Why Kim Petras Started Crying When She Saw Her SI Swimsuit Photos

The 2023 cover star attended the launch party to celebrate the new magazine and opened up about her emotional reaction to her feature.

Kim Petras.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

Kim Petras stunned at the SI Swimsuit launch party at the Hard Rock Hotel in New York City on May 18. The “Unholy” singer, who is one of four cover stars of this year’s annual magazine, also opened up about her emotional reaction when she first saw her SI Swimsuit photos.

“I was very nervous when Sports Illustrated first reached out, I was just kind of losing [it] a little bit, like, ‘Can I do it?’” Petras says.

She wore a gorgeous strapless Zimmerman midi dress featuring a beach scenery and seashell detailing along the hem. Petras added that while she has nailed music-making and performing—after all, she is a Grammy award winner—modeling is an entirely different territory.

Kim Petras.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

“[On stage] I kind of feel like I have this like persona which really gives me confidence and strength,” she explains. “At first I wasn’t sure if I would deliver but everyone made me feel so beautiful and like I belong on the cover of Sports Illustrated.”

Petras admits that she began crying when she first looked at her SI Swimsuit pictures from her photo shoot in Los Angeles with Yu Tsai.

“I just like didn’t think I had that in me to be beautiful in a bathing suit—it’s a hard thing to do,” she says. “I’m just so grateful to the whole Sports Illustrated team. It was like a true dream.”

Kim Petras and MJ Day.

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

View Kim Petras’s full 2023 SI Swimsuit gallery here.

The 2023 SI Swimsuit Issue launch party continues in Hollywood, Fla., May 19 through 21 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood. Click here to learn more about the launch of the 2023 SI Swimsuit Issue in Florida, including Instagrammable moments, activities, celebrity guests, live entertainment and more,

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