Kim Petras and Sam Smith have change into the primary transgender and nonbinary winners of the Grammy Award for Finest Pop Duo/Group Efficiency, respectively. The duo took house the award for his or her hit single, “Unholy,” which in addition they carried out in the course of the awards ceremony.
“Sam graciously needed me to just accept this award as a result of I’m the primary transgender girl to to win this award,” mentioned Petras, who spoke on behalf of the duo throughout their acceptance speech, and was met with resounding applause from the viewers.
Smith is the primary nonbinary winner of the award.
“Unholy” topped the Billboard Sizzling 100 chart in late October of final yr, and spent 4 weeks on the high of the Billboard World 200 chart in 2022. It was the primary primary hit for each artists, in line with Billboard, and Smith and Petras have been the primary publicly nonbinary and transgender artsts to high the Sizzling 100.
Timothy Norris through Getty Photographs
“I wish to thank all of the unbelievable transgender legends earlier than me who kicked these doorways open for me so I may very well be right here tonight,” Petras continued, thanking her good friend Sophie, a fellow musical artist and trans girl, who handed away in 2021 after an unintentional fall.
Sophie was nominated for a Grammy in 2019 for Finest Dance/Digital Album for her first and solely studio album, “Oil of Each Pearl’s Un-Insides.”
“Thanks a lot to your inspiration, Sophie,” Petras mentioned. “I am keen on you, and your inspiration will without end be in my music.”
Petras went on to thank Madonna, with out whom “I do not assume I may very well be right here,” she mentioned.
She additionally thanked her mom, saying, “I grew up subsequent to a freeway in nowhere Germany, and my mom believed me that I used to be a woman.”
“I would not be right here with out her and her help,” she mentioned.
Petras is the second transgender girl to take house a Grammy subsequent to Wendy Carlos, a pioneer in synth and digital music. Carlos has been nominated for six Grammys, and has won three, together with for Finest Classical Album of the 12 months on the twelfth Grammy Awards. She is greatest recognized for scoring Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 cult basic, “Clockwork Orange.”
