By Skylar Paxton
Image from People
As the crowd cheers for the introduced artists, a white light circles around the elegantly posed Sam Smith dressed in bright red attire. A group of dancers dressed in red robes slowly circle Smith as their long and haunting black hair shields their faces. When the dancers fully circle Smith, their song with Kim Petras called “Unholy” explodes with its beginning ballad and thus begins their devilishly themed and enticing performance.
The 2023 Grammys displayed a variety of performances from multiple artists who each presented unique sounds, shows and stories. One particular performance by Sam Smith and Kim Petra for their song “Unholy” caught the attention of many – especially from conservative crowds who filed several complaints to CBS and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Politician Ted Cruz and other conservative figures expressed their disdain towards the singers and how their performance was “evil” and inappropriately “demonic”.
These kinds of criticisms are not new to the music and performance world and it is especially not new for LGBTQ+ artists like Sam Smith and Kim Petras. Religious and conservative groups have always undermined and dehumanized queer people by labeling their homosexuality as a result of demonic possession. Queer artists and their artistry continue to be their evidence for outraged evil demonism.
This is an idea that Petra herself said was the inspiration for the Grammy performance. She explained to Billboard that “It’s a take on not being able to choose religion, and not being able to live the way that people might want you to live,”. Queer people are not only excluded from most religions but to be included in it, their homosexuality needs to either be figuratively or quite literally exorcized. In the music world, performances and artists that played on darker themes, such as Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne, were always theorized to be evil demonists since the rise of demonism fears in the 80s.
Pop culture made parents and conservatives outraged when seeing performances with big hair, vague satanic symbols, red clothes, and more. During this time, an organization named the Parent Music Resource Center or PMRC released a playlist called the “Filthy 15” which they deemed as offensive music.
What almost all the artists from the list, such as Prince, Madonna and Venom, had in common was their play into gender and sexuality. They had large wigs, painted on eccentric makeup, and wore clothes not conventional for their gender. That kind of individuality and expression is undeniably connected to the outrage they caused for having sexual or occult-themed music and performances.
While the baseless fears regarding demonism in pop culture have long been dismissed, bursts of criticisms for it still exist to this day and not just with queer artists like Sam Smith and Kim Petras. Lil Nas X’s music video for his song “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)” that was released alongside his “Satan Shoes” with MSCHF had politicians and religious conservatives in a frenzy. Demi Lovato’s posters that promoted their new album called Holy Fvck was banned in the UK for offending Christians.
The plight to undermine these artists and to paint their expression of queerness as demonic rituals is clearly rooted in homophobia and hatred. The outrage from political figures and government officials helps spread this message that the LGBTQ+ community is evil so they shouldn’t be respected or given a space in this world to exist freely. This kind of bigotry, however, doesn’t stop these queer artists from working their way up in the world and making a space for themselves to freely live in.
After their performance, Sam Smith and Kim Petras took home a grammy for best pop duo/group performance. This award historically marks Petras as the first transgender artist to win a major-category grammy. Moments like these, despite the backlash from others, shows that LGBTQ+ people continue to pave the way for their art, talent and voices to be heard in every space of the world.
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