Unholy (Sam Smith and Kim Petras song)

"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 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 German singer-songwriter, had previously made pop and dance music before "Unholy", such as their 2017 single "I Don't Want It at All".[1][2]

"Unholy" was recorded in Jamaica and produced by Ilya and Omer Fedi.[3][4] 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.[5][1] Disclosure also teased the song, playing their remix of it in live sets.[6] On 25 August, Smith announced the track's title and a pre-save link.[7] It was released as a single on 22 September 2022, making it Smith's first single in two years.[8][2] It was included on their fourth studio album, Gloria, which was released on 27 January 2023.[9]

A sexually charged[10] and campy[11] synth-pop,[12] dance-pop,[4] alt-pop,[13] industrial pop,[14] and R&B song,[15] "Unholy" marked a return to EDM and a shift from sentimental ballads to dance music for Smith.[1][16][17] It uses the Phrygian dominant scale[18] often associated with Indian[13] and Arabic music[4] and features choir-like vocals,[19] a "grinding" bassline,[20] a string section,[21] and metallic hyperpop-style synths and percussion popularized by Scottish musician Sophie and the record label PC Music.[22][23][24]

Its lyrics are about an adulterous[10] heterosexual[25] family man who goes to a strip club behind his wife's back to have sex.[4][26] Smith described it as being about "liberating oneself from the clutches of others' secrets".[3] 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.[20][1] Petras's verse features braggadocio and sees her asking her lover to buy her luxury clothing.[21] 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.[1] Neil McCormick of The Telegraph described it as "a cross between a Brecht & Weill cabaret showstopper and a Pet Shop Boys electro stomp".[27]

For The New York Times, Lindsey Zoladz wrote that "Unholy" "sounds like the most fun [Smith has] ever had on a song".[11] 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".[21][16] The Sydney Morning Herald's Annabel Ross called it "promising" compared to other "inoffensive" songs on the album.[15] 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.[26] 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.[28] 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".[29][4]

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".[22] 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?"[25] 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".[1] For Pitchfork, Jamieson Cox wrote that "Unholy" "sound[ed] worse in an album-length context" and that its "its transgressive glee scann[ed] as shallow and theatrical up against more grounded, mature material" on Gloria.[30] 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.[31]

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.[32][19][33]

At the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, Petras and Smith also won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance award for "Unholy", making Petras the first openly transgender artist to win a major-category Grammy Award.[34] It marked Smith's first award since 2015 and Petras's first award overall.[35] It was also nominated for the Brit Award for Song of the Year at the Brit Awards 2023, Smith's fourth nomination in the category and Petras' first Brit nomination in any category.[36]

"Unholy" entered atop the UK Singles Chart on 30 September 2022, becoming Smith's eighth UK number-one to date (putting them on par with Oasis and the Rolling Stones) and Petras's first, having racked up 5.9 million streams in the UK in its first week.[37] 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.[38]

In the US, the song debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 for the chart issue dated 8 October 2022.[39] It earned Petras her first career entry on the chart and became Smith's seventh top ten on the chart,[39] as well as the eighth song to debut in the top three of the Hot 100 in 2022.[40] 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.[41] Petras and Smith became the first openly transgender woman and openly non-binary person, respectively, to reach number one on the chart.[42] The collaboration tallied 25.3 million streams, 21.5 million radio airplay audience impressions and 19,000 downloads sold.[41]

The song's music video, directed by Floria Sigismondi, was released on 30 September 2022. The visual features a woman attending a sexually charged cabaret show at "The Body Shop" after following clues about her husband's cheating at the club. Smith appears as the MC of the club surrounded by androgynous burlesque dancers, joined by RuPaul's Drag Race alums Violet Chachki and Gottmik. Petras then arrives onstage in a heart-shaped lyra before dancing atop a prop car dressed in an outfit reminiscent of Madonna.[43] The erotic video, inspired by A Clockwork Orange and Bob Fosse, also features a cameo from gay porn star Paddy O'Brian as a customer.[44]

Smith and Petras gave their first live performance of "Unholy" at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas the day after its release.[2] The two also performed the song at the Jingle Bell Ball in December 2022.[45] 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 large pink dress that revealed Petras sitting inside of it; the performance also featured hooded dancers.[46][47] 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.[48] 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.[49][50] Elon Musk tweeted that the performance had "end of days vibes".[51] David Harris, a Church of Satan magister, called people offended over the performance "delicate snowflakes" and described it as "nothing particularly special".[52] 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.[53]

A remix of "Unholy" was released by English rock duo Nova Twins in December 2022.[54] An acoustic version of the song was performed by American singer Charlie Puth for SiriusXM to promote his studio album, Charlie, in October 2022.[14] 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.[55] 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.[56]