Kim Petras
| Kim Petras | |
|---|---|
 Petras in 2012 | |
| Background information | |
| Born |
27 August 1992[1] Cologne, Germany[2] |
| Genres | Pop |
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Labels | Joyce Records |
| Website |
www |
Kim Petras (born 27 August 1992) is a German singer and songwriter who creates pop music and various covers in an a cappella style. She has been the subject of extensive worldwide news media reporting of her gender transition medical history in the context of her young age.
Early life
Kim Petras was born Tim Petras[3] on 27 August 1992.[1] Her parents, Lutz and Konni, have said that from the age of two, she began insisting she was a girl. It became apparent this was "not just a phase,"[4] and her parents tried to be supportive but made her wear gender neutral clothes in public.[5] Eventually her parents sought professional help but struggled to find people who were knowledgeable on the subject. In time they found Bernd Meyenburg at Frankfurt University who was head of a clinic for children and had studied transsexuality since the 1970s.[4]
Music career
In 2007, Petras recorded a few home videos of herself singing, and uploaded them onto the internet. Her videos, which included some of her own compositions, were seen by German music producer Fabian Görg. She was subsequently signed to the independent record label, Joyce Records.[1]
In 2008, Petras released two more compositions, this time produced by Görg. The first, "Last Forever", was released online and became popular on YouTube and MySpace.[6] A few months later in September 2008, she released her first commercially available CD single, "Fade Away", into the German market.[7] The title track from the single was also made available for download worldwide via a number of online electronic music retailers.
On 17 April 2009, the previously free promotional track "Last Forever" was made available on iTunes Germany. She released her first extended play on 11 March 2011 titled "One Piece of Tape". In 2013, Petras was featured on the single "Flight To Paris" by Klaas.
Joyce Records has announced plans to release a debut album for which Petras is currently working on new songs.[8]
Many other songs have been released to the public via YouTube, including many a cappella covers, alternate versions of her own material, and a couple new original songs.
Publicity
In 2006, Petras, then aged 13, made her first significant media appearance in a story on Stern TV, a German television current affairs show.[5][9] In it, she described her gender transition and the medical treatment received at the Endokrinologikum (endocrinology center) in Hamburg by Achim Wüsthof. However, it wasn't until the following year, aged 14, that Petras gained worldwide attention from the news media. This came about after she appeared in a German television documentary,[10] and a talk show,[11] in a push to get permission for early gender reassignment surgery at age 16. According to German law, a person must normally be at least 18 to be allowed to undergo this kind of surgery.
The publicity generated from the 2007 TV appearances resulted in many news articles about her gender transition at age 12 and describing her as the "world's youngest transsexual". This assertion, however, is inaccurate, as gender identity disorder is often diagnosed in early childhood and transition by children under 12, though uncommon, is not unknown. However, Petras may have been one of the youngest people at that time to receive female hormone treatments.[4][12][13]
In September 2007, she was a model for a nationwide chain of German hair salons.[14]
Petras turned 16 in 2008, and announced in a November 2008 post on her blog that she had recently completed her gender reassignment surgery.[15] The story hit the news media on 4 February 2009[16] and appeared in newspapers worldwide, even making the front page of some. A common theme of these articles is that Petras may be the youngest person in the world to have had gender reassignment surgery.[17]
Petras is very adamant that her gender has always been female. In an interview about her surgery she stated "I was asked if I feel like a woman now - but the truth is I have always felt like a woman - I just ended up in the wrong body".[17]
Discography
Extended plays
| Year | Information |
|---|---|
| 2011 | One Piece of Tape
|
Singles
As lead artist
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| "Fade Away" | 2008 | Non-album Single |
| "Last Forever" | 2009 | Non-album Single |
| "Die For You" | 2009 | Non-album Single |
| "Boomerang" | 2009 | Non-album Single |
| "STFU" | 2014 | Non-album Single |
As featured artist
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2009 | "Taste" (Sobertruth featuring Kim Petras) |
| 2011 | "Magnetic" (KeeMo featuring Kim Petras) |
| 2013 | "Flight To Paris" (Klaas featuring Kim Petras) |
| "Heartbeat" (Klaas featuring Kim Petras) |
Videography
| Year | Title | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | "Die For You" | Unknown |
| 2011 | "Feel It" | Maison Kelmd |
| "One Piece of Tape" | Kim Petras & Linestyle Artwork | |
| 2013 | "Heartbeat" (Klaas feat. Kim Petras) | Unknown |
References
- 1 2 3 Official site - About me
- ↑ UK television interview "This Morning" on ITV (14 July 2009)
- ↑ [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1540842/Unhappy-as-a-boy-Kim-became-youngest-ever-transsexual-at-12.html Unhappy as a boy, Kim became youngest ever transsexual at 12 (Telegraph)
- 1 2 3 World's youngest transexual, 12 (Ananova)
- 1 2 "Von Tim zu Kim - Im falschen Körper geboren ("From Tim to Kim - Born in the Wrong Body") - television story on Stern TV Archived 13 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ World's youngest transsexual gets record deal - austriantimes.at (18 September 2008)
- ↑ "Fade Away" single on Amazon.de
- ↑ MySpace blog post re new songs (20 April 2009)
- ↑ "Von Tim zu Kim - Im falschen Körper geboren" (pictures)
- ↑ "Mann oder Frau?" - television documentary on VOX (TV channel) show Stern TV-Reportage
- ↑ Kims Kindheit im falschen Körper ("Kim's childhood in the wrong body") (German) - Stern (2006)
- ↑ "Unhappy as a boy, Kim became youngest ever transsexual at 12" - The Daily Telegraph (2 February 2007)
- ↑ "Mistakes in God's Factory" Der Spiegel (26 January 2007)
- ↑ Fotoshooting mit Kim im Unisex Bonn 01.09.2007 - unisex-friseure.de
- ↑ Gender reassignment surgery blog post (26 November 2008)
- ↑ "Teen sex swap girl talks" The Sun (4 February 2009)
- 1 2 "World's youngest sex-change operation". The Daily Telegraph. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2009.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kim Petras. |