Katy Perry

When Katy Perry became the first artist to have five number-one singles on the same album since Michael Jackson’s Bad, it was a career highpoint for one of the most successful pop artists of the 2010s. Born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson on October 25, 1984, in Santa Barbara, California, the singer recorded a gospel album as a teenager before adopting her stage name. After an uncompleted attempt at a debut in  2006, she released 2008’s One of the Boys. With contributions from Max Martin and Dr. Luke, who would both go on to work with Perry extensively, the album featured “I Kissed A Girl,” “Ur so Gay,” and “Hot N Cold,” high energy songs with mildly edgy lyrics. A landmark of airtight popcraft and sparkling production, 2010’s Teenage Dream was a diamond-certified global smash that included “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” “California Gurls,” and “Teenage Dream,” as well as the empowerment anthem “Firework.”  The year Teenage Dream was released, Perry married comedian Russell Brand. They were divorced two years later.

She followed her mega-blockbuster success with 2013’s Prism, which contained another lite-feminist anthem, “Roar” (a song she would perform at Joe Biden’s inauguration). In 2015, she played the Super Bowl halftime show alongside Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott (though her performance was somewhat eclipsed by the adorably hapless moves of one her shark-costumed backing dancers, who immediately became a viral sensation). That same year she released a new album Witness. In 2016, she married actor Orlando Bloom. In 2020, she released Smile, which, like Witness and Prism before it, fell short of her early-2010s success both critically and commercially.

Perry has appeared in numerous films and TV shows over the years, including Zoolander 2, Peppa Pig, The Smurfs, and the Taylor Swift video “You Need to Calm Down,” and she has frequently topped various men’s magazine “sexist woman alive” lists.  In 2024, she was given a Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards. The timing of the award was odd, as Perry had recently come under almost universal criticism during the rollout of her new album 143, notably her decision to work with Dr. Luke, who had been accused of mental and physical abuse by the singer Kesha. Rolling Stone gave 143 one-and-a-half stars, calling it “a failed attempt to rekindle her old glory.” —Jon Dolan