Katy Perry
Since the release of her breakout album One of the Boys in 2007, Katy Perry has released two other albums and has been nominated for six Grammy awards. Learn where this spunky pop star got her start and find out why she almost didn't make it.
April 22, 2011, 2:19 p.m.
“I gave myself until I turned 25 to make it,” pop phenom Katy Perry said in a 2009 interview. “And if it didn’t happen, I thought I’d just try to find a nice husband.” With a wedding that took place just two days before her twenty-sixth birthday, Perry has managed to do both.
Growing up the daughter of born-again Christians in Santa Barbara, CA meant that Perry, born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, had her first singing experiences in the church choir. Because she was not allowed to listen to “secular music” at home, Perry learned to dance on her own outside the home.
At age 15, Perry’s performance in her church choir caught the eye of Red Hill Records in Nashville, where she recorded a self-titled gospel album in 2001. Around the same time, Katy changed her last name from Hudson to Perry, for fear of any confusion with actress Kate Hudson.
After Red Hill shut down and Perry left home for Los Angeles, she recorded an album for the Island Def Jam Music Group, which was also unsuccessful and resulted in the Group dropping her. In 2007, Capitol Records also decided not to sign her. “They told me and other female artists that some of us were going on the chopping block,” Perry told Cosmo. “I was 19…and it was devastating..jpg)
Fortunately, the Capitol Records CEO changed his mind and in less than a year, Perry had reached super-stardom. “Katy had such a strong belief in herself and just kept going," said Kara DioGuardi who has had the opportunity to write two tracks with Perry. “That girl works harder than anybody. And she’s so in love with what she’s doing.”
Even through all of her success in the past few years, Perry has managed to make time for another kind of love—the kind that is British, funny and occasionally inappropriate. Russell Brand and Perry married in late 2010, after about a year of dating.
Most recently, Perry can add her new single "E.T." to her growing list of Billboard Hot 100 chart-toppers, which also included "I Kissed a Girl", "Teenage Dream" and "California Girls."
Check out the video for ‘E.T.’ below:
Katy Perry is coming to the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday, September 10. Click here to purchase tickets.