Katy Perry
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 143 million units worldwide.
She is known for her influence on pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the “Queen of Camp” by Vogue and Rolling Stone.
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Billboard ranked her fourth on its “Greatest of All Time Pop Songs Artists” list and twenty-fifth on their “Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century” list.
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Katy Perry
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Katy Perry in 2023
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Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson
October 25, 1984 Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
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| Years active | 2001–present |
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Russell Brand
(m. 2010; div. 2012) |
| Partner(s) | Orlando Bloom (2016–present; engaged) |
| Children | 1 |
| Relatives | Frank Perry (uncle) |
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| Website | katyperry |
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At 16, Perry released a gospel record titled Katy Hudson (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was commercially unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted the stage name “Katy Perry” from her mother’s maiden name. She recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records. Perry rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock record containing her debut single “I Kissed a Girl” and follow-up single “Hot n Cold”, which reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 respectively.
The disco-influenced pop album Teenage Dream (2010) spawned five U.S. number one singles—”California Gurls”, “Teenage Dream”, “Firework”, “E.T.”, and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”— the only album by a female singer to do so. The album’s reissue titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (2012) produced the U.S. number one single “Part of Me”. Her empowerment-themed album Prism (2013) had two U.S. number one singles, “Roar” and “Dark Horse”. Both their respective music videos made her the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube. Afterwards, Perry released the albums Witness (2017) and Smile (2020) and embarked on her Las Vegas concert residency titled Play (2021–2023). She released her seventh studio album, titled 143, in 2024.
Perry has the second-most U.S. diamond certified singles for any female artist (6). She has received various accolades, including a Billboard Spotlight Award, four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, a Juno Award, and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. Outside of music, she released an autobiographical documentary titled Katy Perry: Part of Me in 2012, voiced Smurfette in The Smurfs film series, and launched her own shoe line Katy Perry Collections in 2017. Perry served as a judge on American Idol from the sixteenth season in 2018 to the twenty-second season in 2024. Forbes ranked her as the world’s highest-paid female musician in 2015 and 2018. With an estimated net worth of $350 million, she is one of the world’s wealthiest musicians.
Artistry
Influences
Katy Perry cites her sister Angela as the woman who has had the most influence on her. During the early stages of her career, Perry’s musical style gravitated towards gospel and she aspired to be as successful as Amy Grant. At age 15, she heard “Killer Queen” by Queen, which inspired her to pursue a music career. She cites the band’s frontman, Freddie Mercury, as her biggest influence and expressed how the “combination of his sarcastic approach to writing lyrics and his ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude” inspired her music. She paid homage to the band by naming her third fragrance Killer Queen. Perry described the Beach Boys and their album Pet Sounds as having a considerable influence on her music: “Pet Sounds is one of my favorite records and it influenced pretty much all of my songwriting. All of the melody choices that I make are because of Pet Sounds.” The singer also holds the Beatles’ album The Beatles in high esteem, and described these two albums as “the only things I listened to for probably two years straight.”
She cites Alanis Morissette and her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill as a significant musical inspiration, stating in 2012: “Jagged Little Pill was the most perfect female record ever made. There’s a song for anyone on that record; I relate to all those songs. They’re still so timeless.” Additionally, Perry borrows influence from Flaming Red by Patty Griffin and 10 Cent Wings by Jonatha Brooke. Perry’s autobiographical documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me was largely influenced by Madonna: Truth or Dare. She admires Madonna’s ability to reinvent herself, saying “I want to evolve like Madonna”.
Perry names Björk as an influence, particularly admiring her “willingness to always be taking chances”. Other artists who Perry has cited as influences include Stevie Nicks, ABBA, the Cardigans, Whitney Houston, Cyndi Lauper, Ace of Base, 3OH!3, CeCe Peniston, C+C Music Factory, Black Box, Crystal Waters, Mariah Carey, Heart, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Imogen Heap, Rufus Wainwright, Pink, and Gwen Stefani. “Firework” was inspired by a passage in the book On the Road by Jack Kerouac in which the author compares people who are full of life to fireworks that shoot across the sky and make people watch in awe. Her second concert tour, the California Dreams Tour, was reminiscent of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She also credits the 1996 film The Craft for inspiring her song “Dark Horse”, and Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now for influencing Prism.
Musical style and themes
“When I am in between records, sometimes I doubt myself. I’ll be like ‘Did I just get lucky, or did I mass-manipulate the world into thinking that seven songs were worth a number-one position?’ And then I go back into the studio and I start writing, and the true essential oil of who I am comes bubbling back up and reminds me that it’s always been inside of me, that nobody can take this away no matter what comment anyone makes.”
—Perry on her confidence as a songwriter
Katy Perry performing during the Prismatic World Tour in July 2014
Although Perry’s music incorporates elements of pop, rock, and disco, Katy Hudson contains gospel. Her subsequent releases, One of the Boys and Teenage Dream, involve themes of sex and love. One of the Boys is a pop rock record, while Teenage Dream features disco influences. Perry’s fourth album, Prism, is significantly influenced by dance and pop music. Lyrically, the album addresses relationships, self-reflection, and everyday life. Her fifth studio effort Witness is an electro pop album that she described as a “360-degree liberation” record, with themes including political liberation, sexual liberation, and liberation from negativity. Many of her songs, particularly on Teenage Dream, reflect on love between teenagers; W magazine described the album’s sexual innuendos as “irresistible hook-laden melodies”. Self-empowerment is a common theme in Perry’s music.
Perry has described herself as a “singer-songwriter masquerading as a pop star” and maintains that honest songwriting is very important to her. She told Marie Claire: “I feel like my secret magic trick that separates me from a lot of my peers is the bravery to be vulnerable and truthful and honest. I think you become more relatable when you’re vulnerable.” Actress and comedian Kristen Wiig commented that “as easy, breezy, and infectious as Perry’s songs can be, beneath the surface lurks a sea of mixed emotions, jumbled motives, and contradictory impulses complicated enough to fill a Carole King record.” According to Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune, “being taken seriously may be Perry’s greatest challenge yet.” In 2013, The New York Times labeled her “the most potent pop star of the day – her hits are relatable with just a hint of experimentation”.
Randall Roberts of the Los Angeles Times criticized her use of idioms and metaphors in her lyrics and for frequent “clichés”.
Throughout her career, Perry has also co-written songs recorded by other artists, including Lesley Roy, Kelly Clarkson, Jessie James Decker, Selena Gomez & the Scene, Britney Spears, Iggy Azalea, Rita Ora, Nicki Minaj, and Ariana Grande.
Voice
Perry possesses a contralto vocal range. Her singing has received both praise and criticism. Betty Clarke of The Guardian commented that her “powerful voice is hard-edged” while Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone described Perry’s vocals on Teenage Dream as “processed staccato blips”. Darren Harvey of musicOMH compared Perry’s vocals on One of the Boys to Alanis Morissette’s, both possessing a “perky voice shifting octaves mid-syllable”. Alex Miller from NME felt that “Perry’s problem is often her voice” on One of the Boys, stating that “somewhere along the line someone convinced her she was like, well, a ballsy rock chick”. Conversely, Bernadette McNulty from The Daily Telegraph praised her “rock chick voice” in a review of a concert promoting Prism.
Public image
On social media, Katy Perry surpassed Justin Bieber as the most followed person on Twitter in November 2013.
She won the 2015 Guinness World Record for most Twitter followers, and became the first person to gain 100 million followers on the site in June 2017. Keith Caulfield of Billboard stated that Perry is “the rare celebrity who seems to have enormous popularity but genuine ground-level interaction with her adoring KatyCats.” With over 106 million Twitter followers, she is the second-most followed woman on the site, and the sixth most followed musician across social media with a combined total of over 385 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In June 2017, Time magazine listed Perry among its “25 Most Influential People on the Internet” of the year, writing that her live-stream for Witness was “blazing a trail” for being “the closest any major entertainer has come to giving fans the kind of ‘real’ intimacy that social media purports to provide”.
Katy Perry became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in December 2013.
Perry has been described as a sex symbol; GQ labeled her a “full-on male fantasy”, while Elle wrote her body looked “as though sketched by a teenage boy”. Vice called her a “‘serious’ popstar/woman/sex symbol”. She was placed at number one on the Maxim Hot 100 in 2010 as the “most beautiful woman in the world”, with editor Joe Levy describing her as a “triple – no quadruple – kind of hot”. Men’s Health readers voted her the “sexiest woman of 2013”. In November 2010, Perry told Harper’s Bazaar that she was proud of and satisfied with her figure.
Perry’s fashion often incorporates humor, bright colors, and food-related themes such as her characteristic spinning peppermint swirl dress. Vogue described her as “never exactly one to shy away from the outrageous or the extreme in any realm”, and called her the “Queen of Camp”, while Glamour named her the “queen of quirk”. In February 2009, Perry told Seventeen that her fashion style was “a bit of a concoction of different things” and stated she enjoyed humor in her clothing. She has also described herself as having “multipersonality disorder” for fashion. Perry lists Gwen Stefani, Shirley Manson, Chloë Sevigny, Daphne Guinness, Natalie Portman, and the fictional character Lolita as her style icons. In 2022, Elle dubbed her as “the kitsch-loving pop star renowned for her uniquely experimental style”, while Vogue described her style as “synonymous with outrageous, eye-catching ensembles that lean towards the theatrical”.
During the 2017 launch of her shoe collection, Katy Perry Collections, she said about shoes: “When I first got to L.A., I cultivated my style on a budget, always shopping at thrift stores or vintage stores. … Once, I found these flats that looked like Dalmatian dogs. They had ears that moved and a tongue that stuck out. They were such a conversation piece. That’s what is so great about fashion. … It’s a form of communication. You don’t have to start a smoking habit to start talking to someone. You can just wear cool shoes. It’s an icebreaker.”
Achievements
Throughout her career, Katy Perry has won five American Music Awards, fourteen People’s Choice Awards, four Guinness World Records, a Brit Award, and a Juno Award. In September 2012, Billboard dubbed her the “Woman of the Year”. From May 2010 to September 2011, the singer spent a record-breaking 69 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. Teenage Dream became the first album by a female artist to produce five number-one Billboard Hot 100 singles, and the second album overall after Michael Jackson’s Bad. In the United States, she has accumulated nine number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, her most recent being “Dark Horse”, and holds the record for having 18 consecutive number-one songs on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.
Katy Perry performing on her Play residency in 2022
Billboard also named her the 15th most successful dance club artist of all time. The magazine additionally ranked her fourth on its “Greatest of All Time Pop Songs Artists” list and twenty-fifth on the “Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century” list, included Teenage Dream and Prism among its “Greatest of All Time Billboard 200 Albums by Women” list, and ranked “Dark Horse” at number 100 on its “Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs” as well as one of its “Greatest of All Time Hot 100 Songs by Women” along with “E.T.”, “Firework”, and “California Gurls”. In June 2015, her music video for “Dark Horse” became the first video by a female artist to reach 1 billion views on Vevo. The following month, her music video for “Roar” reached 1 billion views on Vevo, making her the first artist to have multiple videos with 1 billion views.
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With 143 million records sold globally, Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time. She was declared the Top Global Female Recording Artist of 2013 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). According to RIAA, Perry is the ninth top digital singles artist in the United States, with 121.5 million certified song units in the country including on-demand streams and also has 19 million certified album units, totaling 129.5 million certified units in the United States. She also became the first artist to have three songs receive Diamond certifications from the RIAA in 2017 with “Dark Horse”, “Firework”, and “Roar”. All three of them and “E.T.”, “California Gurls”, and “Hot n Cold” have each sold over 5 million digital copies.
Six years later, the RIAA certified “California Gurls” as her fourth diamond-certified single in the U.S., breaking her tie with Lady Gaga as the female artist with the most diamond singles there. Perry’s albums One of the Boys, Teenage Dream, Prism, Witness, and Smile have individually surpassed one billion streams on Spotify.
In 2011, Forbes ranked her third on their “Top-Earning Women In Music” list with earnings of $44 million and fifth on their 2012 list with $45 million. She subsequently ranked seventh on the 2013 Forbes list for “Top-Earning Women In Music” with $39 million earned, and fifth on their 2014 list with $40 million. With earnings of $135 million, Forbes also ranked Perry number one on their 2015 “Top-Earning Women In Music” list as well as the “World’s Highest-Paid Musicians” and declared her the highest earning female celebrity in 2015, placing her at number 3 on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list. In 2016, the magazine estimated her net worth was $125 million, and ranked her number six on their list of “Highest-Paid Women in Music” with earnings of $41 million. The following year, she was ranked number nine on the list with $33 million. In 2018, she topped its “Highest-Paid Women in Music” listing and ranked at number four on the “Highest-Paid Female Celebrities” list, with earnings of $83 million. Perry subsequently was placed at number four on the 2019 “Highest-Paid Women in Music” listings, with $57.5 million. Later that year, with earnings of $530 million throughout the 2010s, the magazine also ranked her as the ninth-highest-earning musician of the decade. Perry is one of the wealthiest musical artists; during September 2023, Forbes surmised she had a net worth of $340 million. This increased to $350 million the following May, where Perry was included on the magazine’s 2024 list of “America’s Richest Self-Made Women”.
