Katy Perry
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is known for her influence on modern pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the "Queen of Camp" by Vogue and Rolling Stone. 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.
For other people with similar names, see Katy (given name) and Kate Hudson.
Katy Perry
- Katy Hudson
- Katheryn Perry
- Singer
- songwriter
- television personality
2001–present
Orlando Bloom (2016–present; engaged)
1
Frank Perry (uncle)
- Vocals
- guitar
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. A reissue of the album titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (2012) subsequently 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 Perry the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube. The electropop album Witness (2017) featured themes of feminism and a political subtext, while Smile (2020) was influenced by motherhood and her mental health journey. Afterwards, she embarked on her Las Vegas concert residency titled Play (2021–2023), receiving critical acclaim and commercial success.
Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 143 million records worldwide. She has the most U.S. diamond certified singles for any female artist (4). All of her studio albums released under Capitol have individually surpassed one billion streams on Spotify.[1] She has nine U.S. number one singles, three U.S. number one albums and has received various accolades, including a Billboard Spotlight Award (currently the only female artist to have one), four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, and a Juno Award. Perry has been included in the annual Forbes lists of highest-earning women in music from 2011 to 2019. 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 began serving as a judge on American Idol during its sixteenth season in 2018. She is also the second most-followed woman and the sixth most-followed person on Twitter, with over 106.7 million followers.
Life and career
1984–1999: Early life and family
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson was born on October 25, 1984, in Santa Barbara, California, to Pentecostal pastors Mary Christine (née Perry) and Maurice Keith Hudson.[2][3] Both of her parents turned to religion after a "wild youth".[4] Perry has English, German, Irish, and Portuguese ancestry.[5] Through her mother, she is a niece of film director Frank Perry.[6] She has a younger brother named David, who is also a singer,[7] and an older sister, Angela.[8]
From ages three to 11, Perry frequently moved across the country as her very strict parents set up churches before settling again in Santa Barbara. Growing up, she attended religious schools and camps, including Paradise Valley Christian School in Arizona and Santa Barbara Christian School in California during her elementary years.[3][9] The family struggled financially,[10] sometimes using food stamps and eating food from the food bank which also fed the congregation at her parents' church.[11]
Growing up, Perry and her siblings were not allowed to eat the cereal Lucky Charms as the word "luck" reminded their mother of Lucifer, and were also required to call deviled eggs "angeled eggs".[12] Perry primarily listened to gospel music,[13] as secular music was generally discouraged in the family's home. She discovered popular music through CDs she sneaked from her friends.[14] Perry later recalled a story about how a friend of hers played "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette, which impacted her songwriting and singing.[15]
While not strictly identifying as religious, she has stated, "I pray all the time – for self-control, for humility."[16] Wanting to be like her sister Angela, Perry began singing by practicing with her sister's cassette tapes. She performed the tracks in front of her parents, who let her take vocal lessons like Angela was doing at the time. She began training at age nine[17] and was incorporated into her parents' ministry,[4] singing in church from ages nine to 17.[18] At 13, Perry was given her first guitar for her birthday,[4][19] and publicly performed songs she wrote.[10] She tried to "be a bit like the typical Californian girl" while growing up, and started rollerskating, skateboarding, and surfing as a teenager. Her brother David described her as a "tomboy" during her adolescence, which Perry talks about on her song "One of the Boys".[20] She took dancing lessons and learned how to swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug.[21] Perry completed her General Educational Development (GED) requirements early at age 15,[22] during her first year of high school,[23] and left Dos Pueblos High School to pursue a music career.[24]
2000–2006: Career beginnings, Katy Hudson, and Fingerprints
Perry briefly had vocal lessons with a woman named Agatha Danoff[25] in facilities rented from the Music Academy of the West.[26] Her singing caught the attention of rock artists Steve Thomas and Jennifer Knapp from Nashville, Tennessee, who brought her there to improve her writing skills.[24] In Nashville, she started recording demos and learned how to write songs and play guitar.[13] Perry signed with Red Hill Records and recorded her debut album, a contemporary Christian record titled Katy Hudson, which was released on March 6, 2001. She also went on tour that year as part of Phil Joel's Strangely Normal Tour[27][28] and embarked on other performances of her own in the United States.[29] Katy Hudson received mixed reviews from critics and was commercially unsuccessful, selling an estimated 200 copies before the label ceased operations in December.[30][31] Transitioning from gospel music to secular music, Perry started working with producer Glen Ballard,[32] and moved to Los Angeles at age 17.[33] She opted to work with Ballard due to his past work with Alanis Morissette, one of her major inspirations. In 2003, she briefly performed as Katheryn Perry, to avoid confusion with actress Kate Hudson, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry", using her mother's maiden name.[34] In 2010, she recalled that "Thinking of You" was one of the first songs she wrote after moving to Los Angeles.[35] Perry would also perform at the Hotel Café, performing new music while she was between record labels.[36]
In 2004, she signed to Ballard's label, Java Records, which was then affiliated with The Island Def Jam Music Group. Perry began work on a solo record due for release in March 2005, but the record was shelved after Java was dropped.[37] Ballard then introduced her to Tim Devine, an A&R executive at Columbia Records, and she was signed as a solo artist. By November 2006, Perry had finished writing and recording material for her Columbia debut titled Fingerprints (with some of the material from this time appearing on One of the Boys) which was planned for release in 2007.[38] Some of the material from Fingerprints that did not make it on One of the Boys was given to other artists, such as "I Do Not Hook Up" and "Long Shot" to Kelly Clarkson and "Rock God" to Selena Gomez & the Scene.[39][40]
Perry worked with songwriters including Desmond Child, Greg Wells, Butch Walker, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, the Matrix, Kara DioGuardi, Max Martin, and Dr. Luke.[41][42] In addition, after Devine suggested that songwriting team the Matrix become a "real group", she recorded an album, The Matrix, with them.[43] The Matrix was planned for release in 2004 but was cancelled due to creative differences. It was released in 2009 after the release of One of the Boys. Perry was dropped from Columbia in 2006 as Fingerprints neared completion. After the label dropped her, she worked at an independent A&R company, Taxi Music.[44]
Perry had minor success prior to her breakthrough. One of the songs she had recorded for her album with Ballard, "Simple", was featured on the soundtrack to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.[45] Perry provided backing vocals on Mick Jagger's song "Old Habits Die Hard",[46] which was included on the soundtrack to the 2004 film Alfie.[47] In September 2004, Blender named her "The Next Big Thing".[45] 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.[48] That year, Perry also appeared in the music video for "Learn to Fly" by Carbon Leaf, and played the love interest of her then-boyfriend, Gym Class Heroes lead singer Travie McCoy, in the band's music video for "Cupid's Chokehold".[49]
2007–2009: Breakthrough with One of the Boys
After Columbia dropped Perry, Angelica Cob-Baehler, then a publicity executive at the label, brought Perry's demos to Virgin Records chairman Jason Flom. Flom was convinced that she could be a breakthrough star and she was signed to Capitol Records in April 2007. The label arranged for her to work with Dr. Luke to add an "undeniable smash" to her existing material.[50][51] Perry and Dr. Luke co-wrote the songs "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold" for her second album One of the Boys. A campaign was started with the November 2007 release of the video to "Ur So Gay", a song aimed at introducing her to the music market.[52] A digital EP of the same name was also released that month.[53] Madonna helped publicize the song by praising it on the JohnJay & Rich radio show in April 2008,[54] stating "Ur So Gay" was her "favorite song" at the time.[55] In March 2008, Perry made a cameo appearance as a club singer in the Wildfire episode "Life's Too Short"[56] and appeared as herself during a photo shoot that June on The Young and the Restless for the show's magazine Restless Style.[57]
Legacy
Several media outlets such as Billboard and Glamour have referred to her as the "Queen of Pop", while others like Vogue, Rolling Stone, and InStyle have dubbed Perry the "Queen of Camp".[355][356][348][357][358][359][360][361] Andrew Unterberger of Billboard described Teenage Dream "one of the defining LPs from a new golden age in mega-pop"[362] while Christopher Rosa of Glamour named her as an influence to the pop sound and style of the 2010s, adding that her singles are "some of the most recognizable, iconic, and impactful hits in pop history."[363] Perry was named "one of the last decade's most reliable and successful hitmakers" by the Official Charts Company in 2022.[364]
Additionally, Perry was included in Glamour's "104 Women Who Defined the Decade in Pop Culture" list of the 2010s. It stated Perry "did more than just break chart records. She was one of the driving forces behind the sound of pop radio in the 2010s" for her tracks that were "glossy, booming, sugary-sweet, and undeniably catchy."[363][365] Variety included Perry in their Variety 500 list of the most influential business leaders, calling her a "global phenomenon" and a "dedicated artist and tireless self-promoter who has leveraged chart-topping hits, sold-out stadium shows, and staggering endorsement deals to become one of the richest and most influential pop stars alive."[366] A 2017 journal published by Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts studying structural patterns in the melodies of earworm songs compiled lists of catchiest tracks from 3,000 participants, in which Perry's "California Gurls" ranked number six.[367] She has been called a "gay icon" by Taylor Henderson of Out, noting how "I Kissed a Girl" helped fans explore their sexuality and how Perry openly embraced the LGBTQ+ community.[266]
Perry's music has been described by Out as having a "lasting legacy", with American singers Fletcher sampling "I Kissed a Girl" and Olivia Rodrigo referencing Teenage Dream on "Brutal".[266] Additionally, other artists such as Halsey and Ariana Grande have praised Perry's work, with Halsey calling Teenage Dream the "perfect pop album" and Grande saying "The One That Got Away" is "one of the biggest and most perfectly written pop songs ever from one of the best pop albums of all time."[368][369]
Headlining tours
Co-headlining tours
Residency