About POP!

POP! is INQUIRER.net’s premier pop culture channel, delivering the latest news in the realm of pop culture, internet culture, social issues, and everything fun, weird, and wired. It is also home to POP! Sessions and POP! Hangout,
OG online entertainment programs in the
Philippines (streaming since 2015).

As the go-to destination for all things ‘in the now’, POP! features and curates the best relevant content for its young audience. It is also a strong advocate of fairness and truth in storytelling.

POP! is operated by INQUIRER.net’s award-winning native advertising team, BrandRoom.

Contact Us

Email us at [email protected]

Address

MRP Building, Mola Corner Pasong Tirad Streets, Brgy La Paz, Makati City

Girl in a jacket

Sam Smith and Kim Petras’ hell-themed performance at the Grammys slammed for being ‘satanic’

Conservative viewers are fuming about the ‘hell-themed’ performance of Sam Smith and Kim Petras during the 65th Grammy awards ceremony.

On February 5, English singer-songwriter Sam Smith and German pop songstress Kim Petras took the stage at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles for a fiery performance of their hit song “Unholy,” complete with fire and devilish costumes.

Smith was wearing a red hat with devil horns while Petras performed together with drag superstars Gottmik and Violet Chachki who were also clothed in devil wardrobes.

Instead of earning applause for their exhilarating performance, conservative commentators slammed the music duo for their ‘satanic’ take. Liz Wheeler, a conservative podcaster, captured a video of the production and criticized the artists for promoting Satan worship.

“Don’t fight the culture wars, they say. Meanwhile demons are teaching your kids to worship Satan. I could throw up,” she tweeted.

Meanwhile, Texas Senator Ted Cruz retweeted the video and denounced the performance as ‘evil’.

“This…is…evil,” the right-wing politician wrote.

Some Twitter users agreed with Wheeler and Cruz’s sentiments. Here are the negative responses:

Following the backlash, the “Lay Me Down” singer was quickly defended by others, particularly his supporters who believe that the performance earns merit for being ‘artistic.’

Despite the issue, the pair bagged the Grammy award for ‘Best Pop Duo/Group Performance‘ category and made history for the LGBTQIA+ community. Smith became the first-ever transgender artist to win the best pop duo performance while Petras became the first trans woman to receive the iconic award.

In 2022, the musicians’ single ‘Unholy’ was released via EMI/Capitol Records and ascended to No.1 on Billboard Hot 100. The song dethroned Steve Lacy’s ‘Bad Habit’ after the latter topped the Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks.

As of now, the two singers have not responded to the backlash yet.

Other POP! stories that you might like:

Is Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy win the most polarizing this year, or are some people just oblivious as to who she is?

‘It Ends With Us’ movie adaptation to star Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni

Michelle Yeoh reveals Jackie Chan was supposed to lead Oscar-nominated film ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’

Related Stories

Popping on POP!