"Unholy" by Sam Smith ft. Kim Petras, Monday, October 3, 2022

Somewhere between cleaning up at the 2015 Grammy Awards for In the Lonely Hour and 2020's Love Goes, Sam Smith's music lost momentum with listeners. Of course a lot has happened to the singer since then. In 2015, Smith was an openly gay Grammy- winning artist. In 2019, the singer came out as non-binary, telling the BBC, "I do think like a woman sometimes, in my head. Sometimes I've questioned, 'Do I want a sex change?'" Since coming out as non-binary, the singer has embraced both the masculine and the feminine in their videos, concerts, and album promotion. But not only did the singer's sexuality evolve, but also their musical versatility, from a gospel-inspired second record (The Thrill of It All), a Bond theme ("Writing's on the Wall"), featured in a Calvin Harris track ("Promises"), a dance pop record in 2020--nothing seemed beyond the scope of the singer, though never they quite matching the success of In the Lonely Hour.
 

MUMMY DON'T KNOW DADDY'S GETTING HOT AT THE BODY SHOP. Sam Smith is yet to announce details of an upcoming album, but "Unholy" is said to be the lead single from the Grammy winner's fourth record. It's a shocking song and a shocking video, on that made our friends over at PluggedIn call it "next-level vile." Writing about the song before the context of the music video, and taking the lyrics of the song quite literal as a "celebratory tone used to praise a man for lying to his wife, ignoring his children and visiting a prostitute whenever he so pleases," the critic Kristin Smith lambastes the song. And even though the correctly points out the literal message of the song, it seems that there's something else going on. But because our dear friends at Focus on the Family didn't have the video at the time of the review, let's start there. The video (see below) is truly an avant-garde statement complete with an introduction, elaborate costumes, and Cabaret-styled dance sequence. The Body Shop scenes--a dinner-theater styled sex club--aren't too graphic to be censored on YouTube, but the viewers certainly get the idea about what is happening at this club, which is MC'ed by Smith. Famed Italian-Canadian music video and film director Floria Sigismondi directed "Unholy." She has directed videos for Marylin Manson, The White Stripes, and Katy Perry and other artists as well as directing episodes of The Handmaiden's Tale and American Gods. 

DIRTY, DIRTY BOY. The experience for the viewer entering "The Body Shop" is not  unlike watching two newlyweds whose car has broken down in front of a Victorian mansion in the 1973 cult classic musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tim Curry as the "Sweet Transvestite from Transexual, Transylvania" beckons Brad and Janet:"give yourself over to absolute pleasure." While The Rocky Horror Picture Show  is still shocking today to the Focus on the Family types and even caused my parents to mutter about Tim Curry when my sisters and I watched Muppet Treasure Island and later Clue. But even some conservative types can see the artistic merit of doing the "Time Warp." Fast forward to 2022, we can ask the question about the artistic merit of "Unholy" and whether or not it meets its goals to promote a conversation. I can think of several merits, though I'm not sure that these are the intentional statements. Both statements have to deal with sexuality and sexual/gender identity. In some ways, the video is styled like a sexy hip hop video--singer Kim Petras acting as featured singer. Smith is not rapping, but the lines feel like rapping. The video subverts the homo- and transphobia in hip-hop's past. The video features dancers who are trans, non-binary, and sis-gendered, showing the spectrum that gender can display. And that's the first point I think the video is making: that gender fluidity is shocking to many these days, but it's ultimately something we have to come to understand. Drag and alternative gender expressions were once kept in very specific spaces--"The Body Shop," for example, where people go to have a good time whether or not they are hiding their true identity from the world or even spouses. Now alternative gender expressions are hitting mainstream culture--from Timothée Chalamet wearing a red dress to the film premiere of Bones and All to Harry Styles wearing a blouse. The second point: why call gender fluidity, homosexuality "unholy" when "daddy" abandons his wife and kids in order to frequent the prostitutes. This may seem like a weak point but think about how historically true this is. The more conservative the preacher or politician, the more shocking the cottaging with an undercover policeman in a dimly lit rest area bathroom. I think the idea is that a culture built on repression, restricting desire and expression creates a more shocking reveal than if people were allowed to express themselves as they pleased all along.

lyric video:

music video: 

Read “Unholy” by Sam Smith & Kim Petras on Genius