Not without sin: How music brought Katy Perry from church to pop olympus
"Thirty-two is a wonderful age. I like it! I would never exchange it for the opportunity to become twenty years old again. I became much calmer. And I learned a lot: patience, the ability to say no, the fact that life does not necessarily end with marriage." says Katy Perry in one of the fresh interviews dedicated to the release of her new album "Witness". This could be taken as a standard set of self-motivating platitudes ("This album is the best I have done, these songs fully reflect my personality," and so on - you probably heard this many times), if you don’t know about the singer’s past. For her, self-taught from the family of a Christian pastor, a life free of dogma and taboo began at about twenty, and since then she really had to learn a lot of survival skills in show business.
Take the same interview. It doesn't matter if Katy Perry took a course of preparing for communication with the press, which the management of large labels often arranges for her clients, or the ability to distribute exemplary "pop star interviews" came to her with experience - the singer knows her maneuver perfectly. Avoid specifics, answer as streamlined as possible - as a last resort, you can say that you have been misinterpreted. Take the interviewer's compliments with such surprise, as if hearing them for the first time. Instead of answering an awkward question, change the subject. Smile
This is not so much insincerity as the basics, and Perry, who still recall her past, was forced to memorize them. She is sometimes confused in the testimony - to the simple question about a new short haircut, she managed to give two different answers - but it is still difficult to catch her hand. She dodged the topic of the Cold War with Taylor Swift (she allegedly dedicated the song “Bad Blood” to her) for almost three years and only in a recent conversation with James Corden she admitted that, yes, the conflict really dragged on. By that time, she was ready to answer - a joint single with Nicky Minaj "Swish Swish" - but Perry went around the sharp corner as carefully as possible, saying that the track was not addressed specifically to Swift, but in general "to everyone who tries to persecute you." Maybe so, although the text with the refish "swish swish, bish" noticeably narrows the circle of suspects.
About the album "Witness" (it is difficult to translate the word game into Russian, but the name clearly means not only the "witness", but also "wit" - the self-expression of an intelligent person, not deprived of a sense of humor) Katy Perry speaks of a collection of songs about liberation. "Chained to the Rhythm" - about political force to the will, "Bon Appetit" - about sexual emancipation, "Swish Swish" - see above. The release became the key motive for Perry, only she interprets it not as a call to arms (for this, please, to Madonna and Lady Gaga), but as the right to rewrite yourself over and over again, erasing the previous version to the ground. Perry is not a rebel; she is Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany. And, like the heroine of Capote, she had to try hard to leave her past life, leaving almost no imprints.
Sample Daughter
Perry recalls how she used to go to Madonna and Marilyn Manson's concerts in her teens — not to listen to them, but to protest against the blasphemous artists and hand out flyers to their fans how to find God. "Our Madonna was Amy Grant," says the singer, referring to a Christian music star, with whom 17-year-old Katie Hudson (at that time she recorded under her passport name) was compared first.
Pop music in the house of Hudson, a repentant hippie who joined the Pentecostal church, was strictly forbidden, like most Hollywood films, but the list of sinful attributes of the outside world, of course, was not limited. For example, “Lucky Charms” breakfast cereals fell under sanctions - simply because of the name (“good luck”, this devilish trick, the Pentecostal must reject, relying entirely on higher providence). But, still being a child, Katie mastered the glossary: "Speaking in tongues was in the order of things for me - like asking for salt."
At first, music was a continuation of the Christian mission for her, although co-author and first mentor Katie, Brian White, had to convince her to write explanatory songs — that people should know that she has romantic feelings only for God. With all the modesty of the image - a black dress in the peas, worn jeans - in the texts of the young singer, even then, ambiguity penetrated.
False start in Christian rock at Katie Hudson happened more for technical reasons: Red Hill label went bankrupt, barely having time to sell two hundred copies of her debut album. The singer took the failure with due humility and for several years tried to restart her career, but did not move further than the backing vocalist in the new metal group P.O.D., barely noticeable behind the backs of her brothers in faith.
America's Sweetheart
Perry especially does not hide the desire to be an All-American darling - even if for the sake of this you would have to flirt with a frank camp on the verge of vulgarity. John Sibruk in the book "Machine of Songs" can not refrain from greasy jokes, saying that young Katie was thinking about breast reduction, but then decided not to reject God's gift. And of course, between the performer of Christian songs and the heroine of the clip "California Gurls", splashing whipped cream from her bra, that distance, but at the heart of these very different versions of the singer, in general, the same desire - to accept the chosen role and bring its up to the absolute. Even at the cost of self-sacrifice.
Under the crossfire, Perry came down repeatedly: almost simultaneously, the former monarchs licked her (in this sense, the mother of the singer got even more), on the one hand, and LGBT activists on the other (the latter could not forgive her the songs "UR So Gay", and careless flirting with the lesbian theme in "I Kissed a Girl" also did not go unheeded). Add to this accusations of cultural appropriation, Islamophobia, support for Taiwanese separatism and irresponsible sabotage against Australian flora (import of deluxe version of the album "Prism", which was packed using whole seeds, was banned by local customs) and Katy Perry’s list of sins will be almost hit . Almost, because if someone over the years has brought to the extreme the idea of “a girl is a dream of a white American,” then this is certainly Katie.
Pop positivism is always absurd, but, in fairness, even in it, Perry managed to drill a loophole: her clip on "Birthday", in which the singer incognito works on family holidays, is one of the most touching and humane pop videos shot for last years. Perhaps it was Katie who suggested the next move - and the next image to reload.
Goodwill ambassador
New Katy Perry - sample 2017, the album "Witness", a divorce from Russell Brand and a short-term affair with Orlando Bloom, as well as the recognition that in thirty years life does not end - a humanitarian activist. The release of the disc is timed to coincide with her campaign for organizing the Boys and Girls Club, which helps low-income children: moreover, this is not only a percentage of the album’s sales and a raffle of concert tickets, but also Perry’s personal participation in charity events.
This is not the first humanitarian project of the artist: she has been involved in philanthropy for almost a decade, helping a dozen of various funds and donating money for medicine, social protection, the struggle for an ethical attitude to animals and modern art, and in December 2013 she became the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. "Witness", with songs about finding harmony and awareness of inner strength, in a sense, sums up this stage of re-inventing yourself in the role of the Man of the World and a fighter for all good things at once. She still loves playful sexuality, but even the video on "Bon Appetit", where yesterday’s unconditional favorite of all kinds of lists of "The Hottest Women of the Planet" literally devoured by her admirers, ends with a fig in the pocket and an unequivocal statement of empowerment.
The new role obviously had to taste the artist, and, perhaps, it was she who would put an end to her transformations. But do not be surprised if in eight years her next, absolutely different version will tell that she is the real Katy Perry.
Photo: Katy perry
