LGBTQ
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Lucky, lucky girl! Kim Petras took to social media on Monday (Oct. 24) to celebrate her hit single “Unholy” with Sam Smith reaching the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
“NUMBER ONEEEE HOT 100! I’m so grateful,” the singer wrote before giving her collaborator a shout-out. “Sam I can’t thank you enough for riding with me for years at this point. I’m so honored to be a part of your first number one in the US which you should have 500 of at this point. I love you forever angel Sam.”
With the TikTok-fueled song’s gradual ascent through the chart’s top three spots over the course of just as many weeks, Petras and Smith become, respectively, the first openly trans and nonbinary artist in the history of the Hot 100 to have a No. 1 hit. “Unholy” also continues its four-week reign atop both of Billboard‘s Global tallies on the charts dated Oct. 29.
In an exclusive chat with Billboard when the song hit No. 2, Petras reflected on her status as a trans trailblazer in the music industry, saying, “I think I grew up in a more difficult time than now — 10 years ago, I could not have imagined how accepted my presence would be. … As long as the music is good and you’re really freaking good at what you do, you can make it. I’ve built this fanbase over the last five years, which is all kids that are like me; it’s my job to stand up for my community and my fans who have been there since the beginning.”
While “Unholy” marks the singer’s first entry on the Hot 100 after half a decade of releasing fan-favorite tracks like “I Don’t Want It at All,” “Can’t Do Better” and “Coconuts,” she’s currently gearing up for the release of her next solo single “If Jesus Was a Rockstar.”
Read Petras’ sweet post about achieving her first No. 1 below.
The Aldean family conflict with Maren Morris reached a new peak at Jason Aldean‘s concert Friday night (Oct. 14). While teasing the identity of his show’s surprise guest — who turned out to be Morgan Wallen — the “You Make It Easy” singer name-dropped Morris and paused as his Bridgestone Arena crowd in Nashville loudly booed.
“I thought, man, who could I call?” Aldean told his audience in fan-captured video, drawing out the suspense of his surprise guest. “I got some friends in town. I could call Luke Bryan. I could call Kane Brown. See if Kenny Chesney’s here and not at the beach.”
Then, he simply said the name of “The Middle” singer, before trailing off as his audience audibly jeered.
This follows an August social media disagreement between Morris and Aldean’s wife, Brittany Aldean. After Brittany made a transphobic joke on Instagram (“I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase. I love this girly life,” she’d captioned a makeup video). She followed it up with an Instagram Stories statement in which she doubled down on her stance. “Advocating for the genital mutilation of children under the disguise of love and calling it ‘gender affirming care’ is one of the worst evils,” she posted. “I will always support my children and do what I can to protect their innocence.”
In a response to Cassadee Pope, who had tweeted her opposition to Brittany’s comments, Morris agreed with the singer and former Voice contestant. “It’s so easy to, like, not be a scumbag human?” replied the “Make You Say” singer. “Sell your clip-ins and zip it, Insurrection Barbie.”
In September, Morris opened up about why she feels so strongly about speaking out when it comes to social justice issues, even when her fellow country artists and fans of the genre oftentimes disagree with her — and do things like, say, boo the mention of her name at a concert.
“I try to rise above — not even bad behavior, but just expected behavior that has become normalized that is bad,” she told Apple Music Country’s Proud Radio with Hunter Kelly. “[My husband’s] like, ‘I hate that you always feel like you have to be the hall monitor of modern country music’s behaviors in and around race and homophobia, transphobia.’”
“I don’t need to feel like I have to always be that person that speaks up,” she continued. “I think I come across a lot louder than I actually am because everyone else is so quiet.”
Watch a fan video of Morris’ name getting booed at a Jason Aldean concert below: