If Zohran Mamdani is a Bunhead, then Kim Petras can be an animal rights activist. That's how pop music and politics work in 2025, after all.
It didn't take long for Petras to catch wind that Mamdani had mentioned her name in a new Interview feature, going as far as noting one of his favorite tracks for the singer — "I Like Ur Look" — which is a pretty recent release for the Grammy-winning musician. (For context, BunHead is the name of a label that Petras created for herself to release music independently. The name/term was then assigned to Petras's fans, similarly to how Lady Gaga has Little Monsters.)
As a way to lean into the name-dropping but also advocate for a cause that she cares deeply about (at a time when the mayor of New York City is quite literally listening to her in his ears, by his own account), Petras took this opportunity to ask the new NYC mayor to ban horse carriages from Central Park, thus freeing the horses that have been chained to those carriages for as long as they've lived, as reported by Rolling Stone.
Petras shared a screenshot of the Interview conversation on X and wrote in the caption of the post: "Zohran Mamdani I am willing to privately send you my new album if we can get the horse carriages banned from Central Park."
The presence of horse-drawn carriages in Central Park has been a hot topic in New York City for a while now, prompting several celebrities, influencers, local residents, and animal rights organizations to urge for the horses to be freed. Toward the end of his mayoral tenure, Eric Adams seemed to join the movement in favor of banning the Central Park horse carriages.
In a speech, Mamdani acknowledged that concern as a "significant issue" as well. Given that he's soon taking over the role of NYC mayor — whereas Adams is on his way out — all eyes have turned to Mamdani to see how he will navigate the issue once he's in office.
The screenshot in Petras's X post is a tiny part of a much larger conversation between Mel Ottenberg and Mamdani, which was published by Interview magazine on Monday — just a couple of days before he's sworn in as the new mayor of New York City. "We met at the transition office," Ottenberg described their surroundings, "which looks like a cross between Being John Malkovich and Severance but REAL (we loved the location vibe)."
In case you haven't read the interactions between Ottenberg and Mamdani for Interview, Ottenberg asked Mamdani if he had a playlist that helps him "get hyped."
Mamdani replied, "Oh, man. I have a few songs. My wife prefers calmer music in the morning. I, for some reason, want to listen to Kim Petras or Lil Wayne or Madonna."
"Beautiful," Ottenberg replied.
Mamdani added, "At eight in the morning, it doesn't make much sense."
"I love that," Ottenberg remarked. "Kim Petras was in our last issue."
In response, Mamdani declared that "I Like Ur Look" (spelled "Like Your Look" in the published piece) is a "great song."
Now that Mamdani is stepping into the role of NYC mayor, we hope that he's able to hear how upsetting this saga has been for animal lovers who are watching those horses being mistreated for as long as they've been there.
