In my gay opinion, it’s hard to remember a time when Katy Perry wasn’t a household name. I can’t believe it’s been almost a decade since Katy began dominating the charts. I remember being in my car on the way to hang out with friends when I first heard “I Kissed A Girl” and I knew I liked it. Who doesn’t love a good ol’ fashioned girl-on-girl experimentation song? Her voice, those lyrics, and that sound; I knew Katy was a diva I wanted to follow. I bought her album One Of The Boys and I’ve been a fan since. A copy of her new album Witness was given away with every ticket bought to her upcoming tour and of course I had to get a ticket.
When I heard the opening notes of the song “Witness”, I was excited because on this instant pop classic Katy was back and sounding just as magical as ever. “Deja Vu” is the only other super nova on this album with it’s balladry beauty. Leave it to Katy Perry to work “your words are like Chinese water torture” into the lyrics of a song and have it work. Witness is full of great dance music, rap break downs, and moving ballads but there isn’t anything unique about it. Sure she shows her sexy side and gets flirty on “Tsunami” and “Bon Appetit”. Then she’s all Barbarella badassness on “Hey Hey Hey” where she’s “Marilyn Monroe in a monster truck” and she’s “a goddess and you know it” on “Power”. Plus, in order to remain grounded in the realm of relevance, she enlists the pop cred of Nicki Minaj who lends her recycled rapping sound to “Swish Swish”.
Katy chose to take the path most traveled, The Path Of The Enlightened Diva. Like many divas before her, Katy looked within, discovered she is more than just a pop star in the galaxy that is fame and music is her rocket ship to get her message into the universe. Introspection is apparent on “Mind Maze” where Katy gets auto-biographical to let us see “behind the curtain”, on “Bigger Than Me” she will “speak my truth though my voice shakes”, and then someone “found a better version of me” on “Into Me You See”. Instead of calling the album Witness, she could have called is Self Help 101.
After hearing Witness, I’m still very excited to see her on tour. Katy’s concerts are full blown extravaganzas and I’m sure this one will be just as much of a spectacle as her previous shows. Since many of my divas are getting older and retiring, I hope Katy continues touring into her golden years so in a few decades I’m able to escape the nursing home and shake my geriatric ass at one of her retirement shows.
