From gospel singer to pop icon: see interesting facts about Katy Perry

Singer Katy Perry turns 40 this Friday (25th) and half of her life has been dedicated to her musical career, with a debut album released at the age of 17. Titled after herself, 2001’s “Katy Hudson”, the album addressed themes of faith and devotion to God.

Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised by pastor parents, Katy moved away from religion with the 2008 album “One of the Boys”, which includes one of her first hits, “I Kissed a Girl”, in which she sings about kissing a girl and liking it.

The popularity is proven by Google Trends, with interest in the singer around the world beginning to grow during this period, which was also marked by other hits, such as the songs “Hot N Cold” and “Thinking of You”.

This moment was a harbinger of what was to come, when Katy was elevated to pop star status two years later with the 2010 album “Teenage Dream.” With the singles “Firework,” “California Gurls” and “Last Friday Night (TGIF)”, it was also during this period that she reached the peak of popularity on Trends.

The world became interested in her again in February 2015, the year she almost reached her peak in searches again, during her Super Bowl halftime performance, when she was also at the height of the “PRISM” album era (2013).

The show was considered by Billboard as one of the 14 best in the history of this show. It featured Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott and included a medley of her hits, such as the song “Roar”, which is the singer’s most viewed clip on YouTube.

“Roar” is also among the 15 most viewed music videos on the platform, with 4 billion views. Katy performed the hit on top of an animatronic lion, wearing a fire-themed costume.

Since then, interest in the singer has increased on Trends with the release of the album “Witness” in June 2017, but she has not maintained the same popularity as in previous years.

In love with Brazil, she released her new album, “143” on the same day she performed as a headliner at Rock in Rio. This is her first album after a four-year hiatus since “Smile” (2020), which did not take off in the charts and brought few memorable hits.

In her last visit here, she ate coxinha with Ana Maria Braga, participated in Estrela da Casa (Globo) and won a Brazilian HR with the name Catarina Pereira.

Even Gretchen already starred in one of the official videos for Katy’s song “Swish Swish”, in 2017, and the following year, the Brazilian took to the stage at the singer’s show in São Paulo.

This love was also reciprocated by Brazilians, but in the form of memes. The catchphrase “My name is Júlia” was sung by the crowd watching the artist’s show at Rock in Rio during the song “Dark Horse”. The phrase became a meme in 2013, when Júlia Ruffato, then 10 years old, published a video singing the song that way.

Furthermore, “Carioca Girls”, a parody of the hit “California Gurls” was also successful in Brazil and has accumulated 7 million views on YouTube.