With a razzle-dazzle circus of Vegas showgirls, Candyland costumes, and LED lights every shade of the rainbow, Katy Perry never fails to transform her music into a thrill-ride of a concert experience, and now, a decade after arriving on the scene with “I Kissed a Girl,” Perry is leaving her colorful mark on international arena stages with her Witness Tour.
As her latest album of the same name so poignantly implies, Perry is pushing past her expected limits with the confession of a woman who has seen it all. “Witness” is Perry’s opportunity to indulge her fascination in what lies beyond, after years of indulging the critics aiming to pigeonhole the singer in a pinup girl past.
Perry’s “Witness” challenges the value found in the bright, bubblegum pleasantry of her previous thematic ventures as she opts for a more futuristic-noir aesthetic, revealing a woman jaded by the world’s bitterness and open to exploring the depths of its darkness.
In tracks and music video adaptations for songs like “Swish Swish,” we see Perry forgoing the comfort and consistency of pretty girl pop for high-stakes shock value, galavanting her complaints and overdue teen angst the way she once did her joys of romance and blissful youth.
While fans of “Teenage Dream” and “One of the Boys” might not be so quick to roll their windows down and sing along to Perry’s new sound, Perry seems excited to garner herself new listeners who will embrace her changing spirit. The ever-adapting songstress is perhaps striving to prove that time is no match for her as she fights for relevance through the shifting winds of tastes and trends.
You can catch this newly redefined Katy Perry as she takes her Witness Tour to Orlando’s Amway Center on December 17.
