If you know pop artist Sam Smith, then you know most of his songs are sad piano ballads about his former male lovers. But not this time. His new single, “unholy” (with German singer Kim Petras) is a radical departure.
With this single, Smith offers his audience a new level of sexual deviance–featuring a track with Arabic undertones that focuses on a husband and his unrepentant promiscuity against his wife.
None.
Smith opens the track with a choir that sings about a husband who visits frequently with prostitutes: “Mummy don’t know Daddy’s getting hot/At the body shop/Doing something unholy.”
Apparently, this wife has no clue about her husband’s brazen infidelity (“She’d kick you out if she ever knew/bout all the s*** you tell me that you do/And how you don’t know how to keep your business clean”).
And it appears this isn’t a one-time thing. This prostitute and man have an agreement where drugs (“drop the addy”) and expensive items (“Give me love, give me Fendi, my Balenciaga daddy”) are payment for sexual services (“And when you need it, baby, just jump under the covers”).
This is a lifestyle that this man aggressively pursues, even leaving his children at home to gratify his lustful desires (“Oh, he left his kids at home/So he can get that”).
Throughout the song, the s-word is bleeped out and drugs are referenced.
I’ve listened to a lot of music, but this feels next-level vile. The music video for this track has yet to be released, thankfully, but if it is, I fear it may be more graphic than the X-rated song itself. (However, that might be hard to swing on YouTube.)
In an interview with Capital FM, Smith says of “unholy” that the original version was far nastier, including a handful of unbleeped profanities, and that he actually toned down his lyrics to make them “presentable” for his audience.
Frankly, that’s a bit terrifying. But I suppose that’s the point. It seems Smith was aiming at the shock factor here. This song not only feels slimy with its sensual undertones, but the lyrics are pornographic.
This isn’t one of those tracks you can play on the radio and sift through inappropriate content. This is one of those songs that makes your skin crawl as you listen to the celebratory tone used to praise a man for lying to his wife, ignoring his children and visiting a prostitute whenever he so pleases.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
