Much like her pop-star peers, Katy Perry cites Madonna as a big influence, especially on her “Part of Me” 3-D concert movie, which hits theaters July 5, which was partially inspired by the Queen of Pop’s 1991 film “Truth or Dare.”

In a recent interview with Teen Vogue, the always-colorful starlet spoke about her upcoming big-screen adventure and how “Truth or Dare” led to its creation.

“Madonna is everything to me, and that movie is amazing, because it caught her at a time when she was a bit more vulnerable,” Perry said of the film, which chronicled the icon’s Blond Ambition Tour. “I wanted to do that too, to capture a snapshot of who I am now so that I can remind myself what I’ve lost if I ever do become totally jaded.” • Read full story…

On the day of the Oscars, Los Angeles is positively lousy with stars. And the Chateau Marmont—a storied West Hollywood hotel that’s sheltered everyone from Greta Garbo to Mary-Kate Olsen—is basically the epicenter of the outbreak. But even at the kind of establishment where one all but expects to encounter Zac Efron (for example) at the valet stand, Katy Perry still has the power to turn heads.Of course, going incognito isn’t exactly an option when your hair is the color of cobalt. But Katy, who’s had one song or another near the top of the charts for the better part of the past two years, does her best to blend in, tucking her bright blue locks under a headband and hiding her similarly toned eyes behind a pair of dark sunglasses. (The rest of her outfit is probably best described as “haute workout”—aside from a pop of pink lipstick, she looks as though she may have come straight from the gym.)

As all the barely con- cealed double-takes attest, Katy is already about as famous as a girl can get. But this summer, the newly single 27-year-old is going to become even more ubiquitous, thanks to the big-screen release of Katy Perry: Part of Me, a documentary that showcases the incredible performances—and behind-the-scenes drama—of her California Dreams tour. “One of my main reasons for doing this is that people think of me as though I’m Dorothy in the ruby slippers,” she says, implicitly likening her career to the plot of The Wizard of Oz. “I want them to see everything else that’s involved. Yes, I am her, but at the end of it all, I’m also the guy behind the curtain.” Indeed: While Katy, like Dorothy, was once a sweet, sheltered girl with a gorgeous singing voice, it didn’t take a tornado to drag her to the big city—she moved to L.A. at seventeen and cycled through no fewer than four record labels before breaking big with One of the Boys in 2008. “My life is crazy now,” she admits. “When you get to this level, there’s a lot that’s not real, but I really haven’t changed.”

TEEN VOGUE: Teenage Dream was a juggernaut—you matched Michael Jackson’s Hot 100 record for the most number one songs off a single album, and then “Part of Me,” a new song off the special edition, debuted at the top of the chart. Is it still exciting to get that kind of response?KATY PERRY: Of course! I’m not like, “Ugh, number one again.” It’s funny, though—my label gets so caught up in the statistics, just because they’re excited. But for me, I don’t need to grind it into anyone’s head that I’m popular. If you like my music, great, and if you don’t, whatever. I’m going to keep making it either way. This does feel a bit like the record that never ends. But I wanted to release The Complete Confection for the hard-core fan who wants everything: three new songs, the remixes, and it’s all in a cute little package.

TEEN VOGUE: Were you thinking along those same lines when you decided to make the movie?

KATY PERRY: I wanted to document the tour, because when we started to book these really big venues, I felt like I was going all in. And I figured that by the end of it I’d be bankrupt or else I’d look like the smartest music businesswoman of my age, and I thought either outcome would be interesting. More than that, though, I wanted to show people this parade that surrounds me … I wanted them to see the engine. I think sometimes they look at me and wonder, How is it possible that she continues to have this kind of success? Why are the stars so aligned for her? But, while that is a factor, it’s not the whole story. I also work my tail off! And, of course, I wanted people to be able to experience the tour and all the joy it brought, which is why we shot it in 3-D. And this is amazing 3-D.It’s definitely not just a marketing tool.

TEEN VOGUE: Were you inspired by other pop documentaries, like Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never or Madonna’s Truth or Dare?

KATY PERRY: A little.Madonna is everything to me, and that movie is amazing because it caught her at a time when she was a bit more vulnerable. I wanted to do that too, to capture a snapshot of who I am now so that I can remind myself what I’ve lost if I ever do become totally jaded. [Laughs]

TEEN VOGUE: I bet you’ll be able to keep it together.

KATY PERRY: I hope so. If not, I’m sure my sister and my brother and my best friends will kick my butt. • Read full story…

On whether she still gets excited over strong response to her music:
“Of course! I’m not like, ‘Ugh, number one again.’ It’s funny, though—my label gets so caught up in the statistics, just because they’re excited. But for me, I don’t need to grind it into anyone’s head that I’m popular. If you like my music, great, and if you don’t, whatever. I’m going to keep making it either way. This does feel a bit like the record that never ends. But I wanted to release The Complete Confection for the hard-core fan who wants everything: three new songs, the remixes, and it’s all in a cute little package.”

On deciding to make a movie:
“I wanted to document the tour, because when we started to book these really big venues, I felt like I was going all in. And I figured that by the end of it I’d be bankrupt or else I’d look like the smartest music businesswoman of my age, and I thought either outcome would be interesting. More than that, though, I wanted to show people this parade that surrounds me … I wanted them to see the engine. I think sometimes they look at me and wonder, How is it possible that she continues to have this kind of success? Why are the stars so aligned for her? But, while that is a factor, it’s not the whole story. I also work my tail off! And, of course, I wanted people to be able to experience the tour and all the joy it brought, which is why we shot it in 3-D. And this is amazing 3-D. It’s definitely not just a marketing tool.”

On whether she was inspired by other pop documentaries:
“A little. Madonna is everything to me, and that movie is amazing because it caught her at a time when she was a bit more vulnerable. I wanted to do that too, to capture a snapshot of who I am now so that I can remind myself what I’ve lost if I ever do become totally jaded. [Laughs]“

On being a little more glamorous than the average singer-songwriter:
“I don’t like to take fashion too seriously. I love it, and I am so grateful when big brands want to associate with me, but mostly I just want to take chances and have fun and truly live. And sometimes that means wearing some ridiculous, cat-inspired outfit rather than whatever happens to be in this season.”

On whether she sees herself getting tired of being famous:
“I’m tired of being famous already! But I’m not tired of creating. Fame is, I think, just a disgusting by-product of what I do. It’s quite a delicate creature— it’s a wild animal of sorts. It can love you, and then it can attack you. I still want to be as approachable and relatable as possible—when I meet fans and they’re crying, I’ll say, “Calm down, there’s nothing to cry about. I’m not going to bite you or attack you or grant you three wishes. Let’s just hang out and have a good time.” But really, I stopped focusing on what other people think a while ago. If you try to be everything to everyone, you’ll only end up completely confused.”

I’ve added new screen captures of Katy Perry during “La Boite A Questions French Programme” Q&A special in France, Paris.

Just how big is Katy Perry? In an era when record sales are in unrecoverable free fall, her first album, One of the Boys(2008)—or her second, if you count the eponymous 2001 gospel record that she released under her birth name of Katy Hudson—sold more than five million copies. Her second (or third), Teenage Dream (2010), has sold almost as many, but even more significantly, digital sales of individual songs off the record have reached upwards of 28 million, buoyed by the near-ubiquity of five No. 1 singles (“California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” “E.T.,” and “Last Friday Night [T.G.I.F.]”), and placing it in a tie with Michael Jackson’s Bad(1987) for spawning the most No. 1 singles from the same album.

By now, Perry’s path to phenom-hood is well known. Perry grew up in Santa Barbara, the second of three children born to evangelical ministers. She spent most of her early years shielded by her parents from the wayward influences of secular culture (i.e., no mtv, no Madonna, no deviled eggs), but soon discovered them on her own, got into music, and started singing and performing. She went to Nashville with her mother at 15, recorded the aforementioned singer-songwritery gospel album for a Christian imprint that went bust, then got signed and dropped by two other labels before dying her blonde hair dark, trading in her T-shirts and jeans for cleavage-y candy-colored mini-dresses, and arriving at the winky Kool-Aid sex-bomb incarnation of Katy Perry with which we’ve all now become familiar—the one who shrewdly parlayed the unexpected success of songs like “I Kissed a Girl” and “Ur So Gay” into a career that might now be best described as an exploding cottage industry awash in bubbles and glitter.

Perry’s songs are fun, upbeat, and frothy—a little teen-girl wacky, a little cartoon cute, a little Harajuku rebellious—but they’re also shot through with a razor-sharp wit. She has little time for longing or dwelling or vulnerability for its own sake; there is no quest for a love and happiness that might never come, no search for salvation from loneliness and melancholy in a cruel, chaotic world. Instead, she prefers to play—with hooks, with words, with her own sexuality—so much so that it’s easy to get lost ricocheting amongst all of the puns and double entendres. (Sample lyric from “Peacock”: “Come on baby let me see / What you hiding underneath / Are you brave enough to let me see your peacock . . .  / I wanna see your peacock, cock, cock.”) But as easy, breezy, and infectious as Perry’s songs can be, beneath the surface lurks a sea of mixed emotions, jumbled motives, and contradictory impulses complicated enough to fill a Carole King record. Perhaps what is most striking about Perry is her holistic hyper-awareness of pop stardom itself as a state where the aural and the visual work in concert to create the bright light of the star, and where swiping a hook from Snoop Dogg’s “Gin and Juice” and wearing a custom-made bra that shoots whipped cream out of your nipple areas—both of which Perry does in the video for “California Gurls”—are shrewd gestures made even more evocative when done together with conviction.

In January, a sixth single off Teenage Dream, “The One That Got Away,” reached the top spot on the Billboard pop charts, capping a banner year for Perry—albeit one that has not been without its ebbs: In December, her husband of 15 months, the British actor and comedian Russell Brand, filed for divorce. Nevertheless, Perry has soldiered on, wrapping her “California Dreams” tour, and preparing for the release this month of Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection, an expanded version of the album featuring an array of bonus tracks and extras.

Back home in Los Angeles, where she was fresh off a plane from South East Asia after playing the final two shows of her tour, the 27-year-old Perry spoke to Saturday Night Liveand Bridesmaids star (and newly Oscar-nominated screenwriter) Kristen Wiig about coming to terms with her religious upbringing, the new challenges she faces, and why, despite the occasional crisis of faith, she has never stopped believing.

KRISTEN WIIG: Is this Katy Perry?

KATY PERRY: Kind of . . . [laughs] What’s up, chicken butt? Are you in the middle of some craziness at work?

WIIG: No, we don’t have a show this week. I’m at home.. What’s going on with you? Are you in L.A.?

PERRY: Yeah. I just got off of a flight from the Philippines about two hours ago. I’m being hung by my ankles right now—I need to do something to keep myself up.

WIIG: Were you singing and dancing around in little shorts?

PERRY: Yeah, like 15 different outfits in an hour-and-a-half period . . . Maybe 12 outfits—I’m exaggerating. I did a show in Indonesia and another one in Manila, and those were the last two shows of my tour, which made it 125 shows, so I’m very tired. And yesterday also wasn’t that good of a day for me for several other reasons. I had gotten into a back-and-forth with one of my best friends who I never ever argue with, and then, to top it off, right before I was supposed to go onstage, there was a bomb threat. You know those bomb-sniffing dogs? They were everywhere. They started sniffing out this backpack that was near my dressing room . . . I probably shouldn’t be giving up this kind of information because it sets me up for the future, but two dogs actually . . . .[both laugh] Well, they had to put me in an armored car, and I think I started crying at one point because I was just so overwhelmed, but we came to find out at the very end that it was chicken in the backpack that the dogs were sniffing and not something else.

WIIG: [laughs] I don’t mean to laugh, but chicken is the best possible thing that it could have been.

PERRY: I know. I should probably be a bit more discreet, but I thought, Chicken in a backpack? In the Philippines? I guess the dogs just wanted to eat. • Read full story…

Treating her fans to a revamped version of her hit single, Katy Perry enlisted the help of B.o.B. for a just-released remix of “The One That Got Away”.

The original version comes from 27-year-old Miss Perry’s album Teenage Dream, with Capitol Records having submitted the B.o.B featuring rendition to radio for airplay while expected to make it available for purchase next week.

Aside from ushering out new music, Katy is fresh off of being crowned as MTV’s 2011 Artist of the Year thanks to a spectacular chart-topping past twelve months.

Of the accolade, Perry appreciatively told in a video message (watch below), “I just want to say thank you for this amazing award. To be Artist of the Year, a whole 365 days, that’s pretty cool. I wasn’t really allowed to watch MTV growing up, so this feels really validating.”

Katy added, “And I’ve had a fantastic year, a great tour and a great run, and you guys have been so a part of it and such a big reason why. So thank you so much. I really appreciate it.”

Source: Celebrity Gossip

Spare a thought for 13-year-old Kathy Beth Terry. After spending a cosy night in playing Sudoku with her Weenie Babies, she not only found herself at the centre of a house party and grounded indefinitely, but also thrust into the limelight as the star of Katy Perry’s music video for her latest single ‘Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)’. Four weeks after her shenanigans were put on display for the world to see, we caught up with her to find out how she’s handling her newfound fame.

Are you still friends with Rebecca Black after the party and are you a fan of her song ‘Friday’?
“Yeah! Rebecca’s got a great sense of style, she’s designing my forest princess dress for the next LARP convention. I get so, so excited for her every time ‘Friday’ comes on the radio! It’s nice to finally be able to relate to what getting down on Friday actually means!”

How are you using your newfound popularity?
“Mostly just to connect with new people online that have similar interests. I never knew there were so many people into Sudoku and the solar system like me! I’ve made a few really great Weenie Baby trades recently as well.”

Who are your music heroes and what do you like most about them?
“Hanson and Sugar Ray, because they’ve both got REALLY cute lead singers! Katy Perry has also been really great to me, performing on stage with her has been so fun!”

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had stuck in your braces?
“I chewed on a pen one day in history class. The ink tube part got tangled in my braces. Luckily, Dr. Rosenthall was able to remove it, but my mouth was blue for two days!”

Would you consider applying for The X Factor and what would you sing?
“Chumbawamba’s ‘I get knocked down, but I get up again, you’re never going to keep me down’! I’m very accident-prone, so I feel it’s pretty appropriate!”

What are your top three style tips when dressing for a party?
“Make your hair REALLY big, wear lots of neon colours and swap one of your shoes with a friend and wear a mis-matched pair – all these things are guaranteed to get you noticed!”

When is your next party and can we come?
“Due to the whole ‘grounded for the next 5 years’ thing, I’m laying low on having a lot of people over for a while. The next party will be online, that way you can all come!”

Source: Digital Spy UK

In the new issue of Rolling Stone, on stands and in the digital archive on June 24th, Katy Perry takes contributing editor Erik Hedegaard backstage at the kick-off of her California Dreams Tour. Between the elaborate rehearsals and three-hour make-up sessions, Perry reveals that she’s recently undergone a political awakening. “It just feels like the thing running our country is a bank, money,” she says. “I know it sounds like an intense viewpoint, but I’m only slowly but surely getting the wool taken off my eyes. When I was a kid, I asked questions about my faith. Now I’m asking questions about the world.”

She continues: “I think we are largely in desperate need of revolutionary change in the way our mindset is. Our priority is fame, and people’s wellness is way low. I saw this knowing full well that I’m a part of the problem. I’m playing the game, though I am trying to reroute. Anyway, not to get all politically divulging and introspective, but the fact that America doesn’t have free health care drives me fucking absolutely crazy, and is so wrong.”

• It took Perry a while to learn to embrace her body. “I started praying for [breasts] when I was, like, 11,” she says. “And God answered that prayer above and beyond, by, like, 100 times, until I was like, ‘Please, stop, God. I can’t see my feet anymore. Please stop!’ I was a lot more rectangular then. I didn’t understand my body. Someone in sixth grade called me ‘Over-the-shoulder boulder holder.’ I didn’t know I could use them. So, what I did was, I started taping them down. How long did I tape them down for? Probably until I was about 19. And, no, I don’t have any psychological pain because of it.”

• Perry is the first artist to ever have at least one song ranked in the top ten of the BillboardHot 100 for a full year – but she remains a polarizing figure. “Whenever people ask me about having bad reviews, I’m like, ‘Have you seen the run I’ve had? Have you see the numbers?’” she says. “Numbers do not lie!” At the same time, she recognizes the limitations of pop music. “I’m not a dummy,” she says. “I know ‘California Gurls’ isn’t going to save the world. But I got a lot of heart from my upbringing and I put a lot of heart in my songs.”

• She’s recently become obsessed with the History Channel show Ancient Aliens. “Oh my God,” she says. “When it talks about the sky people , how everyone comes from the sky and how the Pyramids were used for star observations, it’s too much for me. It all seems to connect the dots. It’s blowing my mind.”

Source: Rolling Stone

“My career is like an artichoke,” Katy Perry tells Vanity Faircontributing editor Lisa Robinson. “People might think that the leaves are tasty and buttered up and delicious, and they don’t even know that there’s something magical hidden at the base of it. There’s a whole other side [of me] that people didn’t know existed.”

Perry, who tells Robinson that she wants her ashes shot out over the Santa Barbara coast in a firework, reveals that one side of her she has definitively left behind is her born-again upbringing. “I didn’t have a childhood,” she says, adding that her mother never read her any books except the Bible, and that she wasn’t allowed to say “deviled eggs” or “Dirt Devil.” Perry wasn’t even allowed to listen to secular music and relied on friends to sneak her CDs. “Growing up, seeing Planned Parenthood, it was considered like the abortion clinic,” she tells Robinson. “I was always scared I was going to get bombed when I was there…. I didn’t know it was more than that, that it was for women and their needs. I didn’t have insurance, so I went there and I learned about birth control.”

I’ve added a new video interview of Katy Perry on Van der Vorst Ziet Sterren Oh Oh Tirol.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxOWjYv_okY

Katy Perry has been hitting the road on her California Dreams World Tour, which hits the States in June. Her colorful live show includes costumes to match and choice cuts plucked from the singer’s repertoire. Some of those tunes, specifically songs from last year’s Teenage Dream, are proving to be more than just a good time for fans — they’re also inspirational.

“I always want to be completely honest and, for this record in particular, I knew from the outside world, a lot had changed. [But] I was hoping that I was still the same me, [the] kind of quirky, weird-perspective girl that I’ve always been,” she told MTV News recently. “But you know, there was a lot of distraction and glitz and glam. When you get to a certain point, you have to push it all away and remember what your core is, and that’s what I did for this record.”

So, before she hit the road or the recording studio, Perry headed home to Santa Barbara, California, and took it all back to the beginning, before she was a famous pop star with an over-the-top life. • Read full story…