Katy Perry’s latest album, 143, did not land the way she was probably hoping/expecting. She dropped the first single, “Woman’s World,” in July, with a music video so… let’s say “extreme,” that she had to immediately clap back to say, “You guys, it’s SATIRE!” Then she released “Lifetimes.” Aside from being a big nothing-burger of a song, the filming of the music video may have environmentally damaged a protected Spanish island. Dios mío. And of course there’s the Dr. Luke of it all across the whole album. But you can’t keep a California Gurl down! Katy is set to perform at the Invictus Games this month, and will kick off the Lifetimes Tour in May — her first North American tour in seven years. And as for those pesky bad reviews 143 got, she doesn’t read them anyway! Thanks to a little advice she got from her therapist:
Katy Perry isn’t fazed by her critics.
Speaking with PEOPLE about her newly announced Lifetimes Tour, which is in support of her album 143, the “Hot N Cold” singer revealed she does read her album reviews — but has found it’s best to avoid them all together.
“You shouldn’t read it when it’s good. You shouldn’t read it when it’s bad,” Perry, 40, tells PEOPLE exclusively.
She adds, “My therapist said something that really changed my life. What anybody thinks about you is none of your business. It’s what you think about yourself.”
Despite any negative reviews, this album is about personal change — and she hopes it can become “the soundtrack for anyone’s life.”
“I created this album out of a real shift in my life when I became a mother, and I really tapped into that feminine divine energy. The messages on it are celebratory. They’re about love,” Perry says of the album’s creation.
The “Dark Horse” performer continues, “I have an incredible identity that I’ve been able to create since COVID, when a lot changed for so much. So the album really just celebrates love and this unconditional love that I have been looking for my whole life and never really knew it existed. That was a cliché, and it’s actually true.”
During an appearance on Call Her Daddy in September, Perry addressed criticism over working with Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald — who worked on some of her biggest hits like “I Kissed a Girl,” “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream” and was involved in nearly a decade-long legal battle with Kesha.
“I understand that it started a lot of conversations and he was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with. But the reality is, it comes from me,” Perry said of the producer. “The truth is, I wrote these songs from my experience of my whole life going through this metamorphosis, and he was one of the people to help facilitate all that. One of the writers, one of the producers. I am speaking from my own experience.”
“What anybody thinks about you is none of your business.” That IS excellent advice… And still 143 is not a great album. Both are true! Katy has every right to shield herself from the reviews, but I think it would’ve behooved her to listen to someone, somewhere during the writing and recording process, before 143 was released as it is. And along those lines, was there really no one in Katy’s orbit who cautioned her that working with Dr. Luke was a bad idea? No one? Anyone? Bueller? And her comments on Call Her Daddy were weird, right? She kept harping on the songs coming from her, but I didn’t think the issue was whether Dr. Luke wrote Katy’s songs. It was the fact that she sought out the credibly-accused rapist/abuser as a collaborator to begin with. But I guess what anybody thinks about Dr. Luke is none of Katy’s business.
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