Fans Choose Sam Smith’s ‘Unholy’ Featuring Kim Petras as This Week’s Favorite New Music

The daring collaboration brought in nearly 49% of the vote.

Sam Smith & Kim Petras

Michael Bailey Gates

Sam Smith and Kim Petras‘ new collaboration “Unholy” has topped this week’s new music poll.

Music fans voted in a poll published Friday (Sept. 23) on Billboard, choosing the devilish team-up as their favorite new music release of the past week.

“Unholy,” which will be featured on Smith’s upcoming album, beat out new music by Lil Nas X (“Star Walkin’”), GloRilla featuring Cardi B (“Tomorrow 2”), Joshua Bassett (Sad Songs in a Hotel Room), Kelsea Ballerini (Subject to Change), and others.

“Unholy” is the latest single off of Smith’s forthcoming, yet-to-be-announced fourth studio album, which they told Billboard in an August cover story would be their “first non-heartbreak album,” and mark a new, more optimistic sound for them. “I think joy for me, and for a lot of queer people, is quite a dangerous place,” they said. “We’re all masters of pain, and I think it’s actually a very courageous act to step into the queer joy of it all.”

Produced by Smith, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Blake Slatkin, Cirkut, Omer Fedi and Jimmy Napes, the new song marks a significant departure for Smith, with the almost-sinister-sounding bass complemented even further by a pounding club beat. “Mummy don’t know daddy’s getting hot/ At the body shop/ Doing something unholy,” Smith belts over the bass-heavy chorus.

Trailing behind “Unholy” on the fan-voted poll was Lil Nas X’s new song “Star Walkin’,” the official anthem for the ongoing League of Legends World Championship, with 21% of the vote. Placing third was the “other” category with nearly 14% of the vote, followed by GloRilla’s “Tomorrow 2” featuring Cardi B, with 8% of the vote.

See the final results of this week’s new music release poll below.

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Subscribe