Nine months pregnant with an album due at the same time as the baby, the star once known for her unfiltered goofiness has evolved. She talks depression, cancel culture – and her return to pure pop
Via a webcam into her
Los Angeles home,
Katy Perry slowly descends into frame, nine months pregnant with her first child. She looks like the Virgin Mary via Warhol in a voluminous azure dress and a matching pearl-studded headband. “The conception was not virginal, I’ll tell you that,” she says with trademark cartoonish verve. All that’s visible of her house is a lustrous brown curtain, the stage for her recent promo activities. She estimates that this is her 70th interview about her fifth album, Smile. (Going by the banal, grin-and-bear-it US radio interviews, she has the patience of a saint if not the impregnation tactics.) Baby and record were neck-and-neck until production delays bumped the latter to 28 August: the girl she and fiance Orlando Bloom have nicknamed “Kicky Perry” comes first.
The pandemic only slightly skewed her plans: Perry, 35, always intended to release the album, have a baby and skip touring, resenting the suggestion that she should have to choose. That said, it has helped that every pop star is working from home. “It’s not like I was some witch with a spell: I’m gonna do it this way so you’re gonna do it this way,” she says with mock glee. “But yes, I probably don’t have as much Fomo as I would have if the world hadn’t shifted.” Last night she was filming a video until 2am, her last big commitment: “There is definitely a groundedness of: ‘Here’s the
music, enjoy, love ya, I’m out!’”