Katy Perry has faced heightened backlash recently after delivering a tone-deaf statement following her 11-minute sub-orbital space flight aboard Blue Origin and exhibiting some bizarre choreography during the kickoff show of her “Lifetimes Tour.” In a social media comment, the pop singer addressed her “unhinged and unhealed” haters, saying that while the experience has left her “battered and bruised,” she vows to “keep looking to the light.”
The artist addressed the criticism in a lengthy comment under an Instagram post from the fan account Katy Perry Brasil. After thanking her fans for purchasing a Times Square billboard promoting the tour, Perry called out her online critics and shared advice she received from her therapist.
“Please know I am ok, I have done a lot work around knowing who I am, what is real and what is important to me,” Perry wrote. “My therapist said something years ago that has been a game changer, ‘No one can make you believe something about yourself that you don’t already believe about yourself’ and if I ever do have any feelings about it then it’s an opportunity to investigate the feeling underneath it.”
She continued, “When the ‘online’ world tries to make me a human Piñata, I take it with grace and send them love, cause I know so many people are hurting in so many ways and the internet is very much so a dumping ground for unhinged and unhealed.”
Instead, Perry focuses on “what’s real,” such as seeing her fans’ “faces every night, singing in unison, reading your notes, feeling your warmth. I find people to lock eyes and sing with and I know we are healing each other in a small way when I get to do that.”
Concluding the note, Perry admitted she’s “omitted” the word “perfect” from her vocabulary and shared a message of perseverance: “I’m on a human journey playing the game of life with an audience of many and sometimes I fall but… I get back up and go on and continue to play the game and somehow through my battered and bruised adventure I keep looking to the light and in that light a new level UNLOCKS.”
Perry has faced challenges during her attempted comeback with her soulless 2024 album 143. Leading up to its release, she released the widely criticized Dr. Luke collaboration “Woman’s World” and then claimed it was satire.
She then deflected a question about working with the controversial Dr. Luke during her new era centered around women’s empowerment and delivered a disappointing performance at the 2024 VMAs.
Given that context, traveling to space alongside rich celebrities was especially poor for optics — as was her statement that the voyage was an opportunity to unify the country. The seemingly low-effort choreography of Perry’s first concert of a three-night residency in Mexico City didn’t help her cause.
The “Lifetimes Tour” picks up tomorrow, May 1st, with two nights in Guadalajara, Mexico. Perry will then stop in US cities including Chicago, Denver, Austin, and more before heading to Australia, followed by a return to North America in July, Central American dates in September, and a UK/Europe leg to close out the year.
