Katy Perry
Katy Perry (born Katheryn B. Hudson on October 25, 1984) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actress. She is most notable for her singles, "UR So Gay", released in 2007, and the song, "I Kissed a Girl", which was released in 2008, by Capitol Records.
Perry was born in Santa Barbara, CaliforniaUSA. The middle child of two pastors, she grew up listening to gospel music and singing in church. After Steve Thomas and Jennifer Knapp signed Katy on their label Red Hill Records, she released her first CD as a Christian gospel CD in 2001 under the name Katy Hudson.
In her teenage years, Perry found a Queen record with her friend, "and the heavens opened and saved me. From then on, they have been my biggest influence.
In 2004, she became an in-house vocalist for The Matrix production team, who had worked with Avril Lavigne on her debut album, recording songs, including the track, "Damn", which leaked onto the Internet in May 2008. She also began working on a debut mainstream album, writing with Glen Ballard, which was due for release in 2005; some of the collaborations included "Box" and "Diamonds," which were released on the Internet on Katy's official MySpace page. Her burgeoning music career led to her being named "The Next Big Thing" in October 2004 in Blender Magazine, where Perry stated she wasn't "a typical Christian", mentioning that she had done "lots of bad things" during her adolescence and that she recommended "drinking, drugs and other forms of substance abuse" as the recommended activity for listening to her music. One of the tracks she recorded with Glen Ballard, "Simple", was released on the soundtrack of the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants ("Simple"), She has openly talked about her struggles within the music industry, such as being dropped from record labels for much of her early career. Her songs eventually captured the attention of Virgin Records CEO Jason Flom, who was the head of Capitol Music Group, and she signed to Capitol Music in the spring of 2007. Recent fame came be attributed greatly to Z100 radio (whtz) of New York City. Z100 took a chance by adding Katy to their play list of top 40 songs. Katy is now regularly heard on MTV and Vh1, as well as commercials.
Among her musical influences are Queen, The Beach Boys, Heart, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, and Alanis Morissette.
After signing to Capitol Records, Perry began recording for her official mainstream debut album, to be released in 2008, working with Greg Wells, Dr. Luke (Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne), Butch Walker (Pink, The Donnas), Max Martin (Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, The Veronicas) and Cathy Dennis (Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue). The full length album titled One of the Boys is set to be released in the USA on June 17, 2008.
The album was preceded by a digital EP in late 2007, entitled "UR So Gay", produced by and co-written with Greg Wells (OneRepublic, Mika). A video for the song premiered in early 2008, and brought Katy to the attention of Madonna, who mentioned her on 104.7 KISS FM's JohnJay & Rich morning show in the Phoenix area, stating that "UR So Gay" was her "favourite song right now", as well as another mention on Ryan Seacrest's Morning Show.
On April 29, 2008, her first official single from One of the Boys, "I Kissed a Girl", debuted on iTunes. The song was co-written with Dr. Luke, Max Martin and Cathy Dennis and debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #76, climbing to #4 as of June 12, 2008. It has peaked on iTunes Top 100 at #1, as of June 3 2008. The music video for "I Kissed a Girl" was released on May 21, 2008 on MySpace.
In addition, she has had songs from the album featured on MTV's series The Hills ("Self Inflicted" and "Thinking Of You") , on Oxygen Network's reality series Fight Girls, and on the 2008 film Baby Mama ("Fingerprints"). She was also featured on P.O.D.'s 2006 single "Goodbye for Now".
As an actress, she made a cameo appearance on Carbon Leaf's video "Learn to Fly" and on Gym Class Heroes' video "Cupid's Chokehold" On March 10, 2008, she appeared as herself on ABC Family's Wildfire (episode titled "Life's Too Short"). She has appeared in advertisements for Too Faced Cosmetics' Spring 2007 line. On June 12th, Perry appeared as herself on the popular daytime soap opera The Young & The Restless, and on MTV's TRL. She will also be on this summer's Warped Tour.
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