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Darren Harvey of musicOMH compared Perry’s vocals on One of the Boys to Alanis Morissette’s, both possessing a “perky voice shifting octaves mid-syllable”. Lyrically, the album addresses relationships, self-reflection, and everyday life. She also credits the 1996 film The Craft for inspiring her song “Dark Horse”, and Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now for influencing Prism. Her second concert tour, the California Dreams Tour, was reminiscent of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She cites the band’s frontman, Freddie Mercury, as her biggest influence and expressed how the “combination of his sarcastic approach to writing lyrics and his ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude” inspired her music. During the early stages of her career, Perry’s musical style gravitated towards gospel, and she aspired to be as successful as Amy Grant.
Komende optredens van The Specials
Jerry Dammers reportedly based the song on ‘Me Wan’ Fi Go Rave’, a poem by the political activist and social commentator Linton Kwesi Johnson. The excitement and energy within this offering capture the universal appeal of The Specials during their early period; it was an adrenaline-fueled musical revolution. It is well-documented that the 2-Tone tours were essentially month-long parties which saw The Specials and their peers travel all over the globe preaching the gospel of ska. The song, which also features Byers on vocal duties, is an account of walking home in the dark in Coventry and the various dangers incurred along the way. ’, Golding had his neck slashed in another racist attack, reflecting the importance of this song and its message.
Life and career
She described it as “the most fun, colorful world that helps guide your musical dreams”. Ferras was the first artist to get signed to her label, and Perry served as an executive producer on his self-titled EP. On June 26, 2014, she was declared the Top Certified Digital Artist Ever by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for certified sales of 72 million digital singles in the United States. Her performance was critically acclaimed, and Guinness announced two days after the singer’s halftime show that it garnered 118.5 million viewers in the United States, becoming the most watched and highest rated show in Super Bowl history. On November 23, 2014, the National Football League (NFL) announced that Perry would perform at the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show on February 1, 2015.
“Wide Awake” was released on May 22 as the re-release’s second single, peaking at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one in Canada and New Zealand. That month, she became the first artist to have four songs sell over 5 million digital units when “E.T.” reached that mark along with “Firework”, “California Gurls”, and “Hot n Cold”. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five non-consecutive weeks, making Teenage Dream the ninth album in history to produce four number one singles on the chart.
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- It has since sold over 12 million copies worldwide, being her highest-selling album to date.
- She also recorded the song “Immortal Flame” for the game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius, and had a playable character modeled after her.
- Perry’s third headlining tour, the Prismatic World Tour, began in May 2014 and concluded in October 2015.
- Back in 2018, a nun who was involved in a lawsuit with the pop star over the sale of a convent in Los Angeles collapsed and died during a court appearance related to the case.
- Outside of her music career, Perry reprised her role as Smurfette in The Smurfs 2, which was released in theaters on July 31, 2013.
- Keith Caulfield of Billboard stated that Perry is “the rare celebrity who seems to have enormous popularity but genuine ground-level interaction with her adoring KatyCats”.
In the United States, she has accumulated nine number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100, her most recent being “Dark Horse”, and holds the record for having 18 consecutive number-one songs on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart. On June 15, 2017, Calvin Harris released a song titled “Feels” from his album Funk Wav Bounces Vol. The track was also streamed over three million times on Spotify within 24 hours, breaking the music streaming service’s record at the time for the highest first-day streaming for a single track by a female artist. On July 22, 2009, Perry recorded a live album titled MTV Unplugged, which featured acoustic performances of five tracks from One of the Boys as well as one new song, “Brick by Brick”, and a cover of Fountains of Wayne’s “Hackensack”.
In 1979, shortly after drummer Hutchinson left the band to be replaced by John Bradbury, Dammers formed the 2 Tone Records label and released the band’s debut single, “Gangsters”, a reworking of Prince Buster’s “Al Capone”. The lawyers also pointed out that Pratt and his wife have been closely linked to the property since Perry first expressed interest in it—calling attention to the fact that she became involved in a bidding war with Schwarzenegger’s mother, Maria Shriver, who was also keen to buy the abode. The couple, who are in the process of building a custom compound in Brentwood, are said to have been loaned the Montecito property to use while they wait for their new home to be completed. Hollywood actor Chris Pratt and his wife, Katherine Schwarzenegger, were then dragged into the legal saga, after it was reported that they had moved into the Montecito property after leasing it from Perry and Bloom. Though she stopped short of saying that she and Bloom were financial partners, she did say that the property at the center of the case was of “good financial interest for me.”
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Her following albums—Witness (2017), Smile (2020) and 143 (2024)—were released to varying critical and commercial success. The dance-inspired Prism (2013) spawned two U.S. number-one singles, “Roar” and “Dark Horse”, with their respective music videos making Perry the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube. Its reissue, subtitled The Complete Confection (2012), produced the U.S. number-one single “Part of Me”. Perry recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records. The world’s highest-paid female musician in 2015 and 2018, she was named by Billboard as one of the greatest pop stars of the 21st century. Perry is known for her influence on pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the “Queen of Camp” by Vogue and Rolling Stone.
In het wil graag live zien lijstje van
Continuing as “the Special AKA” (a name they used frequently on earlier Specials releases), a substantially revised Specials line-up issued new material until 1984, including the top 10 UK hit single “Free Nelson Mandela”. After seven consecutive UK top 10 singles between 1979 and 1981, main lead vocalists Hall and Staple, along with guitarist Golding, left to form Fun Boy Three. In 1981, the recession-themed single “Ghost Town” also hit No. 1 in the UK. Lyrically, their work (often written by primary songwriter Dammers) presented overt political and social commentary.
She rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock album containing her debut single “I Kissed a Girl” and follow-up single “Hot n Cold”, which reached number one and three on the U.S. At 16, Perry released a gospel album titled Katy Hudson (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was unsuccessful. She is one of the best-selling music artists in history, having sold over 151 million records worldwide. Even without the band’s groundbreaking reflection of society at the time, the music encased on this single reflects the inventive nature of the band’s offering, largely driven by the mind of Jerry Dammers. No matter how many times you hear it, the monotone vocals of Terry Hall still capture a sense of excitement not afforded to many songs.
When Glaze admitted that he had never kissed a girl (a reference to Perry’s song “I Kissed a Girl”), she gestured for him to come up to her for a kiss on the cheek but then kissed him on the lips. In 2022, Elle dubbed her as “the kitsch-loving pop star renowned for her uniquely experimental style”, while Vogue described her style as “synonymous with outrageous, eye-catching ensembles that lean towards the theatrical”. Perry was placed at number one on the Maxim Hot 100 in 2010 as the “most beautiful woman in the world”, with editor Joe Levy describing her as a “triple – no quadruple – kind of hot”. As of September 2025, she was the second-most followed woman on the site, with over 104 million Twitter followers, and the sixth most followed musician across social media with a combined total of over 377 million followers across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Keith Caulfield of Billboard stated that Perry is “the rare celebrity who seems to have enormous popularity but genuine ground-level interaction with her adoring KatyCats”. She received a Guinness record for most Twitter followers, and became the first person to gain 100 million followers on the site in June 2017.
Perry’s initial efforts at mainstream stardom were fruitless, with two separate record labels signing and subsequently dropping her before any material was released. Her popular singles include “I Kissed a Girl,” “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” “Roar,” and “Rise.” Katy Perry’s popular singles include “I Kissed a Girl,” “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” “Roar,” and “Rise.” She also became the first artist to have three songs receive Diamond certifications from the RIAA in 2017 with “Dark Horse”, “Firework”, and “Roar”.
Perry subsequently recorded a cover of the Dear Evan Hansen song “Waving Through a Window” for the deluxe edition of the cast recording, which was released on November 2, 2018. The album, titled Witness, was released on June 9, 2017, to mixed reviews, and debuted at number one in the United States. On February 10, 2017, Perry released the album’s lead single “Chained to the Rhythm” featuring Skip Marley. Perry released a mobile app titled Katy Perry Pop in December 2015 through Glu Mobile where her character helps players become famous musicians. On November 23, 2015, Perry starred in H&M’s holiday advertising campaign, for which she wrote and recorded a song titled “Every Day Is a Holiday”. Prior to ending her relationship with Mayer in 2014, she recorded and co-wrote a duet with him titled “Who You Love” for his album Paradise Valley.
Female backing vocalists on the Specials’ first two studio albums included Chrissie Hynde, Rhoda Dakar (then of the Bodysnatchers and later of the Special AKA), and Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go’s. In 1980, the EP Too Much Too Young (predominantly credited to the Special A.K.A.) was a No. 1 hit in the UK Singles Chart, despite controversy over the song’s lyrics, which reference teen pregnancy and promote contraception. Horn players Dick Cuthell and Rico Rodriguez were featured on the album, but would not be official members of the Specials until their second album. Chrysalis agreed to the terms that would establish 2 Tone as a viable independent label and the Specials would get the backing of a major record company. The plan was for 2 Tone to put out singles by non-signed bands who would not be held to any contract.
Their first album had captured the youthful punk spirit of the late 1970s, but Dammers’ group were moving towards something much more expansive and profound on More Specials. Two distinct eras are present within The Specials’ relatively short reign over British music. The 1979 single certainly has a lot to answer for, but it has never lost its appeal in the nearly 50 years since its initial release. Loosely based on ‘Al Capone’ by ska pioneer Prince Buster, the single represented the apogee of The Specials’ blend of punk spirit with old-school Caribbean rhythms. Recorded in January 1979 and released a few short months later, ‘Gangsters’ exploded onto the scene, introducing listeners across the nation to the black-and-white revolution occurring in the Midlands. This radical endorsement of contraception was first issued on the band’s 1979 debut album as a slow, somewhat sombre effort.
- They had planned to record a new album in the United States before Hall’s health deteriorated.
- One of the Boys, released on June 17, 2008, garnered mixed critical reviews and reached number nine on the U.S.
- She hosted Saturday Night Live on December 10, 2011, with Robyn as the episode’s musical guest.
Later that year, with earnings of $530 million throughout the 2010s, the magazine also ranked her as the ninth-highest-earning musician of the decade. Perry’s albums One of the Boys, Teenage Dream, Prism, Witness, and Smile have each surpassed one billion streams on Spotify. Six years later, the RIAA certified “California Gurls” as her fourth Diamond-certified single in the U.S., breaking her tie with Lady Gaga as the female artist with the most Diamond singles there. The following month, her music video for “Roar” reached 1 billion views on Vevo, making her the first artist to have multiple videos with 1 billion views.
She returned to mainstream pop with the empowerment-oriented Smile (2020). Perry’s fifth studio album, Witness (2017), more introspective than her earlier work, was less well received. Perry maintained her grip on the mainstream with her next release, Prism (2013), which produced, among other hits, the anthemic “Roar.” Her 2016 single “Rise” was featured in television coverage of that year’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Nevertheless, the combination of titillation and polished melodicism helped “I Kissed a Girl” become a number one hit in multiple countries, powering sales for her album One of the Boys (2008). The song quickly stirred controversy, as some critics derided it for promoting same-sex relations and others charged that the racy scenario it depicted catered to male fantasies of female sexuality. She soon moved to Los Angeles to pursue success in the secular music realm, adopting her mother’s maiden name, Perry, to avoid confusion with the actress Kate Hudson.
The release of the album with Desmond Dekker created some buzz for the band, and led to an offer from a Japanese promoter to book a vegas casino tour. The album, released by Trojan Records as King of Kings, was credited to Desmond Dekker and the Specials. Producer Roger Lomas was asked by Trojan Records to get some musicians together to back ska legend Desmond Dekker on a new album. He joined Special Beat for several years, then a reformed Selecter, before retiring from music to work as an IT specialist.
In December 2010, Perry played Moe Szyslak’s girlfriend in the live-action segment from a Christmas episode of The Simpsons titled “The Fight Before Christmas”. Perry subsequently mocked the controversy on Saturday Night Live, where she was a musical guest and wore an Elmo-themed shirt showing large amounts of cleavage during one skit. The tour grossed $59.5 million globally and won her the award for Best Live Act at the 2011 MTV Europe Music Awards. Perry embarked on her second tour, the California Dreams Tour, in support of Teenage Dream from February 2011 to January 2012.
Not content with continuing on in the ska-focused sound of their first album, Dammers sought to diversify the output of the group. The Specials’ 1981 single might have torn the group apart, with its muzak influences and distorted brass proving too much for some members to handle, but it was undoubtedly their magnum opus. Either way, the song reflected the inventive spirit of the band and, aside from anything else, that bassline is to die for. Perhaps as a result of this, the song’s lyrics are much more abstract than something like ‘Too Much Too Young’, which alienated certain sects of the band’s fan base.
Many of their popular tracks were covers of old-school ska songs, updating them for punk audiences, but here we have focused largely on their original compositons. On 7 July 2021, Horace Panter announced a new 12-track Specials album that was released on 23 August 2021, titled Protest Songs 1924–2012. After completing a similar project with the Selecter in 1999, Roger Lomas brought the group back into the studio to record a number of classic songs from the Trojan Records back catalogue.