Kim Petras has returned with her new single “If Jesus Was A Rockstar,” on which she shares her feelings about religion and the role music plays for her.
“I need someone who can teach me to get on my knees/But if he looked like Kurt Cobain, I might,” the pop star explains in the song. “If he drank the pain away, I might/And if you think I can be saved, that’s right.”
The track, which follows “Unholy,” Petras’ recent team-up with Sam Smith, details the musician’s own relationship with religion and spirituality. “For me, religion and spirituality is such an intense topic because I grew up trans, not fitting into any religion,” she told Billboard recently.
“All of my friends were pretty religious, and I kind of just wanted to write this song about how I wish religion would include me — and how it doesn’t, and how a lot of my friends in the LGBTQ community are forced to feel this way.”
Explaining that she had “always looked for spirituality elsewhere,” Petras added that music had taken on the role for her that religion does for others. “The song kinda says maybe if religion was cooler, then I would wanna be a part of it,” she said. “So, if Jesus was a rockstar, maybe I’d want to be just like him.”
Petras scored her first Billboard Hot 100 No.1 in October with “Unholy,” while it also hit the top of the Global 200, Streaming Songs, and Digital Song Sales charts. In the UK, the track spent four weeks at the top of the Official UK Singles Chart.
Meanwhile, back in September, the star officially released her cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” which was originally shared for Amazon Music’s Pride Month celebrations. “I have always been obsessed with ‘Running Up That Hill,’” Petras said at the time of the original release. “It means so much, and it’s so elusive. You can definitely decide what you want it to mean. For me, it’s about equality. And my timing for this was strangely perfect!”
