It wasn’t that long ago that Kim Petras was spending some quality time in Chicago. During the holiday season last year, the German-born pop star was taking in the familiar sights of the Christkindlmarket at Daley Plaza while holing up on the North Side with her friend, local musician Alex Chapman, as she tried to mend a broken heart.
“I went through a traumatic breakup last year and he and his family took me in when I needed it,” Petras recalls, nodding at how far she’s come. While a breakup brought her to Chicago then, a breakthrough year brings her back now as Petras stops at Aragon Oct. 18 on her Feed The Beast World Tour after a series of incredible moments that have made her heart full again.
In February, Petras made headlines as the first openly transgender solo artist to win the Grammy for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance alongside her collaborator Sam Smith for their raunchy escapade “Unholy.” Petras, dressed in a red dress and veil, gave the acceptance speech, thanking “all the transgender legends before me who kicked these doors open for me so that I could be here tonight” including her friend, the late artist Sophie.
“I had a couple speeches I wrote, but then 10 minutes before, I just like threw it out and was like, ‘I’m going to be in the moment and do what I feel right now,’ ” Petras shared in a recent phone interview, adding she didn’t think the moment would happen. “It was so rewarding because I’ve been doing this for a long time. … I am just so grateful.”
In the months since, “Unholy” has become a cultural turning point. It has since logged a billion streams, topped the Billboard, Apple and Spotify charts and led to some of the biggest tours of the year for both Petras and Smith … even as the FCC logged complaints for the duo’s salacious performance of the song on Grammy night. “Like Madonna said introducing us [that night], a lot of times when things are deemed problematic or wrong it means the artist is on to something,” Petras quipped.
In May she graced the cover of the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated and appeared at the Met Gala as a guest of Marc Jacobs. Petras was also named the designee of the Chartbreaker Award during Billboard’s Women in Music night and released not one but two albums: her long-overdue major label debut “Feed The Beast” in June and a surprise drop of the once-maligned record “Problématique” in September (originally shelved after being leaked in 2022).
It’s been a whirlwind of developments for the 31-year-old pop star who has been steadfastly working at her career even before she made the move to Los Angeles at 19 and cut her teeth writing songs for the likes of Fergie and Charli XCX before amassing her own following on the club circuit. Petras nods to that time in her life on new single “Alone” (featuring one of her idols, Nicki Minaj) that samples the late ’90s dance hit “Better Off Alone,” from Dutch music project Alice Deejay.
“Europop to me is what I grew up on, that’s my jam,” said Petras. Though she says she also gravitated towards American pop artists like Britney Spears growing up, which helped her learn English.
“I think movies and pop stars made me believe that out there was a life where you can be kind of be however you want to be. It gave me hope and I think that’s why I made it my goal to move to L.A. and worked really hard at being a songwriter my whole life. I found acceptance here.”
Petras grew up in a very small town in “nowhere Germany” (as she said in her Grammy speech), where she first came into the spotlight as one of the youngest persons ever to undergo gender transition, completing her surgery at the age of 16. She feels for younger trans kids who today are dealing with “very scary times” as more and more anti-LGBTQ legislation is introduced that targets children.
“It’s difficult because I dealt with all of that so young, starting at 5 years old when I was dealing with my gender identity,” Petras shared. “I’ve been very open about it my whole life, and so music for me is this thing where that kind of doesn’t matter and lets me forget about that part of society and that part of oppression. … I think my purpose as an artist is to let you escape your problems when I’m on stage. That’s always been my kind of M.O. because the beginning of my life was so sad and complicated and scary, and with my music I feel like I get to escape too.”
Providing that sense of escapism and also celebration went into the planning stages for her Feed the Beast World Tour. Hailed as her most ambitious production to date, the five-part concert extravaganza is “a personal manifesto of who I am as a performer,” Petras said. It takes cues from Dante’s “Inferno” and features horror-fueled sections that pay homage to her earlier releases like the 2019 Halloween mixtape “Turn Off The Light” as well as wild and free moments that explore all facets of her 2022 sex-positive EP, “Slut Pop.”
“You get these different sides of me that I love embracing,” said Petras, previewing the show. “I’ve never done something quite like this.”
