Katy Perry 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.
108 Facts About Katy Perry
2.
Katy Perry recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records.
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Katy Perry rose to fame with One of the Boys, 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 US Billboard Hot 100 respectively.
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Katy Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 143 million records worldwide.
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Katy Perry has nine US number one singles, three US number one albums and has received various accolades, including a Billboard Spotlight Award, four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, and a Juno Award.
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Katy Perry has been included in the annual Forbes lists of highest-earning women in music from 2011 to 2019.
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Katy Perry began serving as a judge on American Idol during its sixteenth season in 2018.
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Katy Perry is the second most-followed woman and the sixth most-followed person on Twitter, with over 108 million followers.
9.
Katy Perry has a younger brother named David, who is a singer, and an older sister, Angela.
10.
From ages three to 11, Katy Perry frequently moved across the country as her very strict parents set up churches before settling again in Santa Barbara.
11.
Katy Perry's family struggled financially, sometimes using food stamps and eating food from the food bank which fed the congregation at Perry's parents' church.
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Katy Perry primarily listened to gospel music, as non-religious music was generally discouraged in the family's home.
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Katy Perry discovered popular music through CDs she sneaked from her friends.
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Katy Perry later recalled a story about how a friend of hers played "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette, which impacted her songwriting and singing.
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Katy Perry performed the tracks in front of her parents, who let her take vocal lessons like Angela was doing at the time.
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Katy Perry began training at age nine and was incorporated into her parents' ministry, singing in church from ages nine to 17.
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At 13, Katy Perry was given her first guitar for her birthday, and publicly performed songs she wrote.
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Katy Perry tried to "be a bit like the typical Californian girl" while growing up, and started rollerskating, skateboarding, and surfing as a teenager.
19.
Katy Perry took dancing lessons and learned how to swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug.
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Katy Perry completed her General Educational Development requirements early at age 15, during her first year of high school, and left Dos Pueblos High School to pursue a music career.
21.
Katy Perry briefly had music lessons in facilities rented from the Music Academy of the West.
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Katy Perry's singing caught the attention of rock artists Steve Thomas and Jennifer Knapp from Nashville, Tennessee, who brought her there to improve her writing skills.
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Katy Perry went on tour that year as part of Phil Joel's Strangely Normal Tour and embarked on other performances of her own in the United States.
24.
Katy Perry opted to work with Ballard due to his past work with Alanis Morissette, one of her major inspirations.
25.
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.
26.
Katy Perry would perform at the Hotel Cafe, performing new music while she was between record labels.
27.
Katy Perry began work on a solo record due for release in March 2005, but the record was shelved after Java was dropped.
28.
Katy Perry worked with songwriters including Desmond Child, Greg Wells, Butch Walker, Scott Cutler, Anne Preven, the Matrix, Kara DioGuardi, Max Martin, and Dr Luke.
29.
Katy Perry was dropped from Columbia in 2006 as Fingerprints neared completion.
30.
Katy Perry provided backing vocals on Mick Jagger's song "Old Habits Die Hard", which was included on the soundtrack to the 2004 film Alfie.
31.
That year, Katy Perry 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".
32.
In March 2008, Katy 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.
33.
Katy Perry released her first single with Capitol, "I Kissed a Girl", on April 28,2008, as the lead single from One of the Boys.
34.
The Matrix's self-titled debut album, which Katy Perry had recorded with the band in 2004, was released onto iTunes on January 27,2009, as a result of her solo success.
35.
Katy Perry hosted the 2009 MTV Europe Music Awards in November 2009, becoming the first person to host two consecutive ceremonies of the European awards.
36.
On July 22,2009, Katy 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".
37.
Katy Perry met her future husband Russell Brand in the summer of 2009 while filming a cameo appearance for his film Get Him to the Greek.
38.
Katy Perry began dating Brand after meeting him again that September at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards.
39.
Katy Perry embarked on her second tour, the California Dreams Tour, in support of Teenage Dream from February 2011 to January 2012.
40.
In September 2010, Katy Perry was scheduled to appear on the 41st-season premiere of Sesame Street.
41.
Katy 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.
42.
In December 2010, Katy Perry played Moe Szyslak's girlfriend in the live-action segment from a Christmas episode of The Simpsons titled "The Fight Before Christmas".
43.
Katy Perry made her film debut in the 3D family motion picture The Smurfs as Smurfette on July 29,2011.
44.
Katy Perry hosted Saturday Night Live on December 10,2011, with Robyn as the episode's musical guest.
45.
Katy Perry began to venture into business when she endorsed her first fragrance, Purr, in November 2010.
46.
Katy Perry married Russell Brand on October 23,2010, in a traditional Hindu ceremony near the Ranthambhore tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan, India.
47.
Katy Perry later stated that conflicting career schedules and his desire to have children before she was ready led to the end of their marriage and that he never spoke to her again after sending a text message that he was divorcing her, while Brand asserted that he divorced her due to her commercial success and reluctance to engage in activism.
48.
Katy Perry was initially distraught over their divorce and said that she contemplated suicide.
49.
In November 2012, Katy Perry began work on her fourth album, Prism.
50.
Katy Perry commented "I felt very prismatic", which inspired the album's name.
51.
Four days later, Katy Perry performed the songs from the album at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles.
52.
Katy Perry's third headlining tour, the Prismatic World Tour, began in May 2014 and concluded in October 2015.
53.
Katy Perry performed at the 2015 Rock in Rio festival on September 27,2015.
54.
On November 23,2014, the NFL announced that Katy Perry would perform at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show on February 1,2015.
55.
On June 17,2014, Katy Perry announced that she had founded her own record label under Capitol Records, titled Metamorphosis Music.
56.
Ferras was the first artist to get signed to her label, and Katy Perry served as an executive producer on his self-titled EP.
57.
Katy Perry recorded a duet with him on the EP, titled "Legends Never Die".
58.
Outside of her music career, Katy Perry reprised her role as Smurfette in The Smurfs 2, which was released in theaters on July 31,2013.
59.
Katy Perry made a cameo appearance in the music video for Madonna's song "Bitch I'm Madonna" in June 2015.
60.
In September 2015, she appeared in the documentaries Katy Perry: Making of the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show, which followed Perry's preparation for her Super Bowl performance, and Jeremy Scott: The People's Designer, which followed the life and career of designer Jeremy Scott.
61.
Katy Perry described it as "the most fun, colorful world that helps guide your musical dreams".
62.
Katy Perry started writing songs for her new album in June 2016, and recorded an anthem for NBC Sports's coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics titled "Rise", which was released the following month.
63.
Katy Perry chose to release it as a standalone track rather than save it for her album "because now more than ever, there is a need for our world to unite".
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On February 10,2017, Katy Perry released the album's lead single "Chained to the Rhythm" featuring Skip Marley.
65.
Katy Perry embarked on Witness: The Tour, which began in September 2017 and ended in August 2018.
66.
Katy Perry subsequently recorded a cover of the Dear Evan Hansen song "Waving Through a Window" for the deluxe edition of the cast recording, which was released on November 2,2018.
67.
Katy Perry recorded the song "Immortal Flame" for the game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, and had a playable character modeled after her.
68.
Outside of recording music, Katy Perry appeared as herself in the film Zoolander 2, which was released in February 2016.
69.
Katy Perry's shoes are available on her website, Katy Perry Collections, and at retailers such as Dillard's and Walmart.
70.
Katy Perry was signed for a $25-million salary to serve as a judge on ABC's revival of American Idol, which premiered in March 2018.
71.
Katy Perry began a relationship with Orlando Bloom in early 2016, and the couple got engaged on February 14,2019.
72.
At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards, Katy Perry performed "Here You Come Again", alongside Dolly Parton and Kacey Musgraves, as part of a tribute to Parton.
73.
In June 2019, Katy Perry appeared in the music video of Taylor Swift's "You Need to Calm Down".
74.
Katy Perry said her management prevented him from speaking about his time with the singer.
75.
However, Johnny Wujek, the creative director of said party defended Katy Perry, saying that she "would never do something like that" and accused Kloss of having an "ongoing obsession" with her.
76.
On January 20,2021, Katy Perry performed "Firework" at the Celebrating America concert during the inauguration of Joe Biden.
77.
Katy Perry began hosting a concert residency named Play at Resorts World Las Vegas on December 29,2021.
78.
On her 37th birthday the next month, Katy Perry guest hosted The Ellen DeGeneres Show and starred in a holiday advertisement for Gap Inc which featured her singing "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles.
79.
Two months later, Katy Perry followed this with "When I'm Gone", a collaboration with Swedish DJ Alesso that made her the third person to reach number one on Croatia's ARC 100 list across three different decades following Lady Gaga and Coldplay.
80.
Katy Perry became the new face for Just Eat's, SkipTheDishes's, Lieferando's, and Menulog's advertisements and created a new remix of their jingle.
81.
Katy 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".
82.
Katy Perry cites her sister Angela as the woman who has had the most influence on her.
83.
Katy Perry paid homage to the band by naming her third fragrance Killer Queen.
84.
Katy Perry has described herself as a "singer-songwriter masquerading as a pop star" and maintains that honest songwriting is very important to her.
85.
Alex Miller from NME felt that "Katy Perry's problem is often her voice" on One of the Boys, stating that "somewhere along the line someone convinced her she was like, well, a ballsy rock chick".
86.
On social media, Katy Perry surpassed Justin Bieber as the most followed person on Twitter in November 2013.
87.
Katy Perry won the 2015 Guinness World Record for most Twitter followers, and became the first person to gain 100 million followers on the site in June 2017.
88.
In November 2010, Katy Perry told Harper's Bazaar that she was proud of and satisfied with her figure.
89.
In February 2009, Katy Perry told Seventeen that her fashion style was "a bit of a concoction of different things" and stated she enjoyed humor in her clothing.
90.
Katy Perry has described herself as having "multipersonality disorder" for fashion.
91.
Katy Perry was one of the driving forces behind the sound of pop radio in the 2010s.
92.
Katy Perry has supported various charitable organizations and causes throughout her career.
93.
Katy Perry has contributed to organizations aimed at improving the lives and welfare of children in particular.
94.
Katy Perry hosted and performed at the We Can Survive concert along with Bonnie McKee, Kacey Musgraves, Sara Bareilles, Ellie Goulding, and duo Tegan and Sara at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, California, on October 23,2013.
95.
On her 27th birthday, Katy Perry set up a donations page for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Auckland, and set up a similar page benefiting the David Lynch Foundation for her 28th birthday.
96.
Katy Perry performed at the One Love Manchester benefit concert for the victims of the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, among various performers including its organizer Ariana Grande, which was broadcast live on June 4,2017, on radio and television stations around the world.
97.
In March 2018, Katy Perry announced Witness: Coming Home, a benefit concert that was held in her hometown of Santa Barbara on May 19,2018.
98.
Katy Perry partnered with the Santa Barbara Foundation, the 93108 Fund and The 805 UndocuFund, organizations which help in assisting members of the community in the Santa Barbara area through grants and various philanthropic efforts.
99.
Katy Perry has publicly advocated for LGBT rights and admitted that she wrote "I Kissed a Girl" about her own bisexual experiences with other women.
100.
Katy Perry identifies as a feminist, and appeared in April 2013 in a video clip for the "Chime for Change" campaign that aimed to spread female empowerment.
101.
Katy Perry has said that America's lack of free health care drove her "absolutely crazy".
102.
Katy Perry performed at three rallies for Obama, in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Wisconsin, singing a rendition of "Let's Stay Together" as well as a number of her songs.
103.
Katy Perry endorsed Kamala Harris in the United States Senate election in California, and organized a fundraiser for Harris at her home in Los Angeles in November 2016.
104.
Katy Perry publicly endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.
105.
Katy Perry performed alongside Elton John at a fundraising concert for Clinton in New York City in March 2016.
106.
Katy Perry spoke and performed at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in support of Clinton.
107.
In 2022, Katy Perry posted a picture of herself voting for Rick Caruso in the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral election.
108.
Katy Perry was declared the Top Global Female Recording Artist of 2013 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.