By Clarice Burger
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the best-selling music artists in history, having sold over 151 million records worldwide. Perry is known for her influence on pop music and her camp style, being dubbed the “Queen of Camp” by Vogue and Rolling Stone. The world’s highest-paid female musician in 2015 and 2018, Billboard named her one of the greatest pop stars of the 21st century.
At 16, Perry released a gospel album titled Katy Hudson (2001) under Red Hill Records, which was unsuccessful. She moved to Los Angeles at 17 to venture into secular music, and later adopted her stage name from her mother’s maiden name. Perry recorded an album while signed to Columbia Records, but was dropped before signing to Capitol Records. She rose to fame with One of the Boys (2008), a pop rock album containing her debut single “I Kissed a Girl” and follow-up single “Hot n Cold“, which reached number one and three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 respectively.
Perry’s disco-influenced pop record Teenage Dream (2010) became the only album by a female artist to spawn five U.S. number-one singles: “California Gurls“, “Teenage Dream“, “Firework“, “E.T.“, and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)“. Its reissue, subtitled The Complete Confection (2012), produced the U.S. number-one single “Part of Me“. The dance-inspired Prism (2013) spawned two U.S. number-one singles, “Roar” and “Dark Horse“, with their respective music videos making Perry the first artist to have multiple videos reach one billion views on Vevo and YouTube. Her following albums—Witness (2017), Smile (2020) and 143 (2024)—were released to varying critical and commercial success.
Four of Perry’s songs have received diamond certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Her accolades include a Billboard Spotlight Award, 19 Guinness World Records, five Billboard Music Awards, five American Music Awards, a Brit Award, a Juno Award, and the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award. Apart from music, she released an autobiographical documentary titled Katy Perry: Part of Me in 2012, voiced Smurfette in The Smurfs film series (2011–2013), and launched her own shoe line Katy Perry Collections in 2017. Perry served as a judge on American Idol from the sixteenth season in 2018 to the twenty-second season in 2024. With an estimated net worth of $360 million, she is among the world’s wealthiest musicians.
Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson was born on October 25, 1984, in Santa Barbara, California, to Pentecostal pastors Mary Christine (née Perry) and Maurice Keith Hudson. Both of her parents turned to religion after a “wild youth”. Perry has English, German, Irish, and Portuguese ancestry. Through her mother, she is a niece of film director Frank Perry. She has a younger brother named David, who is also a singer, and an older sister, Angela.
From ages three to 11, Perry frequently moved across the country as her very strict parents set up churches before settling again in Santa Barbara.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Well, that depends, of course, on the size of the trees. Here are some examples: It would take 50 trees 4 inches in diameter, 10 trees 8 inches in diameter, or 3 trees 14 inches in diameter to make a cord of wood.
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Died
- Geoffrey Chaucer (poet) –
- Ariel Durant (historian) –
- Vincent Price (actor) –
- Sen. Paul Wellstone (Minnesota congressman) –
- Richard Harris (actor) –
- Nigel Davenport (actor) –
Born
- Johann Strauss, the Younger (composer; The Blue Danube) –
- Georges Bizet (composer) –
- John Francis Dodge (manufacturer) –
- Pablo Picasso (Spanish painter ) –
- Minnie Pearl (comedienne & singer) –
- John Berryman (poet) –
- Marion Ross (actress) –
- Anne Tyler (author) –
- Ed Robertson (musician) –
- Pedro Martinez (baseball pitcher) –
- Katy Perry (singer) –
- Ciara (singer) –
Events
- George III became King of Great Britain –
- Leslie L. Curtis granted a U.S. patent for an air brush device –
- S.S. Princess Sophia sank near Juneau, Alaska –
- Carlsbad Caverns National Monument established in New Mexico –
- Archibald J. Turner was granted a patent for a football shoulder pad –
- Ken Jennings passed the $2 million mark on Jeopardy!, shattering his previous $1 million record set July 13, 2004 –
- Hideki Okajima of the Boston Red Sox became the first Japanese-born pitcher to play in a World Series game –
- Gary Dean Arthur caught a 3-lb. 15-oz. brown bullhead catfish in Whiteville Lake, Tennessee, establishing a new state record –
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