It is easy to be a Katy Perry fan. It is more durable to be Katy Perry.

MANHATTAN — The little ladies twirling in glittery skirts exterior of Katy Perry’s Madison Sq. Backyard live performance don’t know her newest album flopped. They don’t know the way poorly her spaceflight stunt was obtained, how her quirky persona has been panned as dated or how her cut up from fiancé Orlando Bloom is being dissected on-line.

“I like ‘Firework,’” says Ivy, an 8-year-old who’s in attendance along with her mother and little sister. She’s shy speaking with a stranger, however bursting with vitality after I stroll away. She tells me she loves listening to “California Gurls” and “Teenage Dream” within the automobile, although she wasn’t born when these songs got here out.

2025 has been, statistically and anecdotally, a tricky 12 months for Perry. As soon as a primary pop lady who was the first feminine artist to land 5 No. 1 hits from a single album, her 2024 launch 143 was gleefully panned as uninteresting and uninspired, peaking at a career-low No. 6.

Nonetheless, on Aug. 11, she’s in the course of her “Lifetimes Tour,” performing in entrance of a sold-out crowd. There are a number of youngsters right here, flanked by nostalgic millennials and Gen Z-ers donning alien costumes and colourful bob wigs to pay tribute to her well-known seems.

Surrounded by the futuristic, metallic visuals of her newest, least standard period, Perry takes the stage. “Flip your notifications off,” she instructs the viewers after performing high-energy choreography in futuristic robotic garb, surrounded by a number of male backup dancers. She opens her set with three songs from later albums — not her most beloved work, however she places on an entertaining present.

When the group hears the opening notes of “Darkish Horse,” the vitality shifts. Everybody comes again to life, singing as an alternative of simply swaying. This wasn’t some live performance; it was the Katy Perry, queen of late 2000s pop music. She has already cemented her legacy with 14 songs that hit the highest 10 of the Billboard Sizzling 100 — from “I Kissed a Woman” in 2008 to “Chained to the Rhythm” in 2017. Her music is woven into the cultural tapestry of the aughts, and her playful imagery is unmistakable. We’re fortunate we get to behold her in any respect.

Sizzling N Chilly

“I’m 40 years previous,” Perry says to the group, taking it sluggish after operating across the infinity symbol-shaped stage. She then pauses, smiling and flipping her hair back and forth. “40 and f***ing fabulous.”

Again and again, Perry demonstrates unbelievable feats of athleticism and cardio, spectacular for a human being of any age. She sprints, slides and aces TikTok-friendly strikes along with her backup dancers. However each time she breaks character by grabbing the mic to advert lib or punctuating choreography with a foolish face or a robotic dance break, I cringe.

Now, Perry has all the time been quirky. It labored within the late 2000s, when response GIFs ran the web and millennial-coded outbursts had been king. It feels unkind to demand that the one who gave us “Sizzling N Chilly” and “Final Friday Night time” replace her persona for the 2020s. At some factors, she appeared conscious of her notion to a fault, like she didn’t need to be onstage.

She repeatedly referenced that it was previous her bedtime, and when followers voted for her to play “Not Just like the Films” and “The One That Bought Away” throughout an interactive a part of the almost two-hour set, she introduced that she would merely “dissociate” to be her “sizzling mess self and play a music from my very first marriage.”

No matter what temper Perry was in, her followers had been thrilled to see her.

I talked to a number of of them standing exterior the venue earlier than the present began about what introduced them out on a Monday night time. Restaurant proprietor Krista was there along with her 20-something bartenders, Howie and Zee, who had been wearing brilliant blue costumes to channel Perry’s music “E.T.”

The duo couldn’t even pinpoint when their fandom started — it’s been a part of their lives since childhood. As their “momager,” Krista stated she purchased all of them tickets as a birthday current, fulfilling a longtime dream to see Perry. All three refused to critique the pop star, focusing as an alternative on how pleased they had been to be there.

“We’re rooting for her. I simply can’t wait to see all of the theatrics as a result of I do know it’s going to be sizzling,” Krista stated.

I believed that Maria, a 28-year-old sporting an astronaut jumpsuit as a tribute to Perry’s Blue Origin journey to house, may need been playfully making enjoyable of the singer, however she didn’t have any sizzling takes to share. She got here all the way in which from Ecuador to see Perry, who’s she’s beloved for greater than half of her life.

“Individuals who assume there’s one thing about her that’s flawed … they’re flawed,” Maria instructed me.

Matt, a 21-year-old who instantly declared himself to be extra of a Taylor Swift fan, couldn’t deny how excited he was to see Perry. “I’ve been a Katy Cat since start … it is like therapeutic my interior baby and whatnot,” he instructed me of figuring out with the star’s fandom.

He’s conscious Perry is previous her peak, however that’s not going to cease him from having enjoyable.

“Katy Perry is a flop. She’s a flop! Let’s be actual,” he stated. “However I’m very excited for [the concert.] Like, Katy Perry herself. Not a brand new album.”

Not like the flicks

So what if the music flopped? Perry offered out Madison Sq. Backyard. She has a legion of younger followers screaming the lyrics of her child-friendly empowerment songs, who’re then surrounded by dressed-up Gen Z-ers who received to know her music once they had been younger, too.

For each second Perry made me cringe, there have been others that made me snicker. She took a selfie on somebody’s telephone, then instructed them on her favourite filters they may use to put up it. She snatched an indication that stated “Lesbians for Katy” and stuffed it in her bodysuit, dedicating “I Kissed a Woman” to “the group.” She refused to play the sexually suggestive music “Peacock” within the presence of her 5-year-old daughter, condemning whoever wrote it (it was her), then sang a couple of bars anyway. She battled a large worm with a lightsaber. At her finest, she is foolish and self-aware.

So what occurred subsequent, in the course of the climax of Perry’s efficiency, was maybe probably the most perplexing second of the present. It was when she began bringing followers from the viewers onstage.

It started on a candy word. There have been two youngsters and two older Gen Z-ers she handpicked to face beside her, all wearing costumes. She indulged the little children, asking them what they needed to be once they grew up (a singer and a lawyer, respectively) and praising the one who refused to inform her the place she lives. I acknowledged one of many older folks Perry welcomed to hitch her — 19-year-old Aidan, whom I spoke to earlier together with his 21-year-old good friend Kira. They instructed me they’d been Perry followers since childhood, identical to the youngsters that Aidan was towering above.

There was a fourth individual. His title was Jason, and due to the way in which he shortly requested for a selfie after which requested Perry carry out a unique music than deliberate, I knew one thing was up. Then he known as his boyfriend to hitch him. Ah, a proposal was unfolding. Perry made a number of jokes — some touchdown higher than others — and the entire thing appeared to go on eternally. I’m pleased for them, however please, the folks need to hear “A part of Me.”

“Possibly at some point it will occur for us,” Perry stated of the proposal to one of many youngsters onstage. Then she simply moved on with the present.

Wakeful

I used to be struck by how Perry continued performing love and breakup songs by means of her very public cut up from Bloom, whom she’d been with on and off for almost a decade. As rumors a couple of budding romance with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made headlines, I couldn’t assist however surprise what was occurring behind the scenes and brewing in her coronary heart as she poured her feelings and vitality out for screaming strangers.

“I do know you want you had been in mattress, identical to me,” Perry stated to the mothers within the viewers, cementing my guilt about anticipating nostalgic perfection from a lady who’s been by means of a lot since 2010’s Teenage Dream. Possibly it’s enjoyable residing out her peak years in entrance of 1000’s of adoring followers. Possibly it’s a relentless reminder of how she’s failed to realize on the identical degree she as soon as might.

As Perry sang “Roar” and flew across the venue on a large butterfly, which fortuitously didn’t collapse on her prefer it had up to now, I believed concerning the distinction between her gloomy quips and her sunny visuals. For a pop star, the dichotomy of who she desires to undertaking and who she is true now doesn’t make sense — however she’s not only a well-known singer, she’s an individual. Although she was flying in circles above the group, she felt grounded and relatable to me for the primary time.

Perry won’t have actually needed to be there, however she was, and that meant a lot to the sold-out crowd, even when she resented them somewhat bit for it. Her life won’t be relatable, however ambition and disappointment are. She’s each a plastic bag and a firework. I understand how that feels.