After having received a fair amount of backlash from their Grammy performance, Sam Smith and Kim Petras delivered another performance of their smash collaboration, “Unholy.”
Videos by American Songwriter
The duo stunned Saturday night’s (Feb. 11) BRIT Awards with “Unholy” round two, showcasing the provocative tune against a backdrop of darkly-tinged, yet delightful, grime.
[RELATED: Sam Smith Gets Accused of Performing a Satanic Ritual at the Grammys]
In a Mad Max style, the stage was littered with motorcycles and car parts. Black-clad, grease-stained backup dancers-turned-mechanics contorted their forms to the beat-heavy bop. The performance was a tad toned down from their display on the Grammy stage on Sunday (Feb. 5), but it was still jaw-dropping all the same.
Below, check out their performance at the BRIT Awards where their duet was nominated for Song of the Year. (Harry Styles ended up winning the award for “As It Was.”)
With ghoulish dancers, a show master crowned in horns, a cage enclosed in flames, and everything washed in a hellish red glow, the duo’s devilish display at the Grammys exploded into plenty of controversy. Smith and Petras have since been accused of worshiping the devil with their onstage antics that night.
Senator Ted Cruz retweeted several tweets that called out the performance for being satanic. “This…is…evil,” he added when retweeting conservative commentator Liz Wheeler. Her own post read, “Don’t fight the culture wars, they say. Meanwhile, demons are teaching your kids to worship Satan. I could throw up.”
“It’s not surprising to see a satanic ritual at the Grammy’s,” a post from blogger Matt Walsh read. “Satanism is the worship of the self. Much of modern pop music is satanic in this sense. Leftism is satanism. The only change is that now they’re being more explicit about it.”
However “unholy” the pair were accused of being, Smith and Petras took home the Grammy for Best Pop Duo-Group Performance that night, making Petras the first transgender woman to win such an award.
Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage
