Katy Perry

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter and television personality.

She is known for her influence on modern pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the "Queen of Camp" by Vogue and Rolling Stone.

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson was born on October 25, 1984, in Santa Barbara, California, to Pentecostal pastors Mary Christine (née Perry) and Maurice Keith Hudson.

Both of her parents turned to religion after a "wild youth".

Perry has English, German, Irish, and Portuguese ancestry.

Through her mother, she is a niece of film director Frank Perry.

She has a younger brother named David, who is also a singer, and an older sister, Angela.

From ages three to 11, Perry frequently moved across the country as her very strict parents set up churches before settling again in Santa Barbara.

Growing up, she attended religious schools and camps, including Paradise Valley Christian School in Arizona and Santa Barbara Christian School in California during her elementary years.

The family struggled financially, sometimes using food stamps and eating food from the food bank which also fed the congregation at her parents' church.

Growing up, Perry and her siblings were not allowed to eat the cereal Lucky Charms as the word "luck" reminded their mother of Lucifer, and were also required to call deviled eggs "angeled eggs".

Perry primarily listened to gospel music, as secular music was generally discouraged in the family's home.

She discovered popular music through CDs she sneaked from her friends.

Perry later recalled a story about how a friend of hers played "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette, which impacted her songwriting and singing.

While not strictly identifying as religious, she has stated, "I pray all the time – for self-control, for humility."

Wanting to be like her sister Angela, Perry began singing by practicing with her sister's cassette tapes.

She performed the tracks in front of her parents, who let her take vocal lessons like Angela was doing at the time.

She began training at age nine and was incorporated into her parents' ministry, singing in church from ages nine to 17.

At 13, Perry was given her first guitar for her birthday, and publicly performed songs she wrote.

She tried to "be a bit like the typical Californian girl" while growing up, and started rollerskating, skateboarding, and surfing as a teenager.

Her brother David described her as a "tomboy" during her adolescence, which Perry talks about on her song "One of the Boys".

She took dancing lessons and learned how to swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug.

At 16, Perry released a gospel record titled Katy Hudson (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was commercially unsuccessful.

She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry" from her mother's maiden name.

She recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records.

Perry Rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock record containing her debut single "I Kissed a Girl" and follow-up single "Hot n Cold", which reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 respectively.

The disco-influenced pop album Teenage Dream (2010) spawned five U.S. number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"—currently the only album by a female singer to do so.

Perry has been included in the annual Forbes lists of highest-earning women in music from 2011 to 2019.

A reissue of the album titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection (2012) subsequently produced the U.S. number one single "Part of Me".

Outside of music, she released an autobiographical documentary titled Katy Perry: Part of Me in 2012, voiced Smurfette in The Smurfs film series, and launched her own shoe line Katy Perry Collections in 2017.

Her empowerment-themed album Prism (2013) had two U.S. number one singles, "Roar" and "Dark Horse".

Both their respective music videos made Perry the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube.

The electropop album Witness (2017) featured themes of feminism and a political subtext, while Smile (2020) was influenced by motherhood and her mental health journey.

Afterwards, she embarked on her Las Vegas concert residency titled Play (2021–2023), receiving critical acclaim and commercial success.

Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 143 million records worldwide.

She has the most U.S. diamond certified singles for any female artist (4).

All of her studio albums released under Capitol have individually surpassed one billion streams on Spotify.

She has nine U.S. number one singles, three U.S. number one albums and has received various accolades, including a Billboard Spotlight Award (currently the only female artist to have one), four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, and a Juno Award.

Perry began serving as a judge on American Idol during its sixteenth season in 2018.

She is also the second most-followed woman and the sixth most-followed person on Twitter, with over 107 million followers.