Kim Petras, A Transgender Woman, Wins Grammy for Best Pop Duo ...

6 Feb 2023

Music|Kim Petras, a Transgender Woman, Won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo Performance.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/05/arts/music/kim-petras-grammys-best-pop-duo.html

The German pop singer, who accepted the award with Sam Smith for “Unholy,” announced that she was the first transgender woman to win a Grammy in the best pop duo and group performance category.

Kim Petras at the microphone happily accepting a Grammy while Sam Smith stands smiling behind her. She is wearing a red dress with a red veil and red gloves. Smith is wearing a red button down shirt and a black and silver chocker.
Kim Petras and Sam Smith accepting the award for best pop duo and group performance for their song “Unholy.”Credit...Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Published Feb. 5, 2023Updated Feb. 6, 2023, 12:57 a.m. ET

Accepting an award with Sam Smith for “Unholy,” the German pop singer Kim Petras announced that she was the first transgender woman to win a Grammy in the best pop duo and group performance category.

“Unholy,” featured on Smith’s album “Gloria,” became the British musician’s first No. 1 hit in the United States and captured listeners with “a campy, devilish romp,” as the New York Times critic Lindsay Zoladz put it. Smith stood back and let Petras do the talking, as she thanked Madonna for her fight for L.G.B.T.Q. rights, “the incredible transgender legends before me” and her mother.

“My mother — I grew up next to a highway in nowhere, Germany, and my mother believed me that I was a girl, and I wouldn’t be here without her and her support,” Petras said.

Petras also thanked Sophie, a transgender Scottish producer who died in 2021 at age 34. Sophie received a Grammy nomination in 2018 for “Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides” in the best dance electronic/album category.

“Sophie, especially, my friend who passed away two years ago, who told me this would happen and always believed in me,” Petras said. “Thank you so much for your inspiration, Sophie. I adore you and your inspiration will forever be in my music.”

Other nominees included “Don’t Shut Me Down,” by Abba; “Bam Bam,” by Camila Cabello featuring Ed Sheeran; “My Universe,” by Coldplay and BTS; and “I Like You (A Happier Song)” by Post Malone and Doja Cat.

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