Anyone looking for a discreet hookup may want to steer clear of pop stars Sam Smith and Kim Petras, because the pair are ready to spill the tea.
On Thursday (Sept. 22), Smith and Petras shared their long-awaited new collaboration “Unholy,” a grinding, amorous new single that sees the pair getting nasty behind closed doors with some cheating husbands who would prefer that their wives remain ignorant.
Produced by Smith, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Blake Slatkin, Cirkut, Omer Fedi and Jimmy Napes, the new song marks a significant departure for Smith, with the almost-sinister-sounding bass complemented even further by a pounding club beat. “Mummy don’t know daddy’s getting hot/ At the body shop/ Doing something unholy,” Smith belts over the bass-heavy chorus.
In a statement released alongside the song, Smith made it clear that they were ecstatic with their new sonic direction. “Unholy’ … was one of the most glorious creative moments I’ve ever had as an artist,” they said. “I’ve never had so much fun making a record. It was so cathartic and freeing to experiment like this and throw out the rule book. It has also been an honor to work with Kim and get to witness her brilliance. This song is about liberating oneself from the clutches of others’ secrets…”
Fans are already loving the new song, thanks in no small part to the chorus’s widespread proliferation across TikTok, where Smith and Petras began teasing the single last month. With the sound being used in over 300,000 of the app’s videos, users have been anxiously awaiting the full version of the track.
“Unholy” is the latest single off of Smith’s forthcoming, yet-to-be-announced fourth studio album, which they told Billboard in an August cover story would be their “first non-heartbreak album,” and mark a new, more optimistic sound for them. “I think joy for me, and for a lot of queer people, is quite a dangerous place,” they said. “We’re all masters of pain, and I think it’s actually a very courageous act to step into the queer joy of it all.”
Check out “Unholy” below:
