Katy Perry is the professional name of Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, an American singer, songwriter and television judge from Santa Barbara, United States. Born in 1984, she grows up in a Christian environment and first sings in church before moving toward secular pop music as a teenager.

Early career

Perry begins her recording career under her birth name with the gospel album Katy Hudson, released in 2001 on Red Hill Records. The album is commercially unsuccessful, and after Red Hill ceases operations she moves to Los Angeles to pursue mainstream music. During this period she works with producers Glen Ballard, Dr. Luke and Max Martin. She adopts the stage name Katy Perry after being dropped by The Island Def Jam Music Group and Columbia Records, then signs with Capitol Records in 2007.

Breakthrough and albums

She rises to prominence in 2008 with One of the Boys, a pop-rock album that includes the U.S. number one single “I Kissed a Girl” and “Hot n Cold”. Her next album, Teenage Dream (2010), has a disco-influenced sound and produces five U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number ones: “California Gurls”, “Teenage Dream”, “Firework”, “E.T.” and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)”. This ties the record set by Michael Jackson with Bad.

Prism follows in 2013 and is shaped by her divorce, with pop and dance elements alongside themes of self-reflection, everyday life and relationships. Its videos for “Roar” and “Dark Horse” make Perry the first artist to have more than one video pass one billion views on Vevo. She later releases the electropop album Witness in 2017, which carries political subtext and a theme of liberation, then Smile in 2020 and 143 in 2024.

Style, labels and recognition

Her music is associated with bubblegum pop, dance-pop, disco, electropop, pop and pop rock. She releases music through labels including Metamorphosis Music and Unsub Records, and her career includes nine U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles. Perry receives four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award and a Juno Award. She is also included in Forbes lists of the highest-earning women in music from 2011 to 2019.

Other work

Perry releases the autobiographical documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me in 2012. She voices Smurfette in The Smurfs in 2011 and its sequel in 2013. Her Super Bowl halftime show performance is the most-watched in history, and she begins serving as a judge on American Idol in 2018.

Commercial impact

She is one of the world’s best-selling music artists, with sales of over 18 million albums and 125 million singles worldwide. Her estimated net worth in 2016 is $125 million.