Sam Smith and Kim Petras Perform Their Smash ‘Unholy’ at the 2023 Grammys

Sam Smith and Kim Petras followed up their historic Grammys win on Sunday with an epic performance of their hit single, “Unholy.”

Smith started the number in red leather, flanked by a troupe of dancers who looked like Samara, the ghostly antagonist from “The Ring.” As for Petras, she danced in an S&M-style cage as fire rose from the stage behind her.

At one point, Smith leaned into the hellish vibe of the performance by donning a top hat accented with devil horns.

Smith and Petras were appropriately introduced by Madonna, whose appearance had been kept mostly under wraps until then. Accustomed to stirring up controversy by mixing sacred and sexually explicit imagery, the Queen of Pop described the duo as “two insanely talented artists” who “were forging a new path and taking the heat for it all”.

“You must know, all you troublemakers, you must know that your fearlessness does not go unnoticed”, Madonna said. “You are seen, you are heard and, above all, you appreciate.”

Earlier in the night, Petras thanked Madonna in her acceptance speech after she and Smith won the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group. Smith, a four-time Grammy winner, became the first non-binary artist to win the award, while first-time Grammy nominee Petras became the first openly transgender woman to do so.

“Unholy” appears on “Gloria,” Smith’s final album and the start of their self-proclaimed “villain era.” The single reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which ranks the 100 most popular songs in the United States, in October last year.

Both the song and the album made Smith, who released non-binary in 2019, the target of heavy criticism and body-shaming.

Speaking to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Smith revealed they had to fend off record executives who objected to their new sound and fashion choices ahead of the release of “Gloria” last month.

“I also had people telling me that what I did, the way I lived my life, affected my record sales and that I was trash,” they explained. “It’s homophobia and transphobia that are structural and it’s in people. Even people who are very loving and liberal and who love me, they say things that they don’t realize [are] harmful.”