The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Letting go of being No. 1, Katy Perry finds her ‘Smile’
A decade ago, Katy Perry could sing the alphabet and top the music charts.
Her name was synonymous with being
No. 1 on the Billboard chart, as the pop star logged hit after hit after hit with anthems like “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” “Roar” and more.
But as the saying goes, when you’re on top, the only way to go is down.
That was part of Perry’s experience roughly three years ago when she released “Witness,” which had some success but didn’t dominate the charts like she’s used to doing. Though first single “Chained to the Rhythm” became a Top 5 hit, the other singles fizzled, and the star’s popularity dwindled as newcomers, mainly budding rap stars, took over the music scene.
“For me in 2017, 2018, I went through a reckoning of self and really re-prioritized what was important and my association with validation, or my relationship with validation. There was just a shift that happened in my life and my career. I wasn’t getting as high on my own supply as I used to anymore,” Perry said. “It’s like I had been to the top of the mountain. I’d seen the view. I had gotten too used to it. So, of course, the universe decided to come and say, ‘All right sweetie, let’s figure this one out.’
“I definitely had to go on a real emotional, psychological and spiritual journey during those years to find my smile, ‘cause I lost it,” Perry continued. “That’s why the record is called ‘Smile.’”
“Smile,” her fifth major-label album, will be released Friday and at a time that the 35-year-old — who is engaged to actor Orlando Bloom and close to giving birth to a baby girl — is thinking about life differently.