Perry started writing songs for her new album in June 2016, and recorded an anthem for NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics titled “Rise”, which was released the following month. Katy Perry tied Michael Jackson’s record of five number one songs from a single album when her song “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2011. Along with Thomas Rhett, Perry recorded a country pop duet titled “Where We Started” for his album of the same name that was released on April 1, 2022. While critics often disparaged Perry’s songs as vapid, the music industry was generally kinder, rewarding her with several Grammy Award nominations, including album of the year for Teenage Dream. In Brazil, Perry has 15 songs certified Diamond or higher by Pro-Música Brasil (PMB), and in Italy, the Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana (FIMI) listed her as the 98th most certified music artist since the certification database became available in 2009.
When did Katy Perry tie Michael Jackson’s record of five number one songs from a single album?
On June 8, 2022, Perry was awarded with the Key to Las Vegas, the same day it was marked as Katy Perry day. The next month, it was announced Perry would create music for the soundtrack to Jeremy Zag’s animated musical film Melody and voice its title character. Tiësto remix of “Resilient” featuring Aitana was released in November 2020, while Bruno Martini remix of “Cry About It Later” featuring Luísa Sonza was released in April 2021. The album received mixed reviews, and debuted at number five in the United States. In July, a jury in California returned a verdict following a week-long trial that Perry’s song “Dark Horse” had copied Flame’s 2008 song “Joyful Noise” after he filed a copyright lawsuit alleging that it used his track’s beat without permission; the verdict was later overturned. She followed this with the singles “Never Really Over” on May 31, “Small Talk” on August 9, and “Harleys in Hawaii” on October 16.
At 13, Perry was given her first guitar for her birthday, and publicly performed songs she wrote. Six of Perry’s songs have received Diamond certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Her following albums—Witness (2017), Smile (2020) and 143 (2024)—were released to varying critical and commercial success. Its reissue, subtitled The Complete Confection (2012), produced the U.S. number-one single “Part of Me”.
In March 2008, Perry made a cameo appearance as a club singer in the Wildfire episode “Life’s Too Short” and appeared as herself during a photo shoot that June on The Young and the Restless for the show’s magazine Restless Style. Madonna helped publicize the song by praising it on the JohnJay & Rich radio show in April 2008, stating “Ur So Gay” was her “favorite song” at the time. Perry provided backing vocals on Mick Jagger’s song “Old Habits Die Hard”, which was included on the soundtrack to the 2004 film Alfie. Perry worked with songwriters including Desmond Child, Greg Wells, Butch Walker, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, the Matrix, Kara DioGuardi, Max Martin, and Dr. Luke. Ballard then introduced her to Tim Devine, an A&R executive at Columbia Records, and she was signed as a solo artist.
The track was also streamed over three million times on Spotify within 24 hours, breaking the music streaming service’s record at the time for the highest first-day streaming for a single track by a female artist. On July 22, 2009, Perry recorded a live album titled MTV Unplugged, which featured acoustic performances of five tracks from One of the Boys as well as one new song, “Brick by Brick”, and a cover of Fountains of Wayne’s “Hackensack”. The Matrix’s self-titled album, which Perry had recorded with the band in 2004, was released on iTunes on January 27, 2009, as a result of her solo success. She recorded background vocals on P.O.D.’s single “Goodbye for Now”, was featured at the end of its music video in 2006, and performed it with them on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
- Perry later recalled a story about how a friend of hers played “You Oughta Know” by Alanis Morissette, which influenced her songwriting and singing.
- 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”.
- She also recorded the song “Immortal Flame” for the game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, and had a playable character modeled after her.
- Perry subsequently mocked the controversy on Saturday Night Live, where she was a musical guest and wore an Elmo-themed shirt showing large amounts of cleavage during one skit.
Public image
Perry primarily listened to gospel music, as secular music was generally discouraged in the family’s home. With an estimated net worth of $360 million, she is among the world’s wealthiest musicians. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted her stage name from her mother’s maiden name. Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality.
In addition, Perry is the only artist to have three songs selling six million digital downloads, with “Firework” selling 7 million, “Roar” at 6.11 million, and “Dark Horse” at 6.08 million according to Nielsen SoundScan. The latter is the first and only album with four Diamond-certified songs on its tracklist. In 2017, she became the first artist to have three Diamond-certified songs from the RIAA. During May 2024, it reached four billion views, making it the most viewed music video by a female artist on YouTube at that time.
2019: Witness and American Idol
She made a greater splash several months later with the single “I Kissed a Girl,” an assertive ode to sexual curiosity backed by a hard-edged electro-pop beat. Perry’s initial efforts at mainstream stardom were fruitless, with two separate record labels signing and subsequently dropping her before any material was released. By then, however, Hudson had found new musical models in such rock artists as Freddie Mercury and Alanis Morissette, whom she had discovered through friends. Her popular singles include “I Kissed a Girl,” “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” “Roar,” and “Rise.”
Perry cites Alanis Morissette and her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill as a significant musical inspiration. Growing up, she could not listen to secular music, but at 17 a friend played her a recording of “Killer Queen” by Queen, which had a profound effect on her. Perry collaborated with the tech company Apple Inc. starring in advertisements for their GarageBand music software where users could have “Remix Sessions” featuring her song, “Harleys in Hawaii”. Four months later, she released a new single, “Electric”, a collaboration with Pokémon as part of its 25th anniversary.
When did Katy Perry achieve mainstream success?
- On February 10, 2017, Perry released the album’s lead single “Chained to the Rhythm” featuring Skip Marley.
- 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.
- The 41-year-old pop star has become a lightning rod for controversy, and like most public figures, some of the discourse surrounding her actions is warranted.
- “Unconditionally” followed as the second single from Prism on October 16, 2013, and peaked at number 14 in the United States.
- After recording the stripped-down live album MTV Unplugged (2009), Perry returned to the studio.
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. During the early stages of her career, Perry’s musical style gravitated towards gospel, and she aspired to be as successful as Amy Grant. Later that month, Perry embarked on her fifth concert tour, the Lifetimes Tour, which is scheduled to end in December. The record was panned by critics, and Perry was widely criticized for her decision to work with Dr. Luke on it after singer Kesha’s allegations of sexual assault against him. In February 2024, Perry announced her exit from American Idol following the conclusion of the twenty-second season, saying she wanted to “go out and feel that pulse to my own beat” and release new music after being “in the studio for a while”. Four months later, she sold her music rights to Litmus Music for an estimated $225 million.
Musical style and themes
On January 5, 2012, Perry was named the sixth best-selling digital artist in the United States, with sales of 37.6 million units according to Nielsen SoundScan. For this record, she received an honorary American Music Award in November 2011 and another Guinness record. It became the album’s third consecutive number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 8, 2010. It has since sold over 12 million copies worldwide, being her highest-selling album to date. Released on August 24, 2010, Teenage Dream debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and received mixed reviews from music critics.
What are some of Katy Perry’s popular singles?
Outside of her music career, Perry reprised her role as Smurfette in The Smurfs 2, which was released in theaters on July 31, 2013. Ferras was the first artist to get signed to her label, and Perry served as an executive producer on his self-titled EP. On June 17, 2014, Perry announced that she had founded her own record label under Capitol Records, titled Metamorphosis Music.
On February 10, 2017, Perry released the album’s lead single “Chained to the Rhythm” featuring Skip Marley. Perry released a mobile app titled Katy Perry Pop in December 2015 through Glu Mobile where her character helps players become famous musicians. Perry also made a cameo appearance in the music video for Madonna’s song “Bitch I’m Madonna” in June 2015.
The following month, her music video for “Roar” reached one billion views on Vevo, making her the first artist to have multiple videos with one billion views. In June 2015, her music video for “Dark Horse” became the first video by a female artist to reach one billion views on Vevo. 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. She dedicated the music video to her song “Firework” to the It Gets Better Project.
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau’s relationship is the best thing that happened to me in 2025
Perry 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”. As of September 2025, she was the second-most followed woman on the site, with over 104 million Twitter followers, and the sixth most followed musician across social media with a combined total of over 377 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 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”. She received a Guinness record for most Twitter followers, and became the first person to gain 100 million followers on the site in June 2017. 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”. Lyrically, the album addresses relationships, self-reflection, and everyday life.
2006: Career beginnings, Katy Hudson, and Fingerprints
“Our whole lives have changed… I got a lot on this tour,” she alvexo forex broker said, her eyes welling up with tears, her voice dropping to a whisper. There have been numerous points in life where I’ve been in the bathtub or the car, eyes full of tears, with Perry’s music on repeat, trying to absorb some modicum of hope. Perry began 2025 on the heels of the negative critical reception of her sixth album, 143, which was produced by Dr. Luke. The 41-year-old pop star has become a lightning rod for controversy, and like most public figures, some of the discourse surrounding her actions is warranted. In lieu of a physical newsroom during the work-from-home era, our group chat has become both a forum for heated debates about pop culture and the proverbial water cooler for office chatter. During the 11-minute flight, Perry sang Louis Armstrong’s classic “What a Wonderful World” to her fellow space tourists, which included journalist Gayle King and former National Aeronautics and Space Administration rocket scientist Aisha Bowe.