Katheryn Elizabeth "Katy" Hudson (born October 25, 1984), better known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She had limited exposure to secular music during her childhood and pursued a career in gospel music as a teenager. After releasing her debut studio album, Katy Hudson, in 2001, Perry moved to Los Angeles the following year to venture into secular music. She recorded a collaborative album with the Matrix, which was released in 2009. Perry also recorded an album with Glen Ballard that was not released due to contractual complications.

In April 2007, she signed a deal with Capitol Records. Perry rose to fame in 2008 with the release of the singles "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold" from her second album, One of the Boys. Her third album, Teenage Dream (2010), was preceded by the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles "California Gurls" and "Teenage Dream", and later produced the number-one singles "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" as well as the number-three single "The One That Got Away". The album became the first by a female artist to produce five number-one Billboard Hot 100 songs, and the second overall after Michael Jackson's album Bad (1987). In March 2012, she reissued the album as Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, which produced the singles "Part of Me" and number-two "Wide Awake". Her fourth album, Prism, was released in 2013 and included the successful singles "Roar" and "Dark Horse".

Perry has received many awards and nominations, including three Guinness World Records, and been included in the Forbes list of "Top-Earning Women In Music" for 2011, 2012, and 2013. Throughout her career, she has sold 11 million albums and 81 million singles worldwide, making her one of the best-selling artists of all time. Perry has also made celebrity endorsements and released perfumes Purr, Meow!, and Killer Queen. In July 2011, she made her film debut voicing Smurfette in The Smurfs. The following July, she released a documentary film, Katy Perry: Part of Me, which concentrated on her life as a touring artist and the dissolution of her brief marriage to English actor and comedian Russell Brand in the early 2010s.
In November 2012, Perry began work on her fourth album, Prism. She told Billboard, "I know exactly the record I want to make next. I know the artwork, the coloring and the tone" and "I even know what type of tour I'm doing next. I'll be very pleased if the vision I have in my head becomes a reality."]Although she told L'Uomo Vogue in June 2012 that she planned to have "darker elements" in Prism following the end of her marriage, Perry revealed to MTV during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards that she changed the album's direction after periods of self-reflection. She commented "I felt very prismatic", which inspired the album's name. "Roar" was released as the lead single from Prism on August 10, 2013. It was promoted at the MTV Video Music Awards and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100. "Unconditionally" was released as the second single from Prism on October 16, 2013,] and peaked at number 14 in the United States.

Katy Perry performing during The Prismatic World Tour
Perry performing during The Prismatic World Tour in July 2014
Prism was released on October 18, 2013,[137] and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart.[138] Four days later, Perry performed the songs from the album at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles.[139] "Dark Horse" was released as the album's third single on December 17, 2013, and became her ninth number-one single on January 29, 2014.[140][141] In 2014, "Birthday"[142][143] and "This Is How We Do"[144] followed as the album's fourth and fifth singles, and reached the top 25 on the Hot 100.[46] Additionally, she recorded and co-wrote a duet with Mayer titled "Who You Love" for his album Paradise Valley. The song was released on August 12, 2013.[145][146] Perry began her third headlining tour, The Prismatic World Tour, on May 7, 2014. It started in Europe, and will continue through North America and Oceania.[147] before concluding in Europe on March 22, 2015. On November 23, 2014, NFL announced that Perry will perform at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show on February 1, 2015.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry named her fifth on the list of Top Global Recording Artists of 2013. On June 26, 2014, she was declared the Top Certified Digital Artist Ever by the Recording Industry Association of America for certified sales of 72 million digital singles in the United States. In May 2014, a portrait of Perry by painter Mark Ryden was featured in his exhibition "The Gay 90s", and shown at the Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles. Along with several other artists, she also recorded a cover version of the song "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)" on a limited-edition concept album to accompany the exhibition.That month, a portrait of Perry by artist Will Cotton was included in the United States National Portrait Gallery.


Aside from her music career, Perry reprised her role as Smurfette in The Smurfs 2, which was released in theaters on July 31, 2013. Like its predecessor, The Smurfs 2 was a financial success and panned by critics. In March 2014, she made a guest appearance playing herself in the season finale of the Kroll Show. Killer Queen was released as her third fragrance in August 2013 through Coty, Inc.[ In January 2014, she became a guest curator of Madonna's Art for Freedom initiative.] On June 17, 2014, Perry announced that she had founded her own record label under Capitol Records, titled Metamorphosis Music. Ferras was the first artist to sign to her label, and Perry served as an executive producer on his self-titled EP. She also recorded a duet titled "Legends Never Die" with Ferras on the EP. She ranked seventh on the 2013 Forbes list for "Top-Earning Women In Music" with $39 million. In February 2014, her relationship with Mayer ended.
During the early stages of her career, Perry's musical style gravitated towards gospel and she aspired to be as successful as Amy Grant. At the age of 15, she heard Queen's "Killer Queen" and has described it as being the song that inspired her to pursue a career in music. She cites the band's frontman, Freddie Mercury, as her biggest influence and expressed how the "combination of his sarcastic approach to writing lyrics and his 'I don't give a fuck' attitude" inspired her music. She paid homage to the band by naming her third fragrance Killer Queen] Perry described The Beach Boys and their album Pet Sounds as having a considerable influence on her music: "[It] is one of my favorite records and it influenced pretty much all of my songwriting. All of the melody choices that I make are because of [it]." The singer also holds the Beatles' album The Beatles in high esteem, and described these two albums as "the only things I listened to for probably two years straight."

Perry cites Alanis Morissette and her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill as a significant musical inspiration, and opted to work with Morissette's frequent collaborator Ballard as a result. Perry stated, "Jagged Little Pill was the most perfect female record ever made. There's a song for anyone on that record; I relate to all those songs. They're still so timeless." Additionally, Perry borrows influence from Flaming Red by Patty Griffin and 10 Cent Wings by Jonatha Brooke.Perry intends to become "more of a Joni Mitchell", releasing folk and acoustic music. Perry's autobiographical documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me was largely influenced by Madonna: Truth or Dare. She admires Madonna's ability to reinvent herself, saying "I want to evolve like Madonna."


Perry has listed multiple artists as having inspired her work. She names Gwen Stefani and Björk as influences, particularly admiring Björk's "willingness to always be taking chances". "Firework" was inspired by a passage in the book On the Road by Jack Kerouac in which the author compares people who are full of life to fireworks that shoot across the sky and make people watch in awe.[Her second concert tour, the California Dreams Tour, was reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of OzShe also credits the 1996 movie The Craft for being the influence behind her song "Dark Horse", and Eckhart Tolle's book The Power of Now for influencing Prism.