Kim Petras has no f***s left to give.
Three years after her historic Grammy-winning collab with Sam Smith on "Unholy," the German singer is reflecting on her new self-released album, leaving the industry in the dust, and regrets about being so public about her transition before she turned 13.
She confessed to having no marketing budget, being dependent on sponsors and "partnering with people" to make her new album Detour.
"If you work with the wrong people who donāt care about the artist and the artistry first, it becomes about money," Petras told The Fader. "You become a product and you become a joke in many ways. Thatās what it felt like to me."
Whether it was touring for "Unholy" or dealing with corporate assholes, Petras said "it all felt pointless." She also recalled being repulsed when one label executive told her: "Youāre our first trans artist."
"That felt icky. It just didnāt feel good, being paraded. I want to be an artist. It just means not doing things that donāt fulfill me, like I just played Berghain and that was amazing."
In her new interview with The Fader, Petras explained how her new song "Brutalist" marks her first time addressing her transgender identity.
"Itās the story of my dad and I driving around in Germany to get my hormone therapy when I was a kid," Petras said. "Now that Iām in America, thereās so much shame around sex, sexual education is such a taboo, and itās such a weird climate right now, especially about trans kids in particular. Theyāre the enemy right now... in this political climate. Iām happy I can stand for trans kids who can transition and then be a grown up. I made the right choices that Iām proud of to this day."
Petras is also clapping back at haters who say she transitioned at too young of an age and 'ruined' the course of her life.
"I have people saying I ruined my body and I ruined my life. They donāt know me at all. They donāt know my history, that I went to so many psychologists and so many doctors and that it was a real thing that had an assessment. It saved my life and then thereās people who are like, 'This saved your life, but you ruined everything.'"
Detour is available now on all platforms.






