Katy Perry
Biography
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, professionally known as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality, born October 25, 1984, in Santa Barbara, California.
Raised in a Christian environment, she began singing in church as a child and pursued a career in gospel music as a teenager. She signed with Red Hill Records and released her debut studio album, *Katy Hudson*, under her birth name in 2001, which was not commercially successful.
After moving to Los Angeles and adopting the stage name “Katy Perry,” she eventually signed with Capitol Records in April 2007. Her breakthrough came in 2008 with her second album, *One of the Boys*, a pop-rock record featuring the hit singles I Kissed a Girl and Hot n Cold.
Her next album, the disco-influenced *Teenage Dream* (2010), produced five number-one singles on the US Billboard Hot 100: California Gurls, Teenage Dream, Firework, E.T., and Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.). This achievement tied her with Michael Jackson for the most number-one songs from a single album.
Her album *Prism* (2013), inspired by her divorce, incorporated pop and dance elements. The music videos for Roar and Dark Horse made her the first artist to have multiple videos surpass one billion views on Vevo.
Her 2017 electropop album, *Witness*, explored themes of liberation with political undertones. She later released her sixth studio album, *Smile*, in 2020, and her seventh, *143*, in 2024.
Katy Perry has nine number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and has received many honors, including four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, and five American Music Awards. Billboard named her Woman of the Year in 2012.
She performed at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show in 2015, setting an audience record for the event. In film, she voiced Smurfette in *Les Schtroumpfs* (2011) and is the subject of the autobiographical documentary *Katy Perry: Part of Me* (2012).
Regarded as one of the world’s best-selling music artists, with over 18 million albums and 125 million singles sold, she regularly appears on Forbes lists of the highest-paid women in music.