Is Australia the last place to love Katy Perry as she faces criticism and a global cancel culture battle?

Katy Perry has endured months of backlash from her tour, producer - and that cringe-inducing space flight. No wonder she’s happy to be back in Australia.

As Katy Perry gets set to kick off her sold out 15-date Australian tour in Sydney on Wednesday, she might feel that we’re the one country left ready to love bomb her.

In late April, Perry, best known for her sparkly, catchy pop tunes, posted a note to Instagram, telling fans that she felt like a “human pinata” after enduring weeks of online backlash.

The description of a pinata felt very on brand for the very technicolour Perry, but the comment betrayed a deeper wound. A decade on from being the biggest pop star in the world (she won the 2015 Guinness World Record for most Twitter – now X – followers and became the first person to gain 100 million followers on the site in June 2017), Perry’s star has very much crashed back to earth (Blue Origin space pun intended).

Katy Perry has been copping a fair bit of heat over the past 12 months. Picture: Karwai Tang/WireImage

It seems the star who first broke through about kissing a girl and hot and cold boyfriends, blamed an “unhinged and unhealed” internet for the ongoing online rancour, but was it only faceless trolls to blame for her very quick megastar fall from grace?

Some would point to Perry’s decision in 2024 to call in problematic Swedish producer Dr Luke to work on the singer’s seventh album, 143, as the first in a monumental string of errors.

Katy Perry with her husband Orlando Bloom. Picture: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Dr Luke, who had co-written some of Perry’s biggest hits – I Kissed a Girl, Hot N Cold, California Gurls and Teenage Dream – is considered damaged goods by some in the music industry after he faced sexual assault allegations from the singer Kesha. The producer denied the claims and the pair reached an agreement to settle a defamation lawsuit in 2023, but Perry remained tainted by association.

Getting him in as a producer was a stunningly tone-deaf choice from a woman who has pushed female empowerment and long positioned herself as a fierce supporter of girls, women and women’s rights.

It didn’t help that the album’s lead single, the so-called feminist anthem, Woman’s World, was co-written by Dr Luke and was relentlessly mocked for what was perceived to be an out-of-touch video and subject matter.

The track failed to land in the top 50 in the US and only just managed in the UK, at 47. (In Australia, it didn’t chart at all.)

Katy Perry’s performance at last year’s AFL Grand Final gave her album a boost. Picture: Daniel Pockett/AFL Photos/Getty Images

Perry defended her association with the Swede.

“I understand that [working with him] started a lot of conversations, and he was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with. But the reality is, it comes from me,” she said last September. “The truth is, I wrote these songs from my experience of my whole life going through this metamorphosis, and he was one of the people to help facilitate all that. One of the writers, one of the producers. I am speaking from my own experience.”

The association didn’t bode well, however. The album was a major flop in the US, peaking at number six, and spending only two weeks on the charts, making it her shortest-running album to date. So far, it has only sold 100k copies in the US – a long way from her 2010 classic, Teenage Dream, which sold 12.5 million copies and was described by Billboard as “one of the defining LPs from a new golden age in mega-pop”.

The six space tourists just after touchdown. From left Kerianne Flynn, Katy Perry, Lauren Sanchez, Aisha Bowe, Gayle King, and Amanda Nguyn. Picture: Blue Origin For Space

(In Australia, 143 debuted at number two on the ARIA charts, remaining in the top 20 in its second week, helped along by Perry’s performance at the AFL Grand Final last year.)

But things went from bad to worse when the singer signed up for Amazon boss, Jeff Bezos’ all-female space flight aboard his very phallic-looking Blue Origin spacecraft.

Perry found herself the butt of jokes surrounding the 11-minute flight, with the singer the focal point for several jibes about the crew – which included US TV personality Gayle King who has made a career out of being Oprah Winfrey’s best friend and Bezos’ surgically enhanced fiance, Lauren Sanchez – all decked out in very tight blue space suits.

Katy Perry in space with a daisy for her daughter … Daisy. Picture: Supplied

Although none of them were likely prepared for Perry’s decision to sing Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World during the flight while also waving an actual daisy for her daughter, er, Daisy. It was all a bit awks.

Then there was the mockery over the apparent worthiness of Perry’s earth-returning reaction, including kissing the ground after landing and saying she felt “so connected to love”, which spread like wildfire online. American fast food chain Wendy’s even posted, “Can we send her back?”

Celebrities such as Joe Rogan, model Emily Ratajkowski and actress Olivia Munn mocked the spectacle, with the latter saying: “There are so many other things that are so important in the world right now.”

Fellow singer, British star Lily Allen, also took aim at Perry but later backtracked, saying that her initial response was her own “internalised misogyny” and that although she disagreed with the stunt there was no need to “join in the pile-on”.

Katy Perry would probably wish she’d stuck to kissing girls after her ground-kissing stunt was made a mockery of. Picture: Supplied

But if Perry thought her Lifetimes world tour – which kicked off just over a week after the Blue Origin disaster – would calm the haters, she was wrong.

The tour has been bagged by fans and critics alike with some describing it as “cringey”. Some have suggested Perry has appeared “uninterested” and “disingenuous” on stage. And they’ve taken pot shots at everything from her “lazy” dance moves, her on stage alter ego, the half human, half machine KP143, and the inclusion of slightly dodgy aerial manoeuvres. (Honestly, that stuff is best left to Australia’s favourite adopted daughter, Pink.)

Detractors have also pointed to poor production values, particularly the “cheap AI” visuals.

“When it comes to big projects like this, AI is frowned upon,” American pop culture commentator Sloan Hooks said. “Because there are so many people trying to work in Hollywood – so many struggling artists, the fact that you could just type a few things and you could just get these visuals that would usually cost a lot of money, it’s lazy.”

Katy Perry’s space-themed outfit for her Lifetimes tour. Picture: Instagram

(Perry’s team quickly addressed this issue, ditching the AI visual a few shows in and replacing them with crowd shots of her fans instead.)

Although some fan interactions haven’t been ideal. Perry called out one person in the audience at a Las Vegas show for sending social media messages to her husband, Orlando Bloom.

“I know you’re here. If you keep on DM’ing my man, I’m going to have you removed,” she said. “Seriously, get your own life.”

Reaction to Katy Perry’s Lifetimes tour has been a mixed bag. Picture: Getty Images for Katy Perry

There have also been reports that many of the shows have suffered from sluggish ticket sales with many seats being offered at reduced prices although suggestions that her cancelled Mexico City shows were due to poor ticket sales were refuted, with “unfinished construction” at Arena Guadalajara attributed as the cause of the cancellation.

Perry has clearly been struggling with the negativity. In a message to fans, she said: “I have done a lot of work around knowing who I am, what is real and what is important to me. What’s real is seeing your faces every night, singing in unison, reading your notes, feeling your warmth.”

Indeed, Perry will be looking forward to the warmth sure to be emanating from her legions of Aussie fans, and she will no doubt be glad to be in a country that continues to love her unconditionally. Just don’t mention space.

Originally published as Is Australia the last place to love Katy Perry as she faces criticism and a global cancel culture battle?