive reception from critics, many of whom considered the song a standout from Gloria and praised its sound as catchy yet unusual, while others found the song less transgressive than it was intended to be and criticized Petras's verse. Its win for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards made Petras the first openly transgender artist to win a major-category Grammy Award. "Unholy" topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks and the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, making Smith and Petras the first openly non-binary and openly transgender solo artists, respectively, to have a number-one song on the latter chart. It also topped the charts in 18 other countries and the Billboard Global 200 chart, and became the sixteenth best-selling global single of 2023, earning 1.17 billion subscription streams equivalents globally according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
The music video for "Unholy", directed by Italian-Canadian director Floria Sigismondi, depicts Smith and Petras performing at an erotic cabaret with burlesque dancers to a woman who follows her adulterous husband there. It features cameos from American drag queens Violet Chachki and Gottmik and gay pornographic actor Paddy O'Brian. "Unholy" was performed live by Smith on their 2023 headlining concert tour, Gloria the Tour, on an episode of Saturday Night Live, at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards–where Smith and Petras's Satan-themed performance caused controversy among American conservatives, who accused the artists of devil worship–and at the Brit Awards 2023.
Background
"Unholy" is performed by British singer Sam Smith (left) and German singer Kim Petras (right)
Prior to the release of "Unholy", British singer Sam Smith earned global recognition for ballads released throughout the 2010s[1] as well as occasional features on songs by EDM producers, including on Naughty Boy's 2013 song "La La La" and on Disclosure's 2012 song "Latch". Kim Petras, a transgender German singer-songwriter, had been releasing pop and dance music, such as her 2017 single "I Don't Want It at All", since she independently released her debut single as a teenager.[2][3][4]
Petras agreed to work with Smith on "Unholy" after being sent a rough draft of the song and the two first met at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles a week later.[2] "Unholy" was recorded in Jamaica and produced by Ilya, Omer Fedi, Blake Slatkin, Jimmy Napes, and Cirkut, all of whom co-wrote the song with Smith and Petras.[5] Napes had previously collaborated with Smith on their hit songs "Stay with Me", "Too Good at Goodbyes", "Latch", "Lay Me Down", and "Writing's on the Wall".[1] It was first teased in mid-August through a clip on TikTok, which shows Smith and Petras dancing in a recording studio to a snippet of it that went viral and spurred a trend of sexually charged, thirst trap-style videos on the platform.[6][3] Disclosure also teased the song, playing their remix of it in live sets.[7] On 25 August, Smith announced the track's title and a pre-save link.[8] On 22 September 2022, it premiered on BBC Radio 1 and was released as a single through EMI Records and Capitol Records.[9][10][4] It was included on their fourth studio album, Gloria, which was released on 27 January 2023.[11]
The metallic production of "Unholy" was compared by critics to the production style of Scottish musician Sophie (pictured)[26]
Its lyrics are about an adulterous[12] heterosexual[27] family man who goes to a strip club behind his wife's back to have sex.[16][28] Smith described it as being about "liberating oneself from the clutches of others' secrets".[5] In its hook, Smith sings, "Mummy don't know Daddy's getting hot/At the Body Shop/Doing something unholy"—referencing the Body Shop, the first all-nude strip club on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood—accompanied by an "oh-wee-oh-wee-oh" chant popularized by the winged monkeys from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.[22][3] Petras's verse features braggadocio and sees her asking her lover to buy her luxury clothing.[23] Chris Molanphy of Slate remarked upon the song's "sinister edge" and "high-camp energy" and compared it to "early-2010s peak-EDM era" pop music by artists such as Avicii and Kesha.[3] Neil McCormick of The Telegraph described it as "a cross between a Brecht & Weillcabaret showstopper and a Pet Shop Boys electro stomp".[29]
Critical reception and accolades
For The New York Times, Lindsey Zoladz wrote that "Unholy" "sounds like the most fun [Smith has] ever had on a song".[13] In a review of Gloria, Helen Brown of The Independent called "Unholy" the "stand-out banger" of the album, while Elly Watson of DIY picked it as an "undoubted standout" from the album, where, according to her, its "catchy melodies" were "elsewhere untouchable".[23][30]The Sydney Morning Herald's Annabel Ross called it "promising" compared to other "inoffensive" songs on the album.[31] For Variety, Jem Aswad wrote that "Unholy" was "one of the most musically innovative and unusual songs in years" to top the Billboard Hot 100.[28] It was praised as an "inescapably catchy" "masterpiece of oversexualised nonsense" that "leaves everything else [on Gloria] feeling rather grey" by the Evening Standard's David Smyth.[32] Lauren Murphy of The Irish Times called it a "musical banger... that booms, clatters and pings in all the right places", while AllMusic's Andy Kellman called the song "[Smith's] most distinctive dance-pop song since 'Latch'" and "without doubt anomalous in Smith's songbook".[33][16]
Slant's Paul Attard described "Unholy" as the "towering centerpiece" of Gloria with lyrics that were "a little too cutesy to ever feel as truly transgressive as the music itself".[24]Vulture's Jason P. Frank wrote that it was "a difficult song to get excited about" and "impressively un-tantalizing, the most basic kind of infraction", also asking, "Is this truly the best gender transgression we have to offer right now?"[27]Slate's Chris Molanphy wrote that "Unholy" was "serviceable radio fodder" that was "almost conventional in its adherence to Top 40 trends" and that he "waver[ed] between delight and annoyance at [the song's] hook".[3] For Pitchfork, Jamieson Cox wrote that "Unholy" "sound[ed] worse in an album-length context" and that "its transgressive glee scann[ed] as shallow and theatrical up against more grounded, mature material" on Gloria.[34] Kyndall Cunningham, writing for The Daily Beast, stated that she "vehemently disliked" the song, which she referred to as "a little too intense and, conversely, unserious" with an "unbearably cheesy" opening line, before hearing it on Gloria, where "the intensity of the track finally made sense in [her] ears" after hearing its transition from "Perfect", the previous song on the album.[35]
BuzzFeed News's Alessa Dominguez commended the song's "zany originality" compared to the rest of Gloria, which she called "uneven". Petras's verse was praised by Dominguez, who wrote that she "plays her sugar baby role to perfection", though it was called "trite" by Mark Richardson of The Wall Street Journal and "unimpressive" by Riley Moquin of The Line of Best Fit.[36][21][37]
"Unholy" entered atop the UK Singles Chart on 30 September 2022, becoming Smith's eighth UK number-one to date—tying them with Oasis and the Rolling Stones on the list of artists with the most number-one singles in the UK—and Petras's first, having racked up 5.9 million streams in the UK in its first week.[48] It spent a total of four weeks at the top of the chart.[1] The song also debuted at number one on the ARIA Singles Chart, making it Smith's second number-one single in Australia and Petras's first.[49] It also topped the charts in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Greece, Ireland, Hungary, Lithuania, Malaysia, Netherlands, and Slovakia.[50]
In the United States, the song debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 for the chart issue dated 8 October 2022.[51] It earned Petras her first career entry on the chart.[51] In its fourth week, it reached number one, becoming the first song from either artist to reach the top of the charts and Smith's highest-charting single, surpassing 2014's "Stay With Me", which peaked at number two.[10] Petras and Smith became the first openly transgender and openly non-binary soloists, respectively, to reach number one on the chart.[52] It also became the first Capitol Records single to top the chart since Lewis Capaldi's song "Someone You Loved" did in 2019 and the first EMI Records single to top the chart since British band EMF's song "Unbelievable" did in 1991. The collaboration tallied 25.3 million streams, 21.5 million radio airplay audience impressions and 19,000 downloads sold.[10] It was also certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in March 2023.[53] The song surpassed one billion streams on Spotify on 3 April 2023, making it a part of the platform's Billions Club and becoming Smith's fifth song, after "Stay With Me", "I'm Not the Only One", "Too Good at Goodbyes", and "Dancing With a Stranger", and Petras's first song to reach the milestone.[54] "Unholy" also spent four weeks atop both the Billboard Global 200 and the Billboard Global Excl. US charts.[55]
Music video
The music video for "Unholy" depicts, from top to bottom: A man putting a coat on his wife after they exit a car; Smith dancing with androgynous backup dancers; Petras in a heart-shaped ring; and the video's cast, including the wife, taking a bow next to the man
The music video for "Unholy" was released on 30 September 2022.[10] Inspired by A Clockwork Orange and Bob Fosse, it was directed by Floria Sigismondi and choreographed by the French dance collective (La)Horde.[56][57] The video opens on a man, played by Henry Davis, opening a car door for his wife, who exits and is given a coat by the man after she starts shivering. The two part ways as she enters a strange building and looks at a condom-themed invitation to a club called the Body Shop. Her husband enters the club, which is disguised as an auto shop but is actually a sex club and cabaret for which Smith, who wears a leather harness[26] and is accompanied by androgynousburlesque dancers, is the MC. Drag queens Violet Chachki and Gottmik, both of whom were contestants on RuPaul's Drag Race, and pole-dancing strippers also appear at the club, along with gay pornographic star Paddy O'Brian. Petras soon arrives onstage in a heart-shaped ring and dances atop a car. The man is brought onto the stage before his wife arrives at the club to find him laid out in front of a suspended car with the words "liar", "cheat", and "fumier"—the French word for "shit"—spray painted on it. The woman walks down an aisle and gets on stage, taking off her wig and coat to reveal that she was part of the cast all along before taking a bow.[58][59]
Live performances, remixes, and cover versions
Smith and Petras performed "Unholy" live upon its release on 22 September 2022 for BBC Radio 1.[9] The two gave their first public live performance of "Unholy" at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas the day after its release.[4] The two also performed the song at the Jingle Bell Ball in December 2022.[60] In January 2023, Smith was the musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by actress Aubrey Plaza the week before the release of Gloria, where they performed "Unholy" in a top hat with devil horns and a large, pink, and ruffled dress designed by Tomo Koizumi that revealed Petras sitting inside of it; the performance also featured hooded dancers.[61][62] Michael Cragg of The Face wrote that the performance "felt exciting" as "an emblem of Smith's journey from purveyor of middle EnglandMarks & Spencers music... to something, perhaps, more genuinely groundbreaking."[26] They also performed the song live at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2023, where they were introduced by Madonna. The Satan-themed performance showed Smith in red leather clothing and a top hat with horns, surrounded by pyrotechnics and backup dancers dressed similarly to Samara Morgan from the 2002 horror film The Ring, as well as Petras dancing in a cage. According to Petras, it was inspired by the two artists feeling excluded from religion.[63] American conservative politicians and pundits, such as Ted Cruz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Matt Walsh, and online conspiracy theorists espoused the idea that the performance was a form of devil worship, with dozens of people filing complaints with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for that reason.[64][65]Elon Musk tweeted that the performance had "end of days vibes".[66] David Harris, a Church of Satan magister, called people offended over the performance "delicate snowflakes" and described it as "nothing particularly special".[67] A week later, they gave a performance of the song at the Brit Awards 2023 in an industrial set with black leather mechanic outfits, which was delayed due to technical issues and received 106 complaints to Ofcom.[68] As of 2023[update], "Unholy" was additionally part of the setlist for Smith's headlining 2023 concert tour, Gloria the Tour.[69]
After teasing their remix of "Unholy" in August 2022, Disclosure's house remix of the song was released in October of that year.[70] Remixes by Dxrk ダーク and Acraze followed.[71] An acid house remix of "Unholy" by David Guetta and a nu metal remix of the song by English rock duo Nova Twins were both released in December 2022.[72][73][74] An acoustic version of the song was performed by American singer Charlie Puth for SiriusXM to promote his studio album, Charlie, in October 2022.[75] English singer Anne-Marie and American singer Lizzo both performed "Unholy" for their BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge performances in November 2022 and February 2023, respectively.[76] Lizzo's performance included a live band and a 30-second-long flute solo from her; Justin Curto of Vulture stated that her cover was "better" and "more soulful" than the original.[77]
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Czech). Hitparáda – Digital Top 100 Oficiální. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: Change the chart to CZ – SINGLES DIGITAL – TOP 100 and insert 202239 into search. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
^"Media Forest – Weekly Charts. Media Forest. Retrieved 12 December 2022. Note: Romanian and international positions are rendered together by the number of plays before resulting an overall chart.
^"ČNS IFPI" (in Slovak). Hitparáda – Radio Top 100 Oficiálna. IFPI Czech Republic. Note: insert 20234 into search. Retrieved 30 January 2023.
^"ČNS IFPI". IFPI ČR. Note: Select SK SINGLES DIGITAL TOP 100 and insert 202239 into search. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019. Retrieved 3 October 2022.
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