Perry is one of the most well-known pop artists of the 2010s, there is no question about that. Some of her songs, like “Roar,” “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” and “California Gurls,” have shaped the music industry in the past decade, and are still extremely fun to play in the car for a great jam session. Yet for the past few years, Perry has not been present on the Top 40 charts, which has led her to construct a strategy for a comeback that will get her back in the spotlight.
However, the past few months have proven that a good comeback doesn’t just happen, it takes careful planning and a whole lot of luck. Perry’s attempt at this over the past year was embarrassing, and still is. The choices she has made so far should have been left behind in the 2010s, because they are just not in touch with the world we live in today.
It all started with her album 143, which was released September 20th, 2024—four years after her previous one. This album received heated negative reviews from music critics who marked the album as an all-time low for the singer. The audience was also not a fan of the album, as the main criticism was about its AI-generated music and the involvement with the problematic musician Dr. Luke.
Starting a comeback with a failed album is already not a good sign, but Perry refused to give up just yet.
Last month, as a way to promote her upcoming The Lifetimes Tour, Perry decided to go the extra mile, or better yet, the extra 62 miles, when she went aboard a Blue Origin rocket for an 11-minute flight to space. This stunt might have been the first official nail in Perry’s career coffin. The backlash and ridicule she got from this publicity act were quite literally out of this world. First, the flight was being “glorified” for boarding a female-only crew, as if the six women on it were the first ones to ever go to space. The group acted like they should be idolized for their courage, when in reality, it was well established that the only reason they were on that rocket was because they had 23 million dollars to waste. They were also highly criticized for talking about caring for “Mother Earth” while on board, when we all knew that the rocket they were on and the company that funded their flight are far from kind to our planet.
After Perry spent 10 minutes floating in space, smiling at the camera while holding up a flower and announcing her tour dates, everyone back on Earth agreed that the entire experience felt detached from reality. This feeling intensified when, upon return to land, Perry got on all fours and kissed the ground. People were over the moon as they came up with the memes for that little moment.
Via kirawontmiss on X
Overall, it was an attention-seeking stunt that felt out of place, and definitely did not bode well for the artist. However, there was still one last card that could have saved her comeback.
The tour.
Katy Perry’s international Lifetimes tour kicked off in Mexico City on April 23rd, and it was a saving grace to help her rebuild her pop star image that she has been destroying over the past few months. Unfortunately for her, the two performances that started her tour only managed to sink her deeper into the hole she had dug for herself.
This is when it starts to get baffling... Perry’s stage presence is one of the most valuable assets to her music career. She has done some incredible performances in the past, and not even that long ago. Her 2024 VMAs performance last September was highly praised and almost magical. She clearly loves the stage, so where did it go so wrong with this tour?
Perry during her VMAs performance
First, the tour’s concept: Perry is a half-human, half-robot who fights an evil AI creature named The Mainframe, who “stole all the butterflies in the world” (???). I don’t even know what to say about that, nothing makes sense.
Then, there was the choreography and staging. Even though Perry is 40 years old, we know she can definitely bust a move. However, from the viral clips of the tour that were shared online, it is clear that something is definitely wrong with the choreography. It just looks bad, there isn’t any other way to describe it. And even though Perry looks very tired already, it wasn’t just her moves that were terrible; her entire ensemble was all over the place, and it was a mess.
This horrid performance tops off the already-hated album, so people were not afraid to voice their opinions on her epic fail as soon as the first performance of the tour went viral. The criticism was so bad that it even led the artist to fully break down on her second night in Mexico City. And while the tears did not really create any sympathy from the audience, maybe her awareness of how bad the kick-off to the tour was will inspire her to make some much-needed changes to the rest of it.
It is clear that this is not a successful comeback attempt. However, fans hope this is only a bump in the road for Katy Perry. I can agree that she deserves to be recognized for her decades-long success, much more than for this embarrassing glitch. Maybe after she finishes her tour, she will hang up her fireworks for a while and return to the stage with a much better strategy to make a roaring comeback in the future.
Via jackunheard on X
