Katy Perry

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. Perry is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold over 143 million units worldwide. She is known for her influence on pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the "Queen of Camp" by ''Vogue'' and ''Rolling Stone''. ''Billboard'' ranked her fourth on its "Greatest of All Time Pop Songs Artists" list and twenty-fifth on their "Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century" list.

At 16, Perry released a gospel record titled ''Katy Hudson'' (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was commercially unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted the stage name "Katy Perry" from her mother's maiden name. She recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records. Perry rose to fame with ''One of the Boys'' (2008), a pop rock record 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. ''Billboard'' Hot 100 respectively.

The disco-influenced pop album ''Teenage Dream'' (2010) spawned five U.S. number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"— the only album by a female singer to do so. The album's reissue titled ''Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection'' (2012) produced the U.S. number one single "Part of Me". Her empowerment-themed album ''Prism'' (2013) had two U.S. number one singles, "Roar" and "Dark Horse". Both their respective music videos made her the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube. Afterwards, Perry released the albums ''Witness'' (2017) and ''Smile'' (2020) and embarked on her Las Vegas concert residency titled Play (2021–2023). She released her seventh studio album, titled ''143'', in September 2024.

Perry has the second-most U.S. diamond certified singles for any female artist (6). She has received various accolades, including a ''Billboard'' Spotlight Award, four Guinness World Records, five ''Billboard'' Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, a Juno Award, and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. Outside of music, she released an autobiographical documentary titled ''Katy Perry: Part of Me'' in 2012, voiced Smurfette in ''The Smurfs'' film series, and launched her own shoe line Katy Perry Collections in 2017. Perry served as a judge on ''American Idol'' from the sixteenth season in 2018 to the twenty-second season in 2024. ''Forbes'' ranked her as the world's highest-paid female musician in 2015 and 2018. With an estimated net worth of $350 million, she is one of the world's wealthiest musicians. Provided by Wikipedia