Best Pop Singers of 21st Century (No. 25)

With the primary quarter of the twenty first century coming to an in depth, Billboard is spending the subsequent few months counting down our workers picks for the 25 best pop stars of the final 25 years. We’ve already completed our Honorable Mentions, and now at No. 25, we keep in mind the century in Katy Perry — whose dizzying, era-defining early-’10s peak nonetheless burns vivid within the minds of pop followers, even because it will get farther away.

For anybody who lived by means of her industrial peak, Katy Perry will at all times be one of many names most synonymous with pop music. There’s a variety of causes for that, however maybe the largest is that few performers of the final 25 years have felt as dedicated to maxing out prime 40 superstardom at its greatest, brightest and finest: When Katy Perry dominated the mainstream on the flip of the 2010s, it felt like she was wringing each ounce of potential from her albums, singles, movies, dwell performances, TV appearances, vogue and branding decisions and basic public persona. It was pop as essentially the most legendary icons of early MTV as soon as envisioned it – and maybe unsurprisingly, it matched their success in methods no different artist this century has managed. 

Few would have imagined that destiny for Katy Perry when she initially emerged – first briefly within the early ‘00s as Katy Hudson, up to date Christian artist, after which rebranded as snotty Warped Tour singer-songwriter Katy Perry later within the decade. “Ur So Homosexual,” the metrosexual-taunting title monitor to her first Perry-era EP launch, steered nice promise for word-of-mouth cult success, however appeared too cheeky, too edgy and too problematic for prime 40 success. On the time, the mainstream had been dominated for years by hip-hop, Auto-Tune and post-American Idol pop-rock seriousness; there didn’t appear to be an excessive amount of of a gap for the sort of technicolor, attitude-driven turbo-pop Perry was bringing to the desk.

However no matter opening was there, Katy Perry’s subsequent track was forceful sufficient to ensure that it pushed its manner by means of. The bicurious “I Kissed a Lady” arrived sounding and feeling like an absolute juggernaut, a barnstorming electro-rock singalong with writing credit from pop royalty Max Martin and Cathy Dennis and cutting-edge manufacturing from Martin’s long-time collaborator Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald and Luke’s protege Benny Blanco. Slightly than softening Perry’s edges, the track simply made them sharper: “Lady” was louder, brasher and much more divisive than “Homosexual,” drawing criticism each from moral-outrage conservative teams offended on the track’s gay flirtations and from LGBTQ critics irritated by the track’s perceived queerbaiting.

In the end, the noise round “Lady” simply ended up pumping up the quantity of the track itself, which blazed its strategy to No. 1 on the Billboard Scorching 100 in July 2008. By then, guardian album One of many Boys had been launched, with the major-label debut set getting into the Billboard 200’s prime 10 and spawning one other three hit singles. Two of these have been Scorching 100 prime 10s: the bubbly relationship eye-roller “Scorching n Chilly,” which was arguably each her rudest and most unstoppable pop-rock blast but, and the widescreen morning-after anthem “Waking Up in Vegas,” a less-bratty however nonetheless delectably post-hedonistic story track. In between them was the extra simple ballad “Considering of You,” her first single that sounded prefer it might’ve been completed by one in all her then-top 40 friends; the track tapped out at No. 29 on the Scorching 100, suggesting audiences most well-liked Katy Perry at her Katy Perriest. 

That notion can be confirmed by Perry’s sophomore set, a one-woman home-run derby that finally made the super success of her One of many Boys period appear to be a few apply swings. Teenage Dream was first trumpeted in Might 2010 with the arrival of the irresistible “California Gurls,” a Jay-Z-and-Alicia-Keys-responding, Seaside Boys-and-Massive-Star-quoting love letter to the Golden Coast, blessed by no much less an esteemed West Aspect consultant than Snoop Dogg. The track was each bit as large and bursting as Perry’s One of many Boys singles – and with sufficient PG-13 content material to maintain it from getting too bubblegum – however with none of the sneering or snarkiness that punctuated these hits, guaranteeing nothing stood in the best way of its summer time dominance. In the meantime, the track’s candyland fantasia of a music video made iconic photographs out of a dramatically wigged Perry laying nude on a cloud and capturing whipped cream cans from her breasts, guaranteeing she was simply as unavoidable on MTV and YouTube as she was on the airwaves. 

That track shot to No. 1 on the Scorching 100 in June, and by the point of Teenage Dream’s August launch, its follow-up – the album’s title monitor, an instantly immortal young-love anthem as daydreamy as “Love Story” and as fist-pumping as “Livin’ on a Prayer” – was additionally on its manner there. Teenage Dream itself debuted atop the Billboard 200, and went on to blanket popular culture for all the subsequent yr and a half, with a jaw-dropping three extra Scorching 100 No. 1 hits to comply with: the inspirational electro-pop floor-filler “Firework,” the beat-heavy out-of-this-world love track “E.T.” (with a visitor verse from Ye, then Kanye West, on the one edit) and one other winking how-wasted-were-we remembrance in “Final Friday Evening (T.G.I.F.).” 

With the fifth No. 1 off Teenage Dream, the album famously made chart historical past, as simply the second set (after Michael Jackson’s 1987 blockbuster Dangerous) to ever spawn 5 Scorching 100 No. 1 hits. The achievement capped one of the vital profitable album rollouts in pop music historical past, with every single primarily turning into its personal mini-universe, given its personal sound, look, aesthetic and narrative completely different from the opposite 4. It additionally confirmed Perry and her crew to be on the forefront of discovering methods to construct pleasure and consumption for late-cycle singles within the digital age; including Ye to the one launch of “E.T.” and Missy Elliott to the remix of “Final Friday Evening” helped get these songs to No. 1 on the Scorching 100 years earlier than including after-the-fact A-listers turned customary apply for large pop singles.

And Perry’s ubiquity on the time went far past the Billboard file books: For about two years in the beginning of the last decade, she was completely unavoidable all through popular culture. She appeared in Proactiv commercials and on Sesame Avenue, she walked purple carpets with star comic Russell Model (her then-husband) and sat subsequent to fellow pop megastar Rihanna at award exhibits, she hosted SNL, she kissed a Smurf and she or he preferred it. She traversed the globe on her kaleidoscopic California Desires tour, racking up practically $60 million in field workplace for simply her second headlining trek, in line with Billboard Boxscore. She racked up extra honors throughout the popular culture spectrum, from video of the yr (for “Firework”) on the MTV Video Music Awards to most lovely lady on the earth on the Maxim Scorching 100. And oh yeah, she additionally launched a Full Confection deluxe version of Teenage Dream that spawned one other No. 1 within the defiant shout-along “A part of Me” and practically one other nonetheless within the No. 2-peaking post-breakup ballad “Broad Awake.” 

Greater than that, Katy Perry additionally helped outline the sound and look of a very fertile and oft-romanticized interval in pop music historical past. The early 2010s represented one thing of a golden age for pop fans, one outlined by epochal stars like Rihanna, Girl Gaga, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and even a resurgent Britney Spears, in addition to large radio hitmakers like Kesha, Pitbull, Flo Rida, LMFAO and the Black Eyed Peas. EDM, Younger Cash, Glee, Adele – it was all taking place without delay. And essentially the most omnipresent, most dead-center star of the period was nearly definitely Katy Perry. It was her turbo-charged pop and kitchen-sink visible aesthetic that set the tone for the period of large pop songs and even larger personalities, and her collaborators (Martin, Luke and Blanco, in addition to “Firework” producers Stargate) who would create the default sonic palate for the highest 40 of the time. 

Whereas Perry turned extra central to pop music within the early 2010s than anybody would have guessed potential of her years earlier, her time at prime 40’s core would even be briefer than many would have predicted as soon as she arrived. She spent another album as a no-doubt celebrity: 2013’s Prism, which topped the Billboard 200 and spawned a pair of large, Scorching 100-besting smashes within the motivational anthem “Roar” and the trappy, Juicy J-featuring seduction jam “Darkish Horse.” (Each songs would make the setlist when she took a career-peak victory lap in February 2015, as she headlined halftime at Tremendous Bowl XLIX, in what was on the time essentially the most watched halftime present in Tremendous Bowl historical past.) Regardless of being an enormous win general, the album didn’t fairly have the legs of Teenage Dream, and later singles “Birthday” and “This Is How We Do” would find yourself lacking the highest 10 altogether. 

Subsequent albums fared no higher. Witness turned her third straight No. 1 LP upon its 2017 launch, however its launch was marred by an uncharacteristically messy and complicated rollout – as Perry tried to pivot to a extra conscientious, “purposeful” method to pop – and it solely spawned a single prime 40 hit, with the No. 4-peaking, Skip Marley-featuring lead single “Chained to the Rhythm.” That track, which was launched within the aftermath of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win (after Perry had been one in all pop’s most vocal and visual Hillary Clinton supporters), was indicative of the issue she had becoming into the again half of the 2010s – a pop scene extra outlined by mild, swaying trop-pop and muddy, downtempo SoundCloud rap than the sort of frothy pop-rock missiles she’d made her identify on. When 2020’s Smile turned the primary Katy Perry album to not produce a prime 10 hit, it steered that her time at fashionable music’s forefront had maybe come to an finish. 

Nonetheless, at the same time as her presence within the pop mainstream turned much less overwhelming, Perry hardly vanished. She joined American Idol as a decide in 2018, serving to the present stay a scores draw for seven seasons. She started the extremely profitable Las Vegas residency Play in 2021, cementing herself as one in all pop’s pre-eminent legacy performers. She additionally scored quite a lot of hit collaborations, taking hook duties on superproducer Calvin Harris’ “Feels,” teaming up with reggaetón star Daddy Yankee on the bilingual banger “Con Calma” and enlisting EDM hitmaker Zedd to co-produce the Smile lead single “By no means Actually Over.” None of them fairly reached the four-quadrant smash standing that Perry routinely managed within the Obama years, however all have been pretty properly acquired – with “Over” specifically remaining one thing of a fan favourite and ought to’ve-been-bigger pet trigger amongst diehard KatyKats. 

`In 2024, Perry has parted methods with Idol and wrapped her Vegas residency, as she prepares for an enormous profession comeback with September’s 143 album. That’s gotten off to a considerably rocky begin with lead single “Lady’s World,” which solely reached No. 63 on the Scorching 100 and drew principally destructive opinions – with many critiques from followers and critics specializing in the jarring nature of the ladies’s empowerment anthem being co-produced by Dr. Luke, who was sued by Kesha in 2014 over allegations that he had been abusive of their skilled and private relationship. (Dr. Luke denied the allegations and countersued for defamation; the lengthy authorized battle resulted in 2023 with the 2 events settling the countersuit out of courtroom.) 

However even when Katy Perry’s songs are not omnipresent in at present’s pop, her fingerprints nonetheless are. You possibly can really feel her within the eye-popping costumes and theatrically vivid world-building of Chappell Roan and the sticky candy and barely naughty hooks of Sabrina Carpenter. And even the backlash to “Ladies’s World” is indicative of Perry’s enduring stage of stardom – the track dominated headlines for per week, as people couldn’t resist weighing in on it someway – and the truth that so many followers are nonetheless rooting for her. At her apex, Katy Perry was as proud and formidable a pop purveyor as we’ve seen this century, and she’s going to ceaselessly be related to the best highs of that fondly remembered period: a teenage dream that numerous millennial and Gen Z pop followers won’t ever completely get up from. 

Learn extra in regards to the Biggest Pop Stars of the twenty first Century right here and examine again on Thursday when our No. 24 artist is revealed!