Even levitating in space, Katy Perry manages to get dunked on | Lifestyle News

Ellen Cushing, writing for The Atlantic, proclaimed Perry to be the “good pop star for a dumb stunt.” Varied celebrities, like actress Olivia Wilde and mannequin Emily Ratajkowski, criticized Perry and the Blue Origin flight.

Even the social media X account for Wendy’s got here after Perry on Tuesday in a collection of posts (amongst them: “can we ship her again”). On its face, this appeared a bit unusual. Why was a fast-food chain providing sideline snark a couple of pop star heading into area?

However a decade-plus after songwriter Linda Perry described Katy Perry’s music as microwave popcorn, one may very well be forgiven for questioning if the posts from Wendy’s had been an erstwhile purveyor of empty energy choosing a battle with one other.

Perry, in spite of everything, is the singer who in her 2010 “California Gurls” video, wore a bra made to seem like big cupcakes that finally shot out whipped cream. (The purpose was contained within the lyrics: “we’ll soften your Popsicle.”)

Quickly after, Perry launched the one “Final Friday Night time (T.G.I.F.),” an anthem concerning the pleasure of waking up after a weekend bender.

“There’s a stranger in my mattress,” she sang. “There’s a pounding in my head. Glitter everywhere in the room. Pink flamingos within the pool.”

Comic and actor Rob Delaney penned a humor piece for Vice concerning the track, through which he responded to the lyric “is that this a hickey or a bruise” by saying: “Maintain up! There’s an enormous distinction,” and requested, “did the aforementioned ‘stranger’ punch you within the neck?”

Perry, for what it’s price, has usually championed different artists over time. They’ve usually declined to return the favor.

Take, for instance, Robyn, the Scandinavian excessive priestess of plaintive dance-pop, who opened for Perry on her 2011 tour selling “Final Friday Night time” and “California Gurls.”

When Time Out New York requested Robyn whether or not she was a fan of Perry’s, she laughed and mentioned: “You already know what? I’ve to go now.”

In fact, there’s room for artists to age and develop. (Evaluate, for instance, the Beyoncé of Future’s Baby with the Beyoncé of “Lemonade,” “Renaissance” and “Cowboy Carter.”)

However Perry’s makes an attempt at stretching artistically have largely concerned aping the work of different extra acclaimed ladies in music and getting clocked for it.

In his evaluation of Perry’s 2019 track “By no means Actually Over,” New York Instances music critic Jon Caramanica wrote: “A brand new Billie Eilish track from Katy Perry. A brand new Norwegianish Spotifycore track from Katy Perry. A brand new Haim track from Katy Perry. A brand new Pink track from Katy Perry. A brand new bubble-pop Taylor Swift track from Katy Perry. A brand new Mumford & Sons track from Katy Perry. A brand new Abba track from Katy Perry.”

And actually, “By no means Actually Over” borrowed so closely from a 2017 track referred to as “Love You Like That,” by Norwegian artist Dagny, that Dagny ended up with a writing credit score on the track.

Selling the one at an occasion in Shanghai, she stood there in her pleated metallic gown in entrance of a wind machine that turned her big blond extensions right into a shifting object. Simply as Madonna had stood there for the Brit Awards in 1995 in her pleated silver gown in entrance of a wind machine that turned her big blond extensions right into a shifting object.

In 2024, Perry was again with a brand new album, “143,” whose title, she mentioned, represented her “angel quantity.”

The primary single was “Girl’s World,” and the video for it featured Perry achieved up in a crimson and white bandanna like Rosie the Riveter.

Then, the digicam panned again and confirmed her sporting Daisy Dukes and an American flag bikini high that hardly hid her breasts.

The lyrics mentioned how she felt: “Attractive, assured, so clever.”

To show the purpose, Perry pours whiskey into her mouth, letting it spill throughout herself.

The track was co-written and co-produced by Swedish super-producer Lukasz Gottwald, higher generally known as Dr. Luke, who in 2014 was accused by pop singer Kesha of sexual misconduct. Over the subsequent 9 years, Kesha and Dr. Luke traded lawsuits earlier than settling their claims out of courtroom.

The opinions for “143” had been withering. On Metacritic, it has a ranking of 37 out of 100, making it the positioning’s lowest-rated album since 2011 and the worst-reviewed album by a girl within the website’s 24-year historical past.

Wealthy Juzwiak, writing for Pitchfork, mentioned the “materials right here is so devoid of something distinguishing that it makes one suspicious it’s a troll or cynical try for the campy realm of so dangerous it’s good.”

The Instances devoted a complete podcast to the query of whether or not the album was “actually that dangerous.” (The reply, critic Lindsay Zoladz mentioned, was “sophisticated.” This nonetheless was not precisely a praise.)

So the sight of Perry levitating inside a phallic rocket as she held onto a daisy — a tribute to her daughter, Daisy, that she mentioned in interviews she selected to convey along with her as a result of the flowers are sometimes described as “weeds” as a result of they’re actually resilient — was completely in line with the picture she had designed for herself.

The occasion was trumpeted as having one thing vaguely to do with feminism, however in one of many quite a few criticisms delivered by celebrities after the spaceflight, Wilde summed up the expertise succinctly on Instagram, sharing a photograph of Perry with the flower together with the message, “Billion {dollars} purchased some good memes, I suppose.”