I Kissed a Girl

The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart for seven consecutive weeks, becoming the 1,000th number-one song of the rock era. The single has sold 4.8 million units in the US alone. "I Kissed a Girl" is one of eight songs by Perry to sell over 4 million digital copies in the US, the others being "Hot n Cold", "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", "Dark Horse" and "Roar". It also topped the charts in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. It was the best-selling song of 2008 in Finland. The song has been certified multi-platinum in Australia, Canada, Denmark, the UK, and the US.


An accompanying music video for the song was released on May 16, 2008. The video, directed by Kinga Burza, features the singer in a setting inspired by burlesque and Moulin Rouge styles. It features appearances from Perry's friends, including actress Shannon Woodward and singer Kesha. The song is recognized as the 10th best-selling single in the 21st century. "I Kissed a Girl" was performed and a nominee at the 51st Grammy Awards (Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance). It was also nominated for Favorite Song at the 2009 Kids' Choice Awards. The song has been performed on all of her tours. It was also included in Perry's performance in Super Bowl XLIX's Pepsi Halftime Show in 2015.

Background[edit]

According to Perry, "the chorus actually popped into my head when I woke up". Perry also said that it somewhat was from personal experience. "It was one of those moments where you hear artists talking about songs they get in dreams or in the middle of the night. I was like 'wow, what an interesting subject matter to kind of pop into the head' and I didn't do anything with it for about a year-and-a-half. Then all of a sudden at the very, very end of making my album, I literally had two days left in the recording studio with my producer, Dr Luke. We just said, 'we're gonna finish it—it's so catchy because it won't get out of our heads.'"^[3]


Capitol A&R Chris Anokute told HitQuarters that the song and its controversial theme met with strong resistance at the label. "People said, 'This is never going to get played on the radio. How do we sell this? How's this going to be played in the Bible Belt?'" Anokute said that they needed the support of one of the label's radio promoters to convince people to believe in the record. Otherwise, Perry would have likely been dropped again. Dennis Reese, Capitol's senior vice president of promotions, saw the vision and helped push the single on national radio. The first station to pick it up and take a chance was 107.5 The River in Nashville. Rich Davis, then PD, was played the song by Joe Rainey of Capitol Records outside his favorite sushi spot in Nashville and immediately put it on the air. After playing it for three days, they were inundated with enthusiastic calls.^[4]

Chart performance[edit]

"I Kissed a Girl" debuted at No. 76 on the Billboard Hot 100. After a couple of weeks, the single hit the top five, due to the rising digital downloads and increasing radio airplay. It continued to rise the next week, reaching No. 2, just behind her labelmates, Coldplay. On the chart dated July 5, 2008, the song peaked at the summit of the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the 1,000th No. 1 song of the rock era (the 961st No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100).^[45] In addition, the song also gave the Capitol label two consecutive Hot 100 No. 1 singles following Coldplay's "Viva la Vida", making it the first time since 1976 that Capitol had two back-to-back chart-toppers on the Hot 100.^[46] The single also crossed over to Billboard's sister publication R&R's Rhythmic chart in its July 5 issue, where not only did she have the highest debut ever for a non-rhythmic track, entering at No. 26 with 1,065 spins, she also had the highest debut from a new artist in over five years. The bow is the best for a debut track at Rhythmic since Beyoncé entered at no. 21 with "Crazy in Love" in 2003.^[47][48] It also has become the first song since Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" to simultaneously appear on the Mainstream Top 40, Rhythmic, Adult Top 40, and Alternative charts.^[49] On July 26, 2008, the track also made history by reaching the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay chart by three weeks, a first for a solo act with a debut single. The song topped the Hot 100 for seven weeks in a row before being dethroned by Rihanna's "Disturbia". It was the second longest-running No. 1 on the Hot 100 of 2008 (tied with T.I.'s "Whatever You Like"), with only Flo Rida's "Low" topping the chart for longer. As of August 2020, the song has been certified sextuple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)^[50] and sold 4.8 million copies in the United States.^[51]


In the United Kingdom, the single debuted at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart on August 3, 2008, ― for the week ending date August 9, 2008. A week later, it topped the chart, where it remained for five weeks (a feat which would not be matched again until "Someone like You" by Adele in 2011) until it was dethroned by "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon.^[52] Alongside Basshunter's "Now You're Gone" and "Mercy" by Duffy, "I Kissed a Girl" spent more weeks at No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart than any other single in 2008. According to the Official Charts Company, the single has sold over 635,000 copies in Britain as of June 2010. It is the first Virgin label single to sell more than half a million copies since the Spice Girls' "Goodbye" in 1998. As of March 2012, the single had sold 654,560 copies in the United Kingdom, becoming her fourth-best-selling single there, behind "Firework", "Roar" and "California Gurls".^[53]


In Canada, the single debuted at No. 55 on the Canadian Hot 100, later peaking at No. 1, becoming the first country where the song reached the top of the charts.


In New Zealand, the song debuted at No. 38 on the New Zealand Singles Chart, the single's first appearance in other countries chart outside North America, moving to No. 3 the following week. The song was certified Gold after seven weeks with sales of over 7,500. On August 11, 2008, eight weeks after debuting on the chart, "I Kissed a Girl" finally made it to No. 1. "I Kissed a Girl" was certified platinum in New Zealand after 20 weeks, selling more than 15,000 copies.


In Australia, the song debuted at No. 30 on downloads alone. The next week, it jumped to No. 2, still on downloads alone. It later jumped to No. 1 still solely off downloads, becoming only the second single to do so. On July 21, 2008, after the single's physical release, the track retained its No. 1 position and was certified Gold. The single held the No. 1 position for several weeks and was certified double platinum.


According to Perry, the song became a massive hit for being musically "catchy". She told BBC News: "I think that it's one of those subject matters that is, you know, like 'Oh my God I can't believe she said that, that someone came out and said it.' I think that, whenever anyone writes something that is different than, like, your plain peanut butter and jelly song, 'I love you, you love me,' everyone kind of perks up and says 'what's this?'"^[3]

Usage in media[edit]

The song is featured in the films Fiston, Blended, Boy Meets Girl and Pitch Perfect 2 along with the television shows Glee, Skins, The Hills, 20 to 1, The Big Bang Theory, The Game, and RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars.^[68]