The first transgender singer to reach number one in the United States, German-born Kim Petras went through long rites of passage in her home country before finding her voice abroad.
When Kim Petras teamed up with English singer Sam Smith for "Unholy," a song about male infidelity and the betrayal of the ideal of marriage, she may not have expected to make history.
But then, in October, Petras and Smith became the first publicly transgender and non-binary solo artists, respectively, to have their single top the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
While Smith's single "Stay With Me" was a No. 2 hit in 2014 and the singer topped the UK charts eight times, this was new territory for Cologne-born Petras.
She's written songs for American rapper Fergie and R&B singer Rihanna, earned comparisons to Lady Gaga and a viral Spotify hit with 2017's "I Don't Want It At All" (clip with Paris Hilton cameo). not yet reached the peak of pop.
Now his collaboration with Sam Smith, who sings a "dirty dirty boy", has catapulted trans music to the next level.
However, it has been a long road to get there.
A story of self-empowerment
Born in Cologne in 1992 and raised in the nearby town of Hennef, Kim Petras was already struggling with her identity at the age of two.
"I always felt like a child. I hated my body when I was five," she told Die Zeit newspaper. "I couldn't identify with the genre, I wanted it to go away." He ran through his room with a pair of scissors, wanting to "cut it off", he said.
The boy suffered from being trapped in the wrong body. "I was lucky to have parents who really understood me," she said. But others showed much less understanding.
“There were weird doctors, she remembers, they said to me: you're crazy.
Bullying in the playground
Some classmates also bullied her in the playground. At the age of 10, he began to consult psychologists.
Two years later, she changed her first name to Kim. Sometimes I went to school in latex clothes. "I wanted to at least be dressed if someone threw their school lunch at me," she recalled.
After experts confirmed to Petras' parents that their son was transgender, they understood his panic as puberty approached.
"That's when we recognized his fear, his fear of growing a beard and his changed voice," father Lutz said in a 2007 interview of his son, who at the time was undergoing treatment. hormonal.
At the age of 16, Petras publicly announced that she was undergoing gender affirmation surgery. She made headlines for being one of the youngest transgender people in the world to transition.
By then, Petras had already started putting his own pop songs on the Internet.
At the age of 19, the budding pop star moved to Los Angeles. The first months were difficult.
"I flew to Los Angeles, where I met one or maybe two people on the internet," he told DW in 2018. "I was sleeping on couches in studio apartments, I I had little money and few contacts."
You didn't find me. I discovered myself Petras gained popularity through posting tracks online and on club shows. She remained an independent artist because the major labels "just wanted to talk about my gender," she told Glamor magazine. "People said I would hide it or use it, and I didn't want to either."
He has released two solo albums and has worked with musicians such as Dr. Luke, Charli XCX, Kygo, Paris Hilton and of course Sam Smith.
And Kim Petras continued to do it alone. "I didn't get spotted. I discovered myself," she told Interview magazine last year.
The resounding success of "Unholy" may surprise an artist who has never made the Top 40, but she is fulfilling a long cherished dream of seeing a trans person at the top of the American charts, even if she had never had the intend to have it. been the case would be possible.
Does his song care that he's transgender? "No," he said at the time. "It's more about human things: love, pain, how I imagine my life."
But she will always be part of the LGBTQ community and committed to it. "Of course, being transgender makes me special," she says, "but I want to be known as a good performer."
Read Also : How to improve your coding skills using ChatGPT?
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The first transgender singer to reach number one in the United States, German-born Kim Petras went through long rites of passage in her home country before finding her voice abroad.
When Kim Petras teamed up with English singer Sam Smith for "Unholy," a song about male infidelity and the betrayal of the ideal of marriage, she may not have expected to make history.
But then, in October, Petras and Smith became the first publicly transgender and non-binary solo artists, respectively, to have their single top the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
While Smith's single "Stay With Me" was a No. 2 hit in 2014 and the singer topped the UK charts eight times, this was new territory for Cologne-born Petras.
She's written songs for American rapper Fergie and R&B singer Rihanna, earned comparisons to Lady Gaga and a viral Spotify hit with 2017's "I Don't Want It At All" (clip with Paris Hilton cameo). not yet reached the peak of pop.
Now his collaboration with Sam Smith, who sings a "dirty dirty boy", has catapulted trans music to the next level.
However, it has been a long road to get there.
A story of self-empowerment
Born in Cologne in 1992 and raised in the nearby town of Hennef, Kim Petras was already struggling with her identity at the age of two.
"I always felt like a child. I hated my body when I was five," she told Die Zeit newspaper. "I couldn't identify with the genre, I wanted it to go away." He ran through his room with a pair of scissors, wanting to "cut it off", he said.
The boy suffered from being trapped in the wrong body. "I was lucky to have parents who really understood me," she said. But others showed much less understanding.
“There were weird doctors, she remembers, they said to me: you're crazy.
Bullying in the playground
Some classmates also bullied her in the playground. At the age of 10, he began to consult psychologists.
Read Also : How to improve your coding skills using ChatGPT?Two years later, she changed her first name to Kim. Sometimes I went to school in latex clothes. "I wanted to at least be dressed if someone threw their school lunch at me," she recalled.
After experts confirmed to Petras' parents that their son was transgender, they understood his panic as puberty approached.
"That's when we recognized his fear, his fear of growing a beard and his changed voice," father Lutz said in a 2007 interview of his son, who at the time was undergoing treatment. hormonal.
At the age of 16, Petras publicly announced that she was undergoing gender affirmation surgery. She made headlines for being one of the youngest transgender people in the world to transition.
By then, Petras had already started putting his own pop songs on the Internet.
At the age of 19, the budding pop star moved to Los Angeles. The first months were difficult.
"I flew to Los Angeles, where I met one or maybe two people on the internet," he told DW in 2018. "I was sleeping on couches in studio apartments, I I had little money and few contacts."
You didn't find me. I discovered myself Petras gained popularity through posting tracks online and on club shows. She remained an independent artist because the major labels "just wanted to talk about my gender," she told Glamor magazine. "People said I would hide it or use it, and I didn't want to either."
He has released two solo albums and has worked with musicians such as Dr. Luke, Charli XCX, Kygo, Paris Hilton and of course Sam Smith.
And Kim Petras continued to do it alone. "I didn't get spotted. I discovered myself," she told Interview magazine last year.
The resounding success of "Unholy" may surprise an artist who has never made the Top 40, but she is fulfilling a long cherished dream of seeing a trans person at the top of the American charts, even if she had never had the intend to have it. been the case would be possible.
Does his song care that he's transgender? "No," he said at the time. "It's more about human things: love, pain, how I imagine my life."
But she will always be part of the LGBTQ community and committed to it. "Of course, being transgender makes me special," she says, "but I want to be known as a good performer."