Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television judge. She sang in church during her childhood before pursuing a career in gospel music as a teenager.
Perry rose to fame in 2008 with her second album, One of the Boys, a pop rock record containing her controversial debut single "I Kissed a Girl" and the song "Hot n Cold", which respectively reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Three subsequent albums have topped the U.S. Billboard 200 chart. The disco-influenced Teenage Dream (2010) spawned five U.S. number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T.", and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"—becoming the first album by a solo female artist to do so, and tied her with Michael Jackson's Bad.
Perry became the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo. She has nine Billboard Hot 100 number one singles and has received various awards, including four Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, and a Juno Award. Perry has been included in the annual Forbes lists of highest-earning women in music from 2011 to 2019.
