Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Born in California to pastor parents, she grew up listening to gospel music and singing in church. Perry rose to fame in 2008 with her breakthrough single
I Kissed A Girl.
Perry began with an on-and-off recording career, having been dropped three times by record labels, finally signing to Capitol Records in 2007. She then released her first single
Ur So Gay which was later listed as a track on her first major label album release.
Read more The song was labelled by critics as homophobic, but Perry disagreed. She released her first mainstream album,
One of the Boys, on June 17th 2008. It debuted and peaked at #9 on the US Billboard 200, #6 on the Canadian album chart, #11 on the UK and Austrailian album charts and #17 on the New Zealand album chart. It has sold 2.5 million copies worldwide to date and was certified Platinum in 6 countries.
The first single from
One of the Boys was arguably the biggest single of 2008,
I Kissed A Girl. It was released on May 6th and to date has sold over 5 million copies worldwide. The song has peaked at #1 in 18 countries worldwide including the US, the UK, Canada, Austrailia and New Zealand. It was certified 6x Platinum, 3x Platinum in Denmark and the US, 2x Platinum in Austrailia and Platinum in Austria, Germany, New Zealand and Switzerland. It was certified Gold in Belgium and UK. The second single was
Hot N Cold which was released on September 30th 2008 and peaked at #1 in 14 countries including the US Billboard Pop 100 and Canada. It hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, #4 in the UK and Austrailia and #5 in New Zealand. It went multi-Platinum in 3 countries and Platinum in a further 3 countries. The third single,
Thinking Of You, was released in 2009 on January 12th, but failed to reach the top 10 in any country, peaking at #24 in Canada, #27 in the UK, #29 in the US and #34 in Austrailia. The fourth and final single from
One of the Boys was
Waking Up in Vegas was released in April 2009 in the US and June 2009 in the UK. It peaked at #1 on 2 US singles charts including the Billboard Pop Songs, #2 in Canada, #9 in New Zealand, #11 in Austrailia and #19 in the UK.
It has been rumoured that
Fingerprints could also be released as a fifth single, instead of leaving Perry's first album as having 4 singles released.
