DID YOU KNOW? Through her mother, Katy Perry is the niece of film director Frank Perry.

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, better known as Katy Perry, is an American singer and songwriter. she was born in Santa Barbara, California. Her parents are born again Christians, each having turned to religion after a “wild youth” past in their teenage years and have now become pastors for their church. As Perry grew up in the church she primarily listened to gospel music, as secular music was generally discouraged in the family home. She began singing by practicing with her sisters cassette tapes. She would often perform for her parents, who suggested she take vocal lessons so began training to sing at age 9 and was incorporated into her parents’ ministry, singing in church from ages 9 to 17. After pursuing a career in gospel music as a teenager, Perry signed with Red Hill Records and released her debut studio album “Katy Hudson” under her birth name in 2001, which was commercially unsuccessful.

She then moved to LA the following year to venture into secular music after Red Hill ceased operations and she subsequently began working with Producers Glen Ballard, Dr Luke and Max Martin. It was then that she adopted the stage name Katy Perry and signed a recording contract with Capitol Records in April 2007. Her rise to fame in 2008 was led by the release of her second pop/rock album entitled “One of the Boys” with hit singles “I kissed a Girl” and “Hot n Cold”. The single “I Kissed a Girl” created controversy among both religious and LGBT groups. The former criticised its homosexual themes while the latter accused her of using bi-curiosity to sell records. Once released, the album “One of the boys” garnered mixed critical reviews and reached number nine on the US Billboard 200, going on to sell 7 million copies worldwide.

Her third album, “Teenage Dream” (2010), ventured into disco and was her first number one album on the US Billboard 200. It topped the U.S. Billboard 100 with the singles “California Gurls”, “Teenage Dream”, “Firework”, “E.T.” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” while “The One That Got Away” reached number 3 on the US singles chart. This album became the first by a female artist to produce five number one singles in the US, and the second overall after Michael Jackson’s album “Bad”. Her fourth album, “Prism”, was released in 2013, and was her second album to reach the US summit. It is influenced by pop and dance, and with this she became the first artist with multiple videos to reach one billion views on Vevo. Perry’s 2017 fifth album, “Witness”, also topped the US charts and delved into electro pop. Its most successful single was “Chanied to the Rhythm”, which broke the record for Spotify’s most streamed track by a female artist within 24 hours upon its release.

Since her meteoric rise to fame, Perry has received many awards, including four Guinness World Records, five American Music Awards, a Brit Awards, and a Juno Awards and has also been included in the annual Forbes lists of highest earning women in music from 2011-2017. Her estimated net worth as of 2016 is 125 million dollars. She is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 100 million records globally through her career.

Article by Candice Eastman.