Katy Perry

Prevented from listening to pop music by her Evangelical Christian pastor parents, Katy Perry (born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson on October 25, 1984 in Santa Barbara, California) grew up on a strict diet of gospel music before prancing her way to international fame as a flirtatious starlet. Spotted singing in her parents' church at the age of 15, she honed her skills in Nashville and released an unsuccessful gospel rock album in 2001 under her real name Katy Hudson. She moved to LA, changed her name due to its similarity to actress Kate Hudson and reinvented herself as a bubbly, outspoken pop minx. Her single “Ur So Gay” won the admiration of Madonna before “I Kissed a Girl” shot her to worldwide stardom in 2008. Her debut album One for the Boys (2008) produced further hits “Waking Up in Vegas” and “Hot N Cold” and she was invited to host the 2008 and 2009 MTV Europe Video Music Awards, causing a stir for her bizarre selection of outfits. She also served as a judge on American Idol and collaborated with Snoop Dogg on the single “California Gurls,” which earned her a Number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single's album Teenage Dream gave her another Number 1 and she went on to release the title track, “Firework,” “E.T.,” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” all of which peaked at Number 1, with the final single “The One That Got Away” making it to Number 3. Using the emotion garnered from her divorce with British actor Russell Brand, she started writing her fourth album Prism (2013), which went straight to the top of the Billboard 200 chart. In 2014, her performance at the Super Bowl with Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott made it into the Guinness World Records as the most-watched show in Super Bowl history, with an audience of 118.5 million people in the US. Aside from performing, she also set up her own record label in 2014, voiced the character of Smurfette in The Smurfs (2011) and its sequel The Smurfs 2 (2013), became a guest curator of Madonna's Art for Freedom initiative, and starred as herself in Zoolander 2 (2016). Her fifth album, Witness, was released in 2017, preceded by the singles “Chained to the Rhythm” and “Bon Appétit.” Three years later, she returned with Smile (2020), an uplifting pop album which featured a whole host of top-notch producers, including Charlie Puth, Josh Abraham, and Australian duo Dreamlab. The LP spawned the singles “Daisies,” “Harleys in Hawaii,” and the title track, which made it to Number 21 on the US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. In 2024, she rounded up Kim Petras, 21 Savage, Doechii, and JID for her seventh studio album 143.

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