TikTok is a viral app that's quickly becoming the new Billboard Top 100. It's a platform where users post video clips that accumulate millions of views in a matter of hours, and songs go viral overnight.
Sam Smith's New Song 'Unholy' is the latest to storm the platform, and fans are curious about what it means. After the singer-songwriter teased the song with Kim Petras on August 23 and shared a snippet, it went viral, and fans started making their own dances to it.
Unholy is a dark track that was released in September 2022 and features Kim Petras on vocals. It's a very different type of music than what Smith and Petras have released in the past.
The lyrics in the song are based on a story about a man who's cheating on his wife. The singers use the term "unholy" to refer to what's wrong with the situation. They say the man is "disobeying nature," and his wife isn't able to know about it because she doesn't have the money or resources to get help.
During the song, the singers sample an audio clip from the 2001 cult film Donnie Darko. In the scene, the protagonist (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) talks about his loneliness and how he's never seen proof that he's not alone in the world.
The video for the song, directed by Madison Phipps, showcases Smith's wistful longing in a black-and-white combination of close ups and stolen moments of couples kissing or walking hand in hand. It's a heart-wrenching lyric video that really brings home how aching for love can be.