Katy Perry

Katheryn Elizabeth "Katy" Hudson (born October 25, 1984), better known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, businesswoman, philanthropist and actress. She was born and raised in Santa Barbara, California. Having had very little exposure to mainstream pop music in her childhood, she pursued a career in gospel music as a teen and released her debut studio album, Katy Hudson, in March 2001. She also recorded a collaborative album with The Matrix and a solo album she worked on with Glen Ballard, the latter of which was never released.

In April 2007, Perry signed a recording contract with Capitol Records. She attracted media attention with the November 2007 online release of "Ur So Gay" and rose prominence with the June 2008 release of her second album, One of the Boys, which produced the singles "I Kissed a Girl", "Hot n Cold", "Thinking of You", and "Waking Up in Vegas". The project was further promoted through the Hello Katy Tour. In November 2009, she released a live album titled MTV Unplugged, which features performances of several tracks from One of the Boys. Perry's third record, Teenage Dream, was released in August 2010 and spawned the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)". In doing so, it became the first album recorded by a female artist in history to produce five number-one hits, and the second album overall after Michael Jackson's August 1987 album Bad. Perry embarked on the California Dreams Tour following its release. In March 2012, Teenage Dream was re-released as Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection and produced the number-one single "Part of Me". Her fourth album, Prism, was released in October 2013 and was preceded by singles "Roar" and "Unconditionally".

Perry has received numerous awards and nominations, including nine Grammy nominations and Billboard dubbed her as 2012's Woman of the Year. She remains the only artist to spend 69 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Hot 100. Perry is also the third best selling digital singles artist in US according to RIAA.[4] She has ventured into celebrity endorsement and released fragrances Purr, Meow, and Killer Queen. In July 2011, she made her film debut voicing Smurfette in The Smurfs. Perry was ranked at number fourteen on Billboard's list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing more than $11 million. In July 2012, she released her 3D autobiographical documentary film, Katy Perry: Part of Me, which concentrated on her life as a touring artist and the breakdown of her one-year marriage to English actor/comedian Russell Brand. As of November 2013, Perry had sold over 11 million albums and 81 million singles worldwide and her singles are some of the best-selling worldwide.

At the age of 17, Perry left her home for Los Angeles, California, where she worked with Glen Ballard on an album for Island Records. Growing up listening to mostly Country Gospel, she had few references when she began recording songs.Asked by the producer with whom she would like to collaborate, Perry had no idea. In September 2002, she went with her mother to a hotel. Inside, she turned on VH1 and saw producer Glen Ballard talking about Alanis Morissette that night;Ballard produced Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, which had a "huge influence" on her. She expressed interest in working with Ballard to her initial collaborator, who arranged a meeting for her with Ballard in Los Angeles. Perry presented one of her songs to Ballard, who then helped develop her songwriting over the next few years. In 2003, she began using her mother's maiden name (Perry) as a stage name to avoid confusion with actress Kate Hudson.After Perry was subsequently dropped by The Island Def Jam Music Group, she signed to Columbia Records in 2004. The same year, Perry and Kaya Jones provided backing vocals on Mick Jagger's song "Old Habits Die Hard", which won the 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

However, the label was not amenable with her vision and did not give her full creative control. Instead, one of Columbia's ideas was to pair her with the record production team The Matrix, who was working on an album, to serve as its female vocalist. Eighty percent completed, however, Columbia decided not to finish it and dropped her from the label. While the album was shelved,she caught the attention of the music press. Her burgeoning music career led to her being named "The Next Big Thing" in October 2004 by Blender magazine. A solo album she had worked on with Ballard was scheduled for release on August 18, 2005 but was cancelled. Some of her collaborations with Ballard, including "Box", "Diamonds", and "Long Shot", were posted on her official MySpace page."Simple", one of the songs she recorded with Ballard, was released on the soundtrack to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Kelly Clarkson later used "Long Shot" (which Perry wrote with Matt Thiessen and Ballard) for her March 2009 album, All I Ever Wanted. With no album project ongoing, Perry began recording her own, titled Fingerprints While waiting to find another label, she worked in an independent A&R company called Taxi Music. In 2006, she was featured in the tail-end of the video to P.O.D.'s single "Goodbye for Now"and played the love interest of Travie McCoy in the music video for "Cupid's Chokehold" by Gym Class Heroes, of which McCoy is the lead singer.