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After
earning a GED during her freshman year of high school, she began to
pursue a career in music. As Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled
gospel album in 2001, which due to the closing of her record label, was
deemed unsuccessful. She later recorded an album with production team
The Matrix and completed the majority of a solo album from 2004–5,
neither of which were released.
After signing with Capitol Music
Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the
stage name Katy Perry and released her first Internet single "Ur So Gay"
that November, which garnered public attention but failed to chart. She
rose to fame with the release of her second single "I Kissed a Girl" in
2008, which went on to top international charts. Perry's first
mainstream studio album One of the Boys followed later that year and
subsequently, became the thirty third-best selling album worldwide of
2008. It was accredited platinum certification by the Recording Industry
Association of America, while "I Kissed a Girl" and her second single
"Hot n Cold" both received multi-platinum certifications. Her sophomore
studio album Teenage Dream was released in August 2010 and debuted at
number one on the Billboard 200. The album included hit singles
"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework" and "E.T." , all of
which topped the charts on the Billboard Hot 100, making the Teenage
Dream album one of only nine albums to ever produce four or more Hot 100
number ones. With "E.T." at number one on the chart of May 12, 2011,
Perry became the first artist in history to spend a whole year, 52
consecutive weeks, in the top 10 of Billboard Hot 100.
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Perry was credited as a guest judge
on the seventh series of British television show The X Factor; has
released a fragrance called "Purr"; and will appear in the upcoming 2011
film The Smurfs. Perry had a long relationship with Travie McCoy; she
married Russell Brand on October 23, 2010.
Personal life Perry
dated Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy, whom she met in a
recording studio in New York, on and off for several years. Perry and
McCoy broke up in December 2008.
Perry first met British comedian
Russell Brand in the summer of 2008 when Perry filmed a cameo
appearance for Brand's film Get Him to the Greek. Perry and Brand began
dating after meeting again in September 2009 at the MTV Video Music
Awards, where Brand, as host, remarked, "Katy Perry didn't win an award
and she's staying at the same hotel as me, so she's gonna need a
shoulder to cry on. So in a way, I'm the real winner tonight." The
couple became engaged in December 2009 while vacationing in India. In a
July 2010 YouTube interview, Perry said Brand would be a "perfect"
father. Perry stated that she plans to take dual British citizenship
after marrying Brand. "One of the first things I'll do is apply for dual
citizenship. I'm not too sure if I have to take a test as I've not had
time to look into it. But England is like my second home". Perry and
Brand married on October 23, 2010 in a traditional Hindu ceremony near
the Ranthambhore tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan, India, the same location
where Brand had proposed.
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Early life and career 1984–2006: Early life and career beginnings
Perry
was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Santa Barbara, California to
Keith, a West Coast scenester in the 1960s, and Mary Hudson (née Perry),
an evangelist who grew up in Southern California and had "a tempestuous
first marriage in Zimbabwe". Perry has German, Portuguese, Irish, and
English ancestry. She is the second child of two pastors. She has an
older sister and younger brother. Perry's mother's aunt and uncle were
screenwriter Eleanor Perry and director Frank Perry.
Perry was
incorporated into her parents' ministry and sang in their church between
the ages of nine and seventeen. She grew up listening to gospel music,
was not allowed to listen to what her mother called "secular music", and
attended Christian schools and camps. As a child, Perry learned how to
dance in a recreation building in Santa Barbara. She was taught by
seasoned dancers and began with swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug. She
took her GED after her freshman year at Dos Pueblos High School and
decided to leave school in the pursuit of a career in music. Perry
initially started singing "because she was at that point in childhood
where was copycatting sister and everything she ." Her sister practiced
with cassette tapes, while Perry took the tapes herself when her sister
was not around. She rehearsed the songs and performed them in front of
her parents, who suggested she take vocal coaching. She grabbed the
opportunity and began taking lessons at the age of nine and continued
until she was sixteen. She later enrolled in at the Music Academy of the
West in Santa Barbara, and studied Italian opera for a short period of
time.
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At the age of 15, Perry's singing in
church attracted the attention of rock veterans from Nashville,
Tennessee, who brought her there to polish her writing skills. In
Nashville, Perry started recording demos and was taught by country music
veterans on how to craft songs and play guitar. Perry signed to the
Christian music label Red Hill, under which she recorded her first album
at the age of 15. Performing as Katy Hudson, she released the
self-titled Gospel-rock album in 2001. The album was unsuccessful,
however, after the label ceased operations at the end of 2001. She later
changed her surname to Perry, her mother's maiden name, because "Katy
Hudson" was too close to film actress Kate Hudson. At the age of 17,
Perry left her home for Los Angeles, where she worked with Glen Ballard
on an album for record label Island. The album was due for release in
2005, but Billboard reported it also went nowhere. Perry was dropped by
Island Def Jam Music Group. Some of Perry and Ballard's collaborations
included "Box", "Diamonds" and "Long Shot", were posted on her official
MySpace page. "Simple", one of the songs she recorded with Ballard, was
released on the soundtrack to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the
Traveling Pants.
Perry signed to Columbia Records in 2004.
However, the label was not amenable with her vision, not putting her in
the "driver's seat". Instead, one of Columbia's ideas was to pair Perry
with the record production team The Matrix, who was working on an album,
to serve as its female vocalist. Although the album was later shelved,
she caught the attention of the music press: Her burgeoning music career
led to her being named "The Next Big Thing" in October 2004 by Blender
magazine. With no album project ongoing, Perry began recording her own.
Eighty percent completed, however, Columbia decided not to finish it and
dropped her off the label. While waiting to find another label, she
worked in an independent A&R company called Taxi Music. In 2006,
Perry was featured in the tail-end of the video to P.O.D.'s single
"Goodbye for Now". She made a cameo appearance in Carbon Leaf's video,
"Learn to Fly".
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2007–2009: One of the Boys and MTV Unplugged
While
in the process of being dropped by Columbia in 2006, the company's
publicity executive Angelica Cob-Baehler enthusiastically recommended
Perry to Virgin Records chairman Jason Flom. At the time Flom was
leading a complete revival in fortunes at the label and looking to crown
recent achievements by breaking a global pop act. Despite mixed
reactions from fellow Virgin executives, Flom became convinced that
Perry could be that breakthrough star, and at the start of 2007 extended
discussions with Columbia resulted in Katy Perry signing to the newly
created Capitol Music Group, a merger between Virgin and Capitol. As
part of the deal the label secured the masters to the unfinished album
recorded while at Columbia that would go on form a significant part of
her debut album official mainstream debut album, One of the Boys.
The
Columbia recordings were seen by Flom as being "very strong but lacking
an undeniable smash or two that would work both at U.S. pop radio and
internationally" and so one of the executive's first actions after
completing the signing was to set up a collaboration between Perry and
the writer-producer Dr Luke. The results were the songs "I Kissed a
Girl" and "Hot n Cold". Establishing her image was one of the immediate
concerns of her management. A campaign was started in November 2007 with
the release of the video to "Ur So Gay", aimed at introducing her to
the music market. A digital EP led by "Ur So Gay" was later released to
create online buzz and press story. This was a successful move that
resulted in bringing Perry to the attention of Madonna, who mentioned
her on KISS FM and KRQ's JohnJay & Rich morning show in Arizona. On
March 10, 2008, she appeared as herself on the ABC Family television
series, Wildfire, on the episode "Life's Too Short".
She went on
the next step of promoting the album, undertaking a two-month tour of
radio stations. The album's official lead single, "I Kissed a Girl", was
released on May 6, 2008. Perry's A&R, Chris Anokute, told
HitQuarters 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. Capitol's SVP of
Promotions Dennis Reese saw the vision and helped push the single on
national radio. The first station to pick it up and take a chance was
The River in Nashville. After playing it for three days they were
innundated with enthusiastic calls.
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In December 2008,
Perry apologized to British singer Lily Allen for remarks in which she
called herself a "skinnier version" of her, saying she meant it as a
joke. Allen retaliated and told a British radio station that she "happen
to know for a fact that she was an American version" of her because
their record company needed "to find something controversial and
'kooky'" like her.
On May 16, 2009,
Perry performed at the opening ceremony of the annual Life Ball in
Vienna, Austria. In June 2009, lawyers acting for Katy Perry opposed the
recent trademark of Australian fashion designer Katie Perry who uses
her own name to market loungewear. Some media outlets reported this as a
lawsuit, which Katy Perry has denied on her blog. Katie Perry the
designer reports on her blog that at a hearing with IP Australia on July
10, 2009, the singer's lawyers withdrew their opposition to the
trademark. During the summer of 2009 Perry filmed a cameo appearance for
Get Him to the Greek; her scene, in which she kisses her future fiancé
Russell Brand was cut, and does not appear in the final film. Discussing
the issue with MTV, Perry hypothesized there may have been some fear
that seeing the two make out would have taken viewers out of the
experience. In 2009, Perry was featured on two singles: a remix of
Colorado-based band 3OH!3's song "Starstrukk" in August (the idea for
the collaboration came after Perry's tour that featured 3OH!3 as the
supporting act). The song was released over iTunes on September 8, 2009;
and "If We Ever Meet Again", the fourth single off Timbaland's album
Shock Value II in December. In October 2009, MTV Unplugged revealed that
Perry was one of the artists to perform for them, and that she would be
releasing a live album of the performance, including two new tracks,
"Brick by Brick" and Fountains of Wayne cover "Hackensack". The album
was released on November 17, and includes both a CD and a DVD.
2010–present: Teenage Dream
Perry
appeared as a guest judge alongside Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and Louis
Walsh during the Dublin audition stage of the seventh series of the
British television show The X Factor on June 28, 2010 (later televised
on August 28). She was one of the many celebrities chosen to fulfil the
role of judge whilst Dannii Minogue was on maternity leave. She later
returned to the show on October 17 to perform "Firework". Perry's second
mainstream studio album was titled Teenage Dream and was released in
August 2010. The first single from the album was titled "California
Gurls". The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and was
the fastest rising single from a Capitol Records artist since Bobbie
Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" in 1967. The cover art for Teenage Dream is
a painting by Will Cotton in which depicts Perry lying naked on clouds
of cotton candy; resembling the shots of Perry in the video for
"California Gurls". The booklet of the physical edition of the album, in
keeping with the theme of cotton candy, has a cotton candy scent. The
album's second single "Teenage Dream" was released in July 2010.
"Firework" is the album's third single.
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Katy Perry appeared at the 2010 MTV
Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. She was nominated for two
awards and presented the award of "Best Male Video" with Nicki Minaj to
Eminem. On September 14, she returned to her old high school, Dos
Pueblos High School, where she performed a short set for the school's
students. Perry performed "Hot n Cold" with Elmo from Sesame Street,
which was originally to appear on the forty-first-season premiere of the
educational children's program on September 27, 2010. However, four
days before the scheduled airing, Sesame Workshop announced, "In light
of the feedback we've received on the Katy Perry music video ... we have
decided we will not air the segment on the television broadcast of
Sesame Street, which is aimed at preschoolers. Katy Perry fans will
still be able to view the video on YouTube." The main reason was that
parents complained about what appeared to be a great amount of cleavage
shown by her dress. Perry shot the video for Firework in Budapest in
September 2010. An open casting call drew an unprecedented 38,000
applicants. She proceeded to perform at a concert in Budapest on October
1, her first concert in Central and Eastern Europe. Perry has announced
her own fragrance to be released in autumn of this year, named "Purr".
It will come in a cat-shaped bottle, and will be available through
Nordstrom stores. 'Teenage Dream led Perry to nominations four awards at
the 2011 Grammy Awards: Album of the Year, Best Pop Vocal Album, Best
Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Teenage Dream", and Best Pop
Collaboration with Vocals for "California Gurls". Following the Grammys,
Perry released the fourth single from her album "Teenage Dream", "E.T."
The single was a remixed version featuring Kanye West. The music video
for E.T. was directed by Floria Sigismondi and features Shaun Ross as
the main love interest. Musical style and themes
Perry has a
contralto vocal range. Because of her low vocal range, she lowers the
key of many of her songs while singing live in order to perfect her
sound. Among Perry's musical influences are Alanis Morissette, pop
rockers Cyndi Lauper, Pat Benatar, Joan Jett, Shirley Manson, and
Freddie Mercury, the late frontman of the British band Queen. Growing up
listening to gospel music, Perry had few references when she began
recording songs. Asked by the producer with whom she would like to
collaborate, Perry had no idea. That night, she went with her mother to a
hotel. Inside, she turned on VH1 and saw producer Glen Ballard talking
about Morissette; Ballard produced Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, the
album that had a "huge influence" on Perry. She told her initial
collaborator that she had decided to work with Ballard. The producer
arranged a meeting for her and Ballard in Los Angeles. Perry presented
him a song, and a day later she was called. Ballard developed Perry for a
few years.
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Perry described her music by saying,
"Someone kind of penned it for me the other day, and I've been using it
ever since." According to her, she has "changed a lot between the ages
of 15 to 23." Her first album dwells on Gospel music. She related that
her perspective in music was "a bit enclosed and very strict", and
everything she did was church-related. Her second album, One of the
Boys, is described as "secular" and "rock," and reflects a departure
from her religious musical roots. Perry expects to record more pop songs
for her next album.
Perry is artistically involved in her
projects, especially in the writing process. Since she could play
guitar, she would start writing songs at home and present it to her
producers. Perry is mostly inspired by specific moments of her life. She
said it is easy for her to write songs about heartbreak. Most of the
themes in One of the Boys deal with heartbreak, teen adventure, and
"puking into toilets". Perry's mother reportedly told British tabloid
Daily Mail that she dislikes her daughter's music, calling it "shameful
and disgusting". Perry said her mother was misquoted and told MTV that
it was false information. Her songs "Ur So Gay" and "I Kissed a Girl"
have received negative reactions from both religious and gay sectors.
The songs have been respectively labeled as being homophobic and
promoting homosexuality, as well as "lez ploitational". MTV mentioned
criticism suggesting that Perry is using "bi-curiosity" as a way to sell
records. Perry responded to the controversy surrounding "Ur So Gay":
"It's not a negative connotation. It's not, 'you're so gay,' like,
'you're so lame,' but the fact of the matter is that this boy should've
been gay. I totally understand how it could be misconstrued or whatever
... It wasn't stereotyping anyone in particular, I was talking about
ex-boyfriends."
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