Katy Perry’s album 143, which is out Sept. 20, has been a long time coming, marking her first LP since 2020’s Smile. The singer officially launched her 143 era in June when she dropped the lead single “Woman’s World.” The song immediately faced pushback for its stereotypical imagery — which Perry later said was intentional — and generic pop sound. Rolling Stone later confirmed that Perry had worked with some of the producers behind Teenage Dream and Prism, including Max Martin — and, to the disappointment of many, Dr. Luke.
Perry followed “Woman’s World” with the electro-pop single “Lifetimes.” She launched the track with a video that led to an investigation into possible environmental impact on the island where it was shot, adding more controversy to the album’s fraught rollout. (The local government later said Perry’s video “did not constitute a crime.”) Here’s a timeline of everything that has happened leading up to the release of 143.
Oct. 2023: Perry Teases 143 During Halloween Show
Perry teased her upcoming album era during a Halloween show as she wrapped her Play Residency at Resorts World Las Vegas. During the campy performance, Perry was chased around by a character in a Scream mask holding up a cardboard sign that read “KP6.” Perry had spoken to Rolling Stone about the possibility of new music several weeks prior, saying that her daughter Daisy had inspired her writing. “I think that’s probably the top three profound things that happen in a person’s life,” she said at the time. “For me, it’s definitely been the most profound, to be able to go through that and just that feeling of love that I’ve always been searching for.” —T.M.
May 2024: Perry Leaves American Idol
Perry announced that she’d be leaving the judges’ panel of American Idol in February 2024. Perry joined the judges’ panel of the show in 2018 and stayed on it for five years alongside Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. After sharing that she’d end her tenure at the show, she told Jimmy Kimmel that she’d be headlining Rock in Rio in Brazil later that year, and that she’d “maybe bring new music.” “It’s going to be a very exciting year — for all pop star girlies,” she said. —T.M.
June 2024: Perry Announces “Woman’s World” Single
Just as Charli XCX’s Brat summer was painting the pop world lime-green, Perry decided to share her first taste of new music in four years with the announcement of “Woman’s World.” The pop star posted a TikTok video with a snippet of the song where she was bikini-clad and sporting futuristic metallic chaps. The announcement came almost a full month before the single’s release and teased an accompanying music video as well. From the jump, it was clear that Perry’s comeback would be met with mixed reactions as people online criticized the snippet’s simplistic sound and compared it to AI-generated music. —M.G.
June 2024: Rolling Stone Confirms Perry’s Production Team
Days after first announcing “Woman’s World,” Rolling Stone broke the news that Perry reconnected with some producers she’s worked with in the past, including Stargate (“Firework”), and Max Martin and Dr. Luke (the production duo behind “I Kissed a Girl,” “Teenage Dream,” “California Gurls,” and “E.T.”) — as well as some new collaborators.
The news arrived about a year after Kesha and Dr. Luke settled his defamation lawsuit. Kesha accused the producer of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse in 2014.
“Katy knew exactly the album she wanted to make and put together the team to make it happen,” a Capitol Records source said at the time, also naming producers such as Vaughn Oliver, Rocco Valdes, and Theron Thomas. —T.M.
July 2024: Perry Announces 143
A day before everyone finally heard “Woman’s World,” Perry unveiled the title, album artwork, and release date for “KP6” on Instagram. She elaborated on the album’s sonic influences in a statement saying, “I set out to create a bold, exuberant, celebratory dance-pop album with the symbolic 143 numerical expression of love as a throughline message.”
The singer went on Apple Music 1 with Zane Lowe a day after the announcement and further explained the importance of 143: “It’s my angel number. It’s my symbol, it’s my sign,” she said. Unfortunately, not everyone was feeling the love. —M.G.
July 2024: Perry Drops “Woman’s World” Video and Gets Dragged
Perry dropped the video for “Woman’s World” on July 11, capturing her dressed as a risqué version of Rosie the Riveter and pouring whiskey all over herself. (The video also starred Trisha Paytas.) In other scenes, Perry played the role of a human-robot person putting a gas nozzle on her butt to refuel and riding in a monster truck with Paytas. The video (and the song’s) lyrics were met with backlash from some listeners. The song landed at No. 63 on the Billboard Hot 100. —T.M.
July 2024: Perry Says “Woman’s World” Video Is Satire
After receiving backlash for the song’s lyrics and its video, Perry shared a clearly pre-recorded video saying the visual was satirical. “We’re kind of just having fun being a bit sarcastic with it, it’s very slapstick, and very on the nose,” Perry said of the first half of the video, which features the singer suggestively pouring herself in whiskey and peeing in urinals. “It’s like, ‘Oooh, we’re not about the male gaze but we really are about the male gaze,’ and we’re overplaying it,” she explained. —T.M.
August 2024: Perry Drops “Lifetimes” Video, Reveals Album Tracklist
Less than a month after Perry released “Woman’s World” and its contentious video, she dropped “Lifetimes,” the follow-up single in a quickly deteriorating album rollout. With “Lifetimes,” the singer dove deeper into dance-pop, but the controversy didn’t stop: a YouTube preview of the song’s visual listed Dr. Luke as a producer. The fact that Perry continued to release songs with him overshadowed the visual itself, which even revealed 143’s tracklist. —M.G.
August 2024: Perry Investigated For “Lifetimes’ Video, Team Claims They “Adhered To All Regulations”
Perry’s video production was investigated over the potential environmental impact of her “Lifetimes” video in Spain. The Environmental Department of the Balearic Islands launched a probe after a production company seemingly failed to request proper approval for filming in the region, but said that the filming did not constitute a “crime against the environment.” A spokesperson for the singer later told Rolling Stone that she was “given verbal authority” to film at the protected dunes of S’Espalmador and that the crew had “adhered to all regulations” while filming. “The local video production company assured us that all necessary permits for the video were secured,” the spokesperson said. —T.M.
August 2024: VMAs Announce Perry Will Receive Vanguard Award
In the middle of all the 143 backlash, Perry received a sliver of mercy when MTV announced that she would be the Video Vanguard recipient at the 2024 VMAs. While the award aims to celebrate the singer’s iconic music videos from the mid-2010s, including “Firework,” “E.T.,” and “Wide Awake,” the timing of the news made it complicated. —M.G.
September 2024: Perry Dodges Dr. Luke Question
During an appearance on Call Her Daddy, Perry responded to a question about her decision to work with Teenage Dream producer Dr. Luke with a non-answer about motherhood and women empowerment. “I understand that it started a lot of conversations, and he was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with. But the reality is, it comes from me,” Perry said of the decision. “The truth is, I wrote these songs from my experience of my whole life going through this metamorphosis, and he was one of the people to help facilitate all that. One of the writers, one of the producers. I am speaking from my own experience.” —T.M.
