15 Reasons Katy Perry Is Finished For Good
We're guessing there's a big part of Katy Perry that wishes it was 2010 again. Following her staggering success with the Teenage Dreams album, Katy has not been able to repeat the same level of worldwide success. Sure, her Twitter following is close to hitting 100 million and her Instagram following sits at a staggering 65 million - but those figures don't always result in album sales.
It's tough to imagine one of the most celebrated pop stars on the planet struggling to sell an album, yet since the release of her fifth Witness last week, things are looking quite bleak. All her recent feuds, alongside failed relationships and backlash from the public, things look like it's finally taking its toll on her previously highly-likeable image.
Nowadays, Katy is more about promoting "purposeful pop" and promises that this album is set to be her most "woke". She told NME, "I'm very OK with not being perfect. I never try and come off as though I've got all the answers. I'm a constant work-in-progress. I've come so far mentally, spiritually, physically, musically and I have so far to go."
For modern day pop stars, they certainly can go far - so long as the fans are behind them and in this case, the fans are not happy. After ten long years in the limelight - could this be the end of Katy Perry as we know it?
15 Album Launch Was Trolled By Taylor Swift
There's pettiness - then there is Taylor Swift's level of pettiness. Katy Perry took four years to launch her latest album, Witness, but on the same day of its release - Taylor finally released her full back catalog of songs onto the same streaming sites. Swift's management released the following statement: "In celebration of 1989 selling over 10 Million Albums Worldwide and the RIAA's 100 Million Song Certification announcement, Taylor wants to thank her fans by making her entire back catalog available to all streaming services tonight at midnight."
Taylor had been withholding her music for years but for some reason thought the day Katy tried to drop her new album would be the perfect timing - talk about bad blood. Well, maybe it was all a big coincidence - but we very much doubt it.
14 Disastrous Album Reviews
Katy Perry did have some vague commercial success with Chained To The Rhythm; the track reached number 4 on the Billboard music chart but then quickly fell out the top 10. Then came her following tracks from the Witness album, Bon Appetit and Swish Swish (a diss track aimed at Taylor Swift), yet they both failed to win over any fans or the critics.
Chris Richards, pop music critic for The Washington Post, described Witness as a "half-woke, no good, very bad album." The National awarded the album just two stars and said, "After all that build up, Witness proves to be disappointingly uninspired, lyrically at least." Teenage Dream was a certified three times Platinum album, Prism was certified two times Platinum and Witness - well we'll just have to see how it scrapes by for her.
13 Teenage Dream Was Her Peak
After ten years in the pop music industry, Katy Perry may have already hit her peak. Teenage Dream was released in 2010 and gave her fans a string of number one hits including California Gurls, Teenage Dream, Firework, E.T., and Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.). The album became only the second in history to have five number ones from one album - after Michael Jackson's 1987 album Bad.
There was some success with singles that followed included Roar, Part of Me and Dark Horse but nothing compared to her previous triumphs. Kimberly N. Foster, a feminist writer and founder of Black Girls Gather, tweeted, "I think Teenage Dream is the best pop album of the last decade and I am genuinely appalled at Katy Perry's latest offerings." It's just not good enough, considering it's coming from a pop star who once gave Michael Jackson a run for his money.
12 Mocking Britney's Mental Health Struggles
During the Grammys this year, Katy Perry appeared to mock Britney Spears' mental breakdown who shaved her head in 2007. When asked by Ryan Seacrest on the red carpet why she had taken some time off, Katy replied, "That's called taking care of your mental health." She added, "(She felt) fantastic. I haven't shaved my head yet. I've done all of (the hair colors) and the only thing left to do is shave my head, which I'm really saving for a public breakdown."
Fans were quick to jump to Britney's defense. One tweeted, "Have always liked Katy Perry very much, have even met her. But after what she said last night, I've lost a lot of respect for her… Making a joke about mental health issues isn't OK." Others demanded a full public apology from Katy - but one never came.
11 Mobile App Game Was A Huge Flop
Katy Perry likely wanted to follow in the footsteps of Kim Kardashian's super successful mobile app game, which made the reality TV star more than $75 million in revenue - pulling in around $700,000 a day during its peak. Katy Perry Pop was released last year, where players can become a huge star like her, but failed to set the gaming market on fire.
Chief Financial Officer Eric Ludwig from Glu Mobile, the app which created Katy's game, said it had been one of their "biggest disappointments" of the last year. Since the game flopped, Glu Mobile have now turned to Taylor Swift and offered a multi-year contract to produce her own mobile app game. If Taylor's game succeeds where Katy's failed then it will be yet another harsh blow for the pop star.
10 Accused of Homophobia and Cultural Appropriation
Katy Perry collaborated with hip hop trio Migos for her track Bon Appetit but fans were not impressed. During an interview with Rolling Stone, the group suggested that rapper Makonnen coming out as gay sexual undermines his credibility. Migos had issued a public apology but Katy's fans had already had enough, one tweeted, "This is Katy's 'woke' era but she is working with homophobic Migos? She is truly trash and desperate."
In a recent interview, Katy apologized for previous costumes she had worn which depicted cornrows and dressing as a Geisha. Talking with Pod Save The People, she said, "I will never understand, but I can educate myself and that's what I'm trying to do along the way." One fan tweeted, "She's sitting up here literally saying 'don't yell at me, I'm learning' but it's not up to (people of color) to hold white people's hand in all this."
9 Being Mistaken For Justin Bieber
For those who regularly dye their hair, Katy Perry had a nightmare many of us dread - her bleached blonde hair started snapping off. She told Ellen DeGeneres, "I don't know if you've ever dyed your hair blonde - and too blonde. Sometimes your hair falls out when you go too blonde. So - that's the way I handled it."
When she revealed her new look via Instagram, she was mistakenly (and very embarrassingly) recognized as Justin Bieber. Katy posed by a swimming pool looking out at the sunset and fans commented shout outs to Bieber. Then it was revealed it was actually Katy in the picture and the whole comment section became quite cringy. One fan wrote, "Thought it was Bieber at first," and another added, "Katy, you are cute, but you now look like Justin Bieber."
8 Embarrassing Live Performances
Katy Perry was once famed for her energetic and original live performances but this year many people have been quick to mock her new choreography. Alongside hip hop trio Migos, Katy performed her new single Bon Appetit on Saturday Night Live - but Twitter was not happy. Around 1 minute 40 seconds into the performance, Katy started throwing some very bizarre shapes that just confused a lot of people. She appeared to perform an outdated double dab and just generally appeared awkward. The dance moves went viral online but for all the wrong reasons.
Many accused her of being out of touch, one fan tweeted, "Katy Perry's embarrassing dancing on SNL looked like she was a 40-year-old character actor." Another tweeted, "If I ever look like Katy Perry when she was trying to double dab on SNL while I'm dancing, will someone please pull me aside and stop me."
7 Many Believe She's Having A Breakdown
After mocking Britney's mental breakdown, it appears there is one just around the corner for Katy Perry. To help promote her Witness album launch, she began a 72-hour live stream on YouTube and part of that was a live therapy session. During her therapy session, she broke down in tears as mascara ran across her face.
Talking with Dr. Siri Sat Nam Singh, best known from The Therapist on Viceland, she spoke about her battles with alcohol and suicidal thoughts, revealing, "I wrote a song about it. I feel ashamed that I would have those thoughts, feel that low and that depressed", adding, "You can be right or you can be loved; I just want to be loved." She also revealed the reason by her drastic haircut was that she "didn't want to look like Katy Perry anymore."
6 Lack Of Interest In Her World Tour
The promotional work that has gone into pushing her Witness album will be a good indication how well ticket sales for her Witness World Tour will go. Katy Perry announced the tour earlier this month, but if album sales are anything to go by - the whole thing could be a disastrous flop.
This tour is less Calfornia Gurls - a non-stop energetic ride of foam cannons and spinning bras - and more about the new "purposeful pop" movement. Katy is trying to tap into her young fan's growing interest in politics and protests. Following her endless campaign for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, Katy released her kind of political track, Chained To The Rhythm.
The new Katy just does not have the same pulling power old Katy once had, where her message was simply to spread love and joy - not political messages.
5 Insensitive Instagram Posts
Fans attacked Katy Perry following her 'insensitive' Instagram post the day after this year's Met Ball. She had made the front page of The New York Times and captioned the image: "May 2, 2017. All the news that's fit to print." The front cover also featured a picture of a French policeman who had been set on fire during protests in Paris.
One fan commented, "Disgusting. Are you really so selfish Katy? Is your dress really so important that you think this is at all acceptable? I hope that police officer makes it home to his family." Another wrote, "Just lost a fan. Someone is on fire but yes let's adore the dress." Katy and her management team refused to comment on the post which still remains on her Instagram feed.
4 Accused of Using The "N" Word
Last month, music producer Mano called out Katy Perry claiming that she had called him the N-word. Mano wrote the post about the incident which allegedly took place in 2013. He claimed, "I was in Paris in a club with HXLT and Virgil was DJ'n. Katy was dance'n on my cuz HXLT. This was the day (before Kanye West's) fashion show. While she was juke'n my cuz she started calling us her 'n****s' and we asked her (to) stop a few times."
He added, "She couldn't understand why and we had (to) explain (to) her that it wasn't endearing and it was really offensive. Y'all can think (we're) silly s**t you want but (you are) not me and (you) wasn't there." Again, there was no further comment from Katy or her team.
3 Cringy Publicity Stunts
For her single, Bon Appetit, Katy Perry staged a publicity stunt where she hid in a banquet table at an art museum then jump out at the unsuspecting public. During the episode on Vanity Fair magazine's series, Derek Does Stuff with a Friend, when Katy popped up from the table one person simply reacted with: "Oh, it's a person."
When the public wasn't reacting with any cries of delight, host Derek Blasberg said on camera, "I don't think they've connected the dots." Katy just blurted out a cringy, "Buy my new song! It's called Bon Appetit!” YouTube commenters wrote it was quite embarrassing that nobody really knew who Katy was. Another wrote, "This is kinda awkward… like what sort of reaction were they expecting?" The stunt might have worked better if there were real Katy fans in the room.
2 Too Much Relationship Drama
Katy Perry is better known now for her profile relationship dramas than her music. There was the on-again-off-again relationship with John Mayer and her embarrassing paddle boarding moment with Orlando Bloom - where he stripped down to nothing. Katy split with Orlando following a leaked film online of the Pirates of the Caribbean flirting with the daughter of a charity president in L.A.
Then, of course, there is her constant back-and-forth bickering with ex-husband, Russell Brand. Most recently, Russell called his marriage to Katy "vapid, vacuous and plastic celebrity" adding it was the "very thing I detest."
During her 72-hour live stream, she sat with James Corden who made her rank ex-boyfriends in the bedroom - something 2010 Katy would never have dreamed of doing. But hey, she has a failing album to promote.
1 The Katy vs Taylor Feud Is Getting Old Now
Everyone is getting pretty sick of the never-ending Katy Perry vs Taylor Swift feud - especially Ruby Rose. When Katy dropped her Taylor diss-track, Swish Swash, the Orange Is The New Black actress took to Twitter to vent her feelings, she tweeted, "'Purposeful poop' to 'bomb a petit' to a sloppy mess of writing over the top of Funkagenda… stop trying to make Wit… I mean 'fetch' happen."
Rose also added in a separate tweet, "I just think with everything going on in the world to go from rebranding as political activist only to ditch it and go low… is… a bummer." Then in her last savage burn, Rose wrote, "You are her fans you should buy all her songs so the songs will finally chart. If as many as tweeted me bought her last 3… (they'd) be hits."
When Ruby Rose has had enough - we have all had enough.