Music / Kim Petras

Woo-ah!

Even if it means that I'll never
Put myself back together
Gonna give you my heart to break
Even if I'll end up in shatters
Baby, it doesn't matter
Gonna give you my heart to break
I tried to fight, but I can't help it
Don't care if this is my worst mistake
'Cause no one else could do it better
And that's why I give you my heart to break

— "Heart To Break"

Kim Petras (born 27 August 1992) is a German Pop singer, songwriter and model. She specializes in English-language Electronic Dance Music and Hyperpop.

Petras is a transgender woman, and prior to pursuing a career in music, she received media attention for transitioning at a young age at a time when it was quite uncommon for transgender people to do so publicly.

She started her career as a teenager by uploading her music online, and in 2011 she released her debut EP One Piece of Tape.

She would only hit it big in 2017, when she released her first independent single "I Don't Want It at All", which went on to top several viral music charts on Spotify and kickstarted her career as a pop artist. She subsequently signed with Republic Records in 2021, scoring her mainstream breakthrough in 2022 with the Sam Smith collaboration "Unholy", which topped charts across the world, including in the US and UK (although not in her homeland Germany), and won her the award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance at the 2023 Grammys, which made her the first out trans person to win a Grammy.^note Wendy Carlos won three classical Grammys in 1970 for Switched-On Bach, but wasn't out as trans at the time.

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Discography:

Albums and EPs

• One Piece of Tape (EP) (2011)
• Clarity (2019)
• Turn Off the Light (2019)
  • Turn Off the Light, Vol. 1 (EP) (2018)
• Slut Pop (EP) (2022)
• The Summer I Couldn't Do Better (compilation album) (2022)
• Feed the Beast (2023)
• Problématique (2023)

Singles

• "Fade Away" (2008)
• "Die For You" (2009)
• "Last Forever ‎" (2009)
• '"Boomerang" (2009)
• "One Piece of Tape" (2011)
• "Faded" (featuring Lil Aaron) (2017)
• "Slow It Down" (2017)
• "Hillside Boys" (2017)
• "I Don't Want It At All" (2017)
• "Hills" (featuring Baby E) (2017)
• "All The Time" (2018)
• "Can't Do Better" (2018)
• "Heart To Break" (2018)
• "All I Do Is Cry" (2019)
• "Homework" (Featuring Lil Aaron) (2019)
• "1,2,3 Dayz Up" (Featuring SOPHIE) (2019)
• "Sweet Spot" (2019)
• "Do Me" (2019)
• "Blow It All" (2019)
• "If U Think About Me..." (2019)
• "Broken" (2019)
• "Got My Number" (2019)
• "Another One" (2019)
• "Clarity" (2019)
• "Personal Hell" (2019)
• "Reminds Me" (2020)
• "Malibu" (2020)
• "Future Starts Now" (2021)
• "Coconuts" (2021)
• "Running Up That Hill" (2022)
• "Unholy" (with Sam Smith) (2022)
• "If Jesus Was A Rockstar" (2022)
• "brr" (2023)
• "Alone" (featuring Nicki Minaj) (2023)
• "King of Hearts" (2023)

As a Featured Artist

• "Taste" (With Sobertruth) (2009)
• "Magnetic" (Kee Mo) (2011)
• "Flight to Paris" (With Klaas) (2013)
• "Heartbeat" (With Klaas) (2013)
• "You" (With Isaac Phase) (2015)
• "Unlock It" (With Charli XCX) (2017)
• "ANYMORE" (With Lil Aaron/) (2018)
• "Feeling Of Falling" (With Cheat Codes) (2018)
• "Love Me Less‎" (With MAX) (2019)
• "Click" (With Charli XCX) (2019)
• "How It's Done" (With Kash Doll, Alma, and Stefflon Don)'' (Single) (2019)
• "Broken Glass" (With Kygo) (2020)
• "Villain" (With K/D and Madison Beer) (2020)
• "Jenny (Remix)" (With Studio Killers) (2021)
• "SugarCrash! (Remix)" (With Ely Otto) (2021)
• "Made You Look (Remix)" (With Meghan Trainor) (2023)
• "Stars Are Blind" (with Paris Hilton) (2023)
• "When We Were Young" (with David Guetta) (2023)

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Tropes

• Bait-and-Switch Comment: In the chorus to "Personal Hell":
  Touch me, only your hands make me come...
  ...Alive!
• Bathtub Scene: The music video for "Icy" has a gratuitous segment where she's in a bathtub covered with ice. The camera mostly focuses on her from the shoulders up, with a few Toplessness from the Back or Hand-or-Object Underwear shots.
• Big-Breast Pride: "Coconuts" is an entire song about how much she loves having big breasts.
• Big Entrance: At the music video for "I Don't Want It at All" has Paris Hilton doing a big dramatic entrance into Kim's room, complete with dramatic smoke and slow-mo.
• Bilingual Bonus: It's easy to forget Kim's originally from Germany thanks to her flawless American accent, but she has released "Ein Tausend Teile", the German version of "Thousand Pieces". Some of her early interviews on German TV can also be found on YouTube.
• Bland-Name Product: In the music video for "I Don't Want It At All" Kim is seen carrying shopping bags with logos that are plays on designer brands, such as "Dada" (Prada).
• Break-Up Song: "Icy", "Broken" and "All I Do Is Cry" are all inspired by a break-up she went through where she was cheated on.
• Child Popstar: She started recording music in her late teens.
• Costume Porn: The I Don't Want It At All video features some gorgeous outfits.
• Cover Version: Released a cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" in June 2022, coincidentally right around the time that Stranger Things caused a massive surge of interest in the original.
• Destructive Romance:
  • "Heart to Break" is about her giving her heart to someone whom she knows will probably lead her to ruin.
  Even if it means that I'll never put myself back together
  Gonna give you my heart to break
  Even if I'll end up in shatters, baby it doesn't matter
  Gonna give you my heart to break
  I tried to fight, but I can't help it
  Don't care if this is my worst mistake
  'Cause no one else could do it better
  That's why I give you my heart to break
  • In "King Of Hearts", she issues a warning to a playboy who broke her heart.
  Oh, you're gonna get what you deserve
  Don't wanna hear another word
  I'll never be the only girl
• Drugs Are Good:
  • Pretty much the premise of the song Hills.
  Popping pills in love
  Spending days in a haze and it feels so good
  • Kim's also admitted to enjoying a bit of the old "devil's lettuce", hence the bong water bubbling sound effect at the start of "Hillside Boys".
• Even the Girls Want Her: She features on a remix of Studio Killers' "Jenny", meaning the eponymous Jenny now has two women fighting over her.
• Halloween Songs: Turn Off the Light, Vol. 1 is a Halloween-themed EP that even includes a brief narration from Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Petras followed up with it a year later by turning it into a full album.
• Hotter and Sexier: Exaggerated with Slut Pop, which features by far the most sexually explicit songs in her catalog.
• Identical Stranger: In the late 2010s she was often compared to the YouTuber Poppy.
• Intercourse with You: "Slow It Down", "Personal Hell", and most of the songs on Slut Pop.
• "I Want" Song: "I Don't Want It at All" and "All She Wants".
• Literally Shattered Lives: In the "Heart To Break" music video, one moment has Kim turning into glass and them exploding into dust, as a literal metaphor for "breaking".
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Slut Pop is an entire EP dedicated to her more overtly sexual side, crossing this trope with Ethical Slut, Good Bad Girl, and All Women Are Lustful all at the same time.
• Lyrical Tic: Woo-ah!
• The Masochism Tango: "Heart To Break" is about knowingly entering into a relationship you know won't last with a smile, because the experience of love in between is still worth the inevitable heartbreak.
• Meet the In-Laws: "Meet the Parents" is about a woman who is reluctant for her partner to meet each other's parents, as she doesn't want a serious relationship.
• Money Song: "Blow It All".
  Feel like I made it, waited all my life
  Came from the bottom now my money right
  Can't take it with you, blow it all tonight
  
• Ms. Fanservice: Many of her videos and photoshoots feature her in sexy revealing outfits. She has also appeared in Playboy magazine and wears a skimpy bikini in the promo video for Slut Pop Miami.
• Ms. Red Ink: "I Don't Want It at All" is about a girl who's constantly driving men bankrupt with her constant need for spending.
• Out with a Bang: "Death by Sex" is about a woman warning her lover that she's so good at sex that she will end up killing him by sheer exhaustion, with the implication she may be some kind of succubus.
• Promoted Fangirl: Kim's been a fan of Paris Hilton for a long time and was astounded when Paris agreed to appear in the "I Don't Want It At All" video, despite Kim being an almost unknown artist without a label at the time. They are now good friends, with Paris even featuring on "All She Wants".
• Sampling:
  • "Alone" is built on the riff from "Better Off Alone" by Alice Deejay.
  • "105" interpolates its chorus melody from "99 Luftballons" by Nena.
• Sexophone: Slow It Down features a sexy saxophone riff.
• Singer Namedrop: The outro to "All She Wants" features name drops from Kim herself and Paris Hilton, the featured artist.
• Singer-Songwriter: She both sings and writes many of her songs.
• Stalker Shrine: The music video for "I Don't Want It at All" starts with Kim kneeling in front of her Paris Hilton shrine, filled with scented candles and pictures of Hilton.
• Teens Love Shopping: "I Don't Want It at All" is about a vain teenager who constantly wants to shop and is unashamed of it.
• Three Minutes of Writhing: The "Icy" music video consists mostly of her writhing with plenty of Male Gaze shots while wearing various skimpy outfits, including only a red fur coat.
• Valley Girl: "I Don't Want It at All" revolves around a bratty girl who constantly wants to get her way or "not at all".
• Vocal Evolution: Go back and listen to some of Kim's early songs. While she was never a bad singer, it's clear she's worked incredibly hard on her singing technique since.
• A Wild Rapper Appears!: Lil Aaron and Baby E feature on "Homework" and "Hills" respectively.

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