Katy Perry’s new album, “143,” is hardly the comeback that she needed. It’s as if she became a has-been before her time on “American Idol.”
Ten years ago, Katy Perry was beefing with Taylor Swift about dancers.
The story goes that Perry stole three dancers away from Swift’s “Red” Tour to join her “Prism” Tour.
At the time, they were dueling divas at the very top of pop. The feud even inspired Swift to write “Bad Blood,” her chart-topping hit that appeared on her “1989” later in 2014.
A decade later, that feels like a whole different era.
Perry’s next album, 2017’s “Witness,” was a bust by the standards of 2013’s “Prism” and certainly 2010’s blockbuster “Teenage Dream,” which had a record-tying five No. 1 singles.
Then, in 2018, Perry became a well-compensated judge — at a $25 million salary — on “American Idol” when it was revived on ABC.
But her own career as a pop idol was sinking just as Swift’s was soaring. Perry’s 2020 “Smile” album failed to produce any Top 10 hits just as Swift’s “Folklore” LP was taking her to new heights. (As Swift genially cheered Perry on during her Video Vanguard Award performance at last week’s MTV VMAs, it was very much clear who had won.
