Real Deal California Gurl Katy Perry Roars Back To Global Touring

“How long have you been at Pollstar,” Katy Perry asks me. “Wait, you’ve been in print for how many years? Did you like covering sports? I will say, artists are different from athletes, but when touring, artists somewhat have to be athletes.”

That’s how Perry’s interview with Pollstar begins, turning the tables on this reporter by asking questions with sincere interest and a desire to connect and understand her subject that brought me back to my teenage dream fanboy days of yesteryear.

Clearly, it’s this superstar’s preternatural ability to connect with people on an intimate level honed over years of being in the spotlight and remaining down to earth and relatable that’s led to her massive success and her first major world tour since 2018.

“It has been a minute,” Perry says. “But when I go out, I go out really big and I bring somewhat of a Disneyland on wheels to everyone.”

Perry, now 40, is indeed going all out with her upcoming “Lifetimes Tour,” a global trek consisting of 80 arena shows and counting with more dates likely to be announced soon due to high demand. She kicks it off April 23 with three nights at Arena CDMX in Mexico City and four additional shows in the country before she makes her way back to the States, Australia, Canada, South America and Europe.

The star hailing from Santa Barbara, California, last traveled the world for her “Witness: The Tour” in 2018, which lasted nearly a year and had an average gross of $1.26 million per show, according to Pollstar Boxoffice reports. Seven years later, with the industry’s vastly increased ticket prices and grosses, this tour promises to yield significantly more.

For Perry’s part, she’s not only ready to play her vast catalog of hits, but to fully embrace the many cultures, cities and people she will be visiting.

“I have a template on my Instagram for fans to fill out that basically says, ‘Hey, let me know what your city has to offer in terms of best coffee shop and other local stuff,’ she says. “When I go on tour, I really like to understand where I am, where I’m at every single night, and when I’m speaking with the audience, which is never scripted, I’m talking about what I’ve experienced, how I know them and how I want to connect with them.”

That gregariousness has made Perry not only the most popular judge on “American Idol” for seven seasons (from 2018 to 2024), but made her one of the most popular figures on the planet with more than 204 million Instagram followers. Her ascension doesn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who knew her before she dropped her 2008 breakout album, One of the Boys.

Raised by Pentecostal pastors, Perry first got into the business singing Christian music and released her debut album, Katy Hudson, when she was 16. But she soon discovered secular music from artists like Alanis Morissette and Queen who expanded her music curiosity and began molding the Katy Perry known and beloved worldwide.

“She was always wide-eyed, bushy-tailed and very curious,” said Steve Jensen, her co-manager with Bradford Cobb at Direct Management Group. “She experienced the limitations of Christian music, and not that it’s bad by any means, but it was limiting in that it didn’t take her to the wide expanse that was in her soul.”

What was inside Perry was a singer-songwriter with brilliant pop sensibilities and an edge that was just sharp enough to make the cut in other genres.

Mitch Rose, Creative Artists Agency’s co-head of contemporary music, saw the potential early on and immediately wanted to work with her after hearing four demos. His instincts proved him right when One of the Boys was released in 2008 via Capitol Records and climbed up the charts behind the power pop single “I Kissed a Girl,” a bi-curious earworm that was all over the radio, including rock stations.

The rapid success and broad appeal of Perry’s music sparked an idea at the CAA offices that wound up being instrumental to her performance style.

“One of my associates, Darryl Eaton, who was one of the creators of the Warped Tour, came up to me and says, ‘I have a wild idea: Katy should do the Warped Tour,’” Rose recalled.

It wasn’t such a far-fetched proposition to Rose, who then pitched it to her management team, who were on board because they too knew it would help the artist build cred with not only the rock crowd but a young male demographic. Rose eventually convinced the label to go with the idea as well and Perry embarked on the beloved pop-punk tour and proved she belonged, winning over crowds with her energetic performance and crowd surfing.

“I think one of the reasons she has lasted so long is because those early steps were taken to make sure she wasn’t just a pop princess — that there was grit,” Rose said.

Emma Banks, CAA’s co-head of global touring, was also all-in on Perry from the get-go. She witnessed that same grit Rose saw when she booked her first London show at The Water Rats, the same 200-cap pub where Bob Dylan played his first United Kingdom gig.

“It’s not somewhere that a pop star would necessarily start,” Banks said. “She just blew everybody away because she can. She’s a proper musician who can write, sing and play instruments. You can’t forget her standing there and belting out the songs she did on a tiny stage with a band. It was just her doing what she does really well, and even at that point, you knew she was the real deal. She was authentic. We very much developed Katy’s live show [along with management] in a sort of old-fashioned but rock and roll way.”

One of the Boys made Perry a hotly-tipped new artist to watch as she followed the steps of many rockers in recording an “MTV Unplugged” session in 2009 and performed across the globe in theaters and clubs with her “Hello Katy Tour.”

A year later, Perry reached a level few artists have accomplished with the release of Teenage Dream, a transcendent album whose cultural impact is difficult to overstate. The record ushered in a new era of pop with a whopping five No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, making her only the second artist to achieve such a feat (the first being Michael Jackson with 1987’s Bad).

It also cemented Perry as one of the biggest pop stars of her generation, paving the way for 21st-century femme-forward artists like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Chappell Roan and others. She rode that wave of success turning in a memorable Super Bowl halftime performance in 2015.

Though Perry continued making music with the releases of 2013’s Prism, Witness in 2017 and Smile in 2020, she took a break from touring following her 2018 trek to focus on other ventures, including her “American Idol” duties and her family. She became a mother five years ago, and the only way fans could experience Perry’s live shows was by visiting Las Vegas for her mom-friendly “Play” residency, which ran at Resorts World Theatre from 2021 to 2023.

“Play” was a hit with its Barbie-like colorful aesthetic, grossing more than $46 million and averaging $1.6 million per show, according to Pollstar
Boxoffice reports, but Perry longed to reconnect with audiences the way she was accustomed to: by visiting their cities, finding the best burritos in the area (like a true California girl) and performing in their local venues.

“She wanted to go out and play for the audience that is not able to come and travel to Las Vegas,” Jensen said. “Rather than have the audience come to her, she wanted to go to the audience. Her foundation is music, and it will always be her foundation. It will always be what she goes back to.”

Perry went back to the studio to create an album from “a place of love” and released 143 (which is code for “I love you” with each number counting the number of letters in each word of the phrase) last September, but that sentiment wasn’t reciprocated by a number of critics whose mixed reviews, her team felt, were mean-spirited.

“That was a difficult period for all of us,” Jensen admitted. “Lots of negativity, lots of hatred out there towards her.”

Even during such dark times, Perry carried on and performed last September at the Australian Football League Grand Final before 100k at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which was showing fans that she’s still standing, has one of the greatest back catalogs in music and she is one of the greatest performers out there.

“She put on an amazing show,” said Paul Dainty, president and CEO of TEG Dainty in Australia. “I was there, and the vibe was incredible.”
Perry’s set at what is essentially Australia’s Super Bowl included a number of media appearances, which led to her selling-out 13 Australian dates and built an anticipation that’s caught on around the world.

“What happens anywhere in the world becomes visual for everyone,” Dainty said. “We started with eight arenas, and now we’re at 13, and I’m hoping to add more. It’s pretty amazing.”

Tickets for the Australian shows flew during onsale, giving Perry and her team the reassurance they sought after a tepid response to 143.
“The proof in the pudding is ticket sales,” Jensen said. “… I started crying because I was so excited. I told Katy, ‘This is what really matters. People love you. They want to see you. Fuck those other people who are the haters, who just do what they do to try to get to you.’”

“We’re not going to give in to the hatred; we’re not going to give into the negativity,” he added. “We’re going to forge forward.”

One of the ways she’s forging forward is by helping people. Perry announced she’s donating proceeds of her U.K. shows to grassroots venues, and she recently joined dozens of artists in Inglewood, California, to perform at the FireAid benefit concert on Jan. 30, which has raised more than $125 million for Los Angeles wildfire relief.

Backstage at the Intuit Dome during FireAid, Perry, unlike other superstar artists, was seen giving long embraces to friends and fans alike and generously taking selfies for those who asked.

Perry’s FireAid set was one of the most memorable as she performed with the Pasadena Chorale behind her for her song “Rise.” The group lost their Altadena Community Church home, which burned down in the fires, along with some of its members’ homes.

Her two other songs injected hope and energy with powerful renditions of “Roar” and “California Gurls” as she waved her home state’s flag running across the stage.

“It just goes to show that when you organize, you thrive and give power to the people,” Perry said. “You’re calling, I’m answering the call. I am truly a California girl. I love California. I love the holisticness, the nature of California, and I love the people.”

It’s that message of love and empowerment that Perry hopes to spread with her “Lifetimes Tour.” The tour’s title shares the same name as her latest album’s second single, while also celebrating the artist’s incredible “lifetime of music so far.”

Like the album she is promoting, the trek has a sci-fi aesthetic comparable to that of “The Fifth Element” film. The futuristic theme, however, isn’t one of doom a la “The Terminator” but one of hope, touching on the duality of humanity and technology and what helps us forge ahead in this digital age.

“It’s a hopeful future, and it’s talking about what separates us from the robots,” Perry says.“That has always been very clear to me that it’s love. … There’s definitely a commentary about the future and winning this game of life as a human.”

Perry acknowledged that a lot has changed in global touring since 2018, especially when it comes to production costs, but after working with AEG Presents for her previous major treks, Perry is now collaborating with Live Nation on the U.S. and Canada dates of the “Lifetimes Tour,” playing buildings that include Denver’s Ball Arena, Moody Center in Austin, Oklahoma City’s Paycom Center, Kia Forum near Los Angeles, Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena and the iconic Madison Square Garden in New York.

Rick Franks, Live Nation’s senior vice president of global touring, is working alongside Anna Plumley, vice president of tour marketing, and Alexa Torres, senior director of tour marketing, to produce a unique live experience for both a new generation of fans and those who have followed her since 2008.

“We’re excited to be a partner in helping Katy tell her story on stage that will hit all the different iconic moments of her storied career,” Franks said. “It’s been incredible working with her and her team to bring this tour to life in the U.S. She’s an artist with an unparalleled level of creativity and vision. We’re honored to collaborate with her on this massive moment in her touring career. … Artists always have the option of who they want to tour with, it comes down to who they trust to carry their vision out for them, and so it’s incredibly exciting for our team that she chose to work with us on the U.S. leg of this tour.”

Perry really doesn’t just see this as her tour. It’s a community event, and she wants to involve the fans and interact with them as much as possible with humor, emotion and authenticity. “Lifetimes” is an opportunity to reconnect with those who have followed her since the beginning, to introduce herself to Gen Zers and Gen Alpha audiences and to show how much she appreciates them and how she, too, has evolved as a person.

“I don’t take anything for granted, and I am appreciative of the fact that this is still my job,” Perry said. “…I will tell you that I get the same high when my daughter randomly says, ‘I love you,’ at night as I get when I’m performing in front of 100,000 people in Rio. That really grounds me and helps me operate from a super authentic place where I’m not steered by the noise. I’m just serving my purpose and delivering the message.”

Even if that message is the most stated three-word phrase in the world, it’s one that never gets old. Perry sincerely feels and strives to deliver through the universal language of music in the biggest and most imaginative way possible.

“I think they used to say James Brown was the hardest-working man in rock and roll. I’d say Katy Perry is as hard of a working person,” CAA’s Rose said. “She knows she has to do the work, and she does it lovingly and willingly and does a fantastic job.”