After Katy's Perry's "comeback" single Woman's World came and went on the Billboard 200 like a fart in the wind, it looks like the Hot N' Cold singer is having a pop emergency crisis.
via: Daily Mail
Katy Perry is 'pointing the fingers at everyone but herself' after her comeback single, Woman's World, failed to set the charts alight, according to insiders - who claim she is desperately scrambling to devise a new plan to save her musical comeback.
The singer, 39, released the lead single from her forthcoming seventh studio album 143 last Thursday, but the track - billed as an empowering feminist anthem - was quickly dismissed as unoriginal, hypocritical and formulaic.
The Teenage Dream hitmaker also faced criticism for the sexualized nature of the accompanying video, as well as her decision to work with music producer Dr. Luke, 50, after his highly publicized legal battle with Tick Tock singer Kesha, 37.
With the single plummeting down the US iTunes chart less than a week since its July 11 release, Katy is said to be 'freaking out' and demanding that her team go 'back to the drawing board' to save her album from suffering the same fate.
'Katy is freaking out right now because she is very aware of the feedback that Woman’s World is getting,' an insider exclusively told DailyMail.com. 'She is pointing the fingers at everyone but herself, but it is her own fault.'
The source claimed the biggest risk Katy had taken was reconnecting with Dr. Luke - the music producer who worked on her hit singles including 2008's I Kissed a Girl and 2010's California Gurls before later being accused of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by Kesha.
The super producer, whose real name is Łukasz Gottwald, denied all allegations, including Kesha's claim that he raped Katy – something she shut down.
A New York state judge ruled against Kesha in 2020 saying she had defamed her former producer with the claim, and an appeals court upheld that decision in 2021.
Music lovers have been vocal about their disdain for any artist choosing to work with the hitmaker following Kesha's allegations, despite the pair reaching a settlement in 2023.
Some of Katy's fans have defended the star by claiming she was forced to work with Dr. Luke due to contractual obligations. But Katy previously confirmed that she has no ties with the producer.
During her 2018 deposition for Kesha's suit against Dr. Luke, Katy confirmed that she had only ever signed a three-album publishing deal with Dr. Luke's Kemosabe Records and that the pair were no longer in a contractual relationship.
She also acknowledged what the public feedback would be if she chose to collaborate with Dr. Luke amid his battle with Kesha.
'Working with him at this moment would mean - would not be - would not be received well because of this lawsuit,' she stated.
When asked if she thought working with Dr. Luke would have a potential impact on the success of a future release, the Dark Horse singer responded: '[People would] protest against it, a smear campaign, just 20 different narratives than the one that I am.'
After DailyMail.com previously revealed that Katy had been warned not collaborate with Dr. Luke for the new album, the source confirmed that the Roar singer had ignored pleas.
'She was insane to think that Dr. Luke was a good idea. She didn’t listen to anyone', the insider stated. 'Instead of diving deep and creating art she put something out that sounded like it could have been on an album of hers from 2010.'
Not only did the track see Katy team up with the producer, the track was also mainly written alongside men.
Dr. Luke, Aaron Joseph, Vaughn Oliver, and Rocco Did It Again! all co-wrote and produced the track - while Katy and Chloe Angelides are the only women who helped pen the song.
Not a single woman produced the album.
'You don’t make a song about female empowerment with basically all men,' the source said.
'Katy cannot identify with other women because she lives in her celebrity bubble. She knows nothing about what it is like to be a woman in the real world.
'She is not using her star power to make change in the world – she is using it to make money.'
Music fans have failed to connect with Woman's World which only managed to debut at No. 110 on Spotify's US chart with 501,000 streams.
It faired slightly better on the Spotify global chart, landing at No. 58 with 2.26 million streams.
However by July 13, just two days after it was released, the song dropped out of the global charts and disappeared completely from the US charts.
Katy's apparent response to critics who slammed the supposed message of the accompanying music video did little to help promote the lackluster single.
'We’re kind of just having fun, being a bit sarcastic with it,' she said in a clip from behind-the-scenes on set. 'It’s very slapstick and very on the nose.
'With this set it’s like, "Oooh, we’re not about the male gaze, but we really are about the male gaze." And we’re really overplaying it and on the nose.'
In one of the more bizarre moments in the video, Katy is seen getting crushed when an anvil drops out of the sky. The flattened singer then goes on to re-inflate herself before she walks through a city wearing a futuristic look.
The former American Idol judge later explained the moment was meant as a 'reset' to help her embrace the 'idea of feminine divine.'
With just weeks to go before she releases her new album, Katy is now desperately working with her team to 'adjust' the record in a bid to ensure a better reception.
The source explained: 'Katy is now demanding that they go back to the drawing board ahead of the release of more singles and they are adjusting the album right now in a desperate attempt to salvage her comeback. She should be very grateful that they have three months to do this.'
It appears Katy is planning to give control over to the fans after she announced on Stationhead on July 14 that she would be creating a poll for her followers to help choose what her next single should be.
It is not yet clear how many other tracks from the new album feature Dr. Luke as a songwriter or producer.
143, which is the title is a code for 'I love you' which was often used in messages sent on pagers during the 1990s, will be released on September 20.
It will mark the star's first album since 2020's Smile, which did not replicate the success of her previous records.
When sharing information about her new album, known informally as KP6, Katy declared she was entering a ‘new era’.
Speaking of her new era, a few critics reviewed and dismantled KP's new single, with the Guardian's Laura Snape branded it as "garbage" and Vulture's Justin Curto wrote that Woman's World is "stuck in vague feminist empowerment, which may have worked in 2014 but falls short in 2024".
However, a PR and crisis management expert disagrees. Edward Coram-James argues that the 'PR disaster' has been fuelled by social media trolls, rather than it being a serious issue or allegation against the star that could see Katy's downfall.
The expert says that in crisis management, incidents must be graded on their severity, which in turn helps the celebrity respond appropriately. He argues that the negative reaction to the video should have been viewed as a four on the scale out of 10, and therefore did not warrant her grovelling explanation on social media following the backlash.
He says this may have only made matters worse. "If you respond to a type 7 crisis with a type 4 response, it can cause chaos for reputations," Ed, CEO of GoUp, explained to the Mirror. "However, respond to a type 3 crisis with a type 7 response, and you risk inflating the disaster in people's minds, making it much, much worse.
"Mismatching your level of response with the actual level of disaster is one of the most common crisis PR mistakes that we see. Again, it can quite literally be the end of careers." Defending her choices for the 'satirical' video, in a clip shared to Twitter, the mom-of-one captioned the post: "YOU CAN DO ANYTHING! EVEN SATIRE!"
Perry said of the first half - where the singer douses herself in whisky and pretends to urinate in a urinal - "We're kind of just having fun being a bit sarcastic with it, it's very slapstick, and very on the nose. And with this set, it's like, 'Oooh, we're not about the male gaze but we really are about the male gaze,' and we're really overplaying it and on the nose because I'm about to get smashed which is like a reset, a reset for me, and a reset for my idea of feminine divine, and it's a whole different world we go to after this."
Ed argues that instead of effectively apologising for her take on the "feminine divine", "Katy would have been well placed to remind her critics that ultimately, by its very nature feminism is subjective and comes in different forms to different people - it's about empowering women and doing so in a way that isn't harmful to others.
"The key would be to find a way of doing this that is soft, kind, nonjudgmental, measured and understanding, while also being strong and assertive." He says that while the track isn't her finest move, he reminds fans that she "hasn't done anything behaviourally that's reprehensible or out of the ordinary".
"This is not a PR disaster. It's a simple case of a hugely successful pop star being a victim of her own success, and perhaps a need to take stock and reimagine her brand tone of voice a little. Her music has been wildly successful over the years, and her return to activity was hotly anticipated after taking some family time off.
"She finds herself in the difficult position whereby, after said absence, her new work is always going to be compared to the most acclaimed of her older work." Having said that, Edward claims that Perry's brand seems to be stuck in her heyday of 2010 - and doesn't blame her.
Talking about returning to the world stage after a period of absence, Ed says it is only natural for her to revert to her tried and tested formula that propelled her into megastardom. "From a marketing and PR standpoint, by far the safest option for a new mom returning to her career after a long-ish absence is to revisit the tried and tested," he commented.
"The only other option would have been to take the huge risk of completely reimagining herself: both branding-wise and musically, stepping away from the ingredients that brought her such stratospheric success in the past on the punt of a new, untested musical strategy."
He raises that her loyal fanbase will now be in their thirties and forties, and that it's important to reconnect with them. But at the same time, there is a need for the singer to broaden her appeal to the younger generations to see continued success, which could require a brand shake-up.
"Before undertaking too much of a brand turnaround and looking to expand your existing fanbase by making inroads into a notoriously hard-to-please Gen Z, it's first important to shore up your support with your existing fans," he said. "By departing too much from her brand, she risks ostracising those die-hard admirers that brought her fame in the first place. That's not to say that there aren't strategic PR tweaks that she can, and should, make. I'd argue that it's possible to cater to her core demographic while not ruffling the feathers of Gen Z."
Lastly, Ed argues that there is still time to turn her fortune around. The full album release, 143, is still two months away, giving her enough time to make meaningful changes. While he says the age-old saying of 'there's no such thing as bad publicity' is "nonsense", he believes Perry should leverage the mass attention on her currently.
"The Woman's World music video is less than a week old, and it's already had millions of views, thrusting Perry straight back into the centre of the international pop music conversation. She can, and should, leverage this with interviews, appearances, profiles. You name it, she should be doing it."
I just knew this would happen. Katy is nothing more than a manufactured pop act, so naturally she's going to freak out if her music isn't selling to consumers.
From the moment I heard the snippets of Women's World, I felt in my gut that this song would be a chart miscalculation. It just didn't sound fresh.
Women's World sounds like a track that was made for the pop charts 10 years ago rather than substantially current. The video also seemed disjointed and was hard to pinpoint exactly which demo the visuals were pandering to.
I feel like back in the day Katy was a breath of fresh air that we needed at the time she released Teenage Dream and Prism because personality-wise she came across as unproblematic and a neutral Nancy.
However we are in a different time, and Katy's music feels like it's stuck in 2014 with no signs of evolving. While I am a fan of fun, dumb pop, I just feel creatively and sonically Katy is as deep as a pond, and the moment you start allowing your indecisive fans to dictate your next career move by allowing them to choose your next single, it's showing cracks in the dam.
So do I think this new era is doomed? Well I definitely think she shot herself in the foot by including Dr Luke on her upcoming album, and while he was never convicted of SA'ing Kesha, it seems he has been crucified by the court of public opinion, and no amount of switching musical discourse or crisis meeting will change that.
If Katy were smart, she should have done what Kesha did - which is hire a producer who could give you the sound you were known for (that Dr Luke sound) without actually having to work with Dr Luke. Kesha's Joyride sounds like signature Kesha, but it sounds fresh and current.
So good luck girl, because even with your seventh studio album dropping the same day as Nelly Furtado's seventh album, I don't see 143 being the Dark Horse in the musical comeback you were hoping for.
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