Katy Perry: Of Wet Powders and Crumpled Glasses
He built part of his career on hits that talked about parties and celebrated the unifying power of celebrations: from “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream” in 2010 to “Last Friday Night” and “Birthday”, passing through “Firework”. Today Katy Perry’s career perfectly resembles the final image of a party: broken glass and waste paper on the floor, crumpled glasses on the tables, spilled drinks, dirty dishes. There is another image that lends itself well to telling this not exactly explosive phase in the history of the Californian pop star: that of a pile of wet gunpowder, to quote the fireworks from the 2010 hit How long has it been since one exploded? We have to go back to 2013’s “Prism” to recover the last true roars of one of the two most influential voices of pop of the 2013s (the other is naturally Lady Gaga), with “Dark Horse”, “Unconditionally” and “Prism”.
2017’s “Witness” was, by its own admission, a .flop (which also pushed her into a state of deep depression). As for “Smile” of 2020, let’s say that It didn’t leave the same mark on the charts as “One of the boys” and “Teenage dream”the bestsellers that between 2008 and 2010 saw Kate Hudson, this is the singer’s real name, remain steadily at the top of the charts (today the tracklists of those two albums sound almost like greatest hits: “Ur so gay”, “I kissed a girl”, “Hot n cold”, “Thinking of you”, “Waking up in Vegas”; and then “California gurls”, “Teenage dream”, “Firework”, “Last friday night”). After four years of recording silence the 39-year-old pop star is now preparing to do some cleaning in that house that was turned upside down, to collect the shards of glass, throw away the rubbish and leave again. With new music.
Despite everything, the release of “Woman’s world”, announced for theJuly 11th, is already surrounded by a fair amount of hype. After years of indiscretions and rumors about her imminent return, the pop star signed a contract last September $220 million deal with the publishing company Litmus Music to sell the rights to her catalog – has finally decided to give her fans a date. The bizarre marketing move that saw her reveal during the Paris Fashion Week the lyrics of the song getting out of a car with one 150 meter long dress traina scene that went viral on social media: a move in perfect Lady Gaga style from the golden years, when with her disguises and her much talked about stunts she enjoyed regularly stealing her rival’s show.
“I have yet to make a record that starts from a place where I feel really happy and whole and full of love. Sometimes artists say, ‘Oh, that’s boring, you want to make music that comes from a difficult place,’ but it’s actually very bright and joyful,” she says. Which didn’t start off on the right foot, though. It raised some eyebrows. controversy on social media the choice to entrust the production of “Woman’s world” to that Dr. Luke who Kesha dragged to court, accusing him of sexually assaulting her.
At a certain point the voice of “Tik tok” also brought Katy Perry herself into play, claiming that the latter had also been raped by the producer. Perry, however, declared under her oath that she had never been abused by Dr. Luke, who emerged victorious from the case, cleared by the judges of the accusations made against her. In the music biz, Kesha’s story has caused a lot of discussion and .there are those among Katy Perry’s fans who wonder if it was appropriate for their favorite to go back to working with him, already behind some of his biggest hits, from “I kissed a girl” and “Hot n col” to “Teenage dream” and “Last friday night”, up to “Roar”. Also in light of the theme covered in the song, a hymn to female empowerment and girl power.
On social media Katy Perry has already revealed the cover of the single, which portrays her dressed in a white bikini and her legs enclosed in what appear to be metal horse legs. Let’s hope they don’t weigh down her ride. Because the stakes are very high. And missteps are not (anymore) allowed.
