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With the release of her new album, "Witness," Katy Perry has not only switched her sound, but also her image as a whole. And with change comes criticism.
In a new interview with The New York Times, she addressed some of her most vocal opponents head on, while also bashing award shows and explaining why she felt it was time to change things up in the first place.
A lot of Perry's quotes are definitely out there, so we've boiled it down to the 5 biggest takeaways from the profile:
Katy Responds to Criticism About Her Album
The singer received a lot of backlash over her single "Bon Appetit" and subsequent "SNL" performance of the song, which the LGBT community slammed due to her collaboration with Migos on the track. The trio came under fire in the past for anti-gay comments and, according to some reports, requested less drag queens participate in the "SNL" gig.
"Intention is everything," Perry said of her decision to work with them. "All I was trying to do is build a bridge."
She also referred to what she calls a "race to be the most woke," saying critics "want you to stand for something, but once you do, and if you don't do it perfectly, they're ready to take you right down."
Her Views on Sexuality Changed
"I used to be scared of intimacy, I used to use my sexualization as attention, I used to oversexualize myself because that was the only way I knew how," she said of her hypersexual past.
“The reality is that I was retriggered [during] the election,” she continued, addressing the shift in how she views sexuality. “I was retriggered by a big male that didn't see women as equal. And that had been, unfortunately, a common theme in my upbringing.”
She now says she idolizes queer women, adding, "I admire that they're doing it for themselves. They are not doing it for the male gaze."
She and Lady Gaga Comforted Each Other After the Election
“It was a revelation, it was a reckoning,” Perry said of Hillary Clinton's loss, adding that she called up Gaga for support.
“Gaga and I just [looked] at each other, and [were] like, [expletive] it, we need to touch each other,” she said, explaining how they then just held hands.
She May Not Score Many Award Show Invites Going Forward
“All the awards shows are fake,” said Katy, “and all the awards that I've won are fake."
The article said she went on to explain how they don't represent the audience and are "constructs."
FYI: Katy has won 5 American Music Awards, 5 Billboards, 5 MTV Video Music Awards, 14 People's Choice Awards and 5 Teen Choice Awards, among others. She's been nominated for 13 Grammys but has never won.
The Old Katy Is Gone But Not Forgotten
“I didn't kill her, because I love her, and she is exactly what I had to do then,” she said of her former public persona.
“I'm not a con artist, I didn't con people, like, that was just me, And this is me now,” she added.
She went on to call her new sound a “departure and a necessary evolution that I have to take,” before ending with this gem: "And I know that sometimes it feels publicly like I'm dragging cement blocks, but like, the pyramids were made out of cement blocks — or not cement. But do you know what I'm trying to say? I'm gonna get there."
