Sophia Michaels
Girls, gays, theys: this one is for you. Sam Smith is back with their first new single in two years — and it features pop queen Kim Petras. On Friday, the queer faves released their single “Unholy,” which they’ve been teasing for a hella long time on TikTok.
The song opens with a choir singing the track’s chorus in the intro before the hyper pop sounds of Petras breakthrough as Smith opens with their unmistakable vocals. They sing: “Lucky, lucky girl,/she got married to a boy like you/She’d kick you out if she ever, ever knew/’Bout all the shit you tell me that you do.”
“So excited for you to hear this it’s unreal!!!! I’ve never had so much fun making a record, so I hope you can all get weird and UNHOLY to it👅,” Smith wrote on Instagram. “Thank you to the amazing @kimpetras for joining me on the song, loved witnessing your brilliance.”
The duo wrote and made the song in Jamaica during “one of the most glorious creative moments I’ve ever had,” Smith said in a statement, adding they “never had so much fun making a record.”
“It was so cathartic and freeing to experiment like this and throw out the rule book,” they wrote. “This song is about liberating oneself from the clutches of others’ secrets…”
When Smith first teased the song, it quickly garnered over 26 million views on TikTok.
Meanwhile, Petras called herself a “big fan” of Smith, praising their artistry and songwriting. “They really believed in me and encouraged me to be totally myself. I feel so honored that they chose me to be on this song,” Petras said in a statement.
“And he, he get me Prada, get me Miu Miu like Rihanna/He always call me ’cause I never cause no drama,” she sings in her verse. “And when you want it, baby, I know I got you covered.”
This is Smith’s first release since 2020’s heart-breaking Love Goes, which featured songs like “Dancing with a Stranger” with Normani and “How Do You Sleep?” As for Petras, she released the ever-NSFW Slut Pop earlier this year.
