Katy Perry has insisted a controversial scene in her ‘Woman’s World’ music video is supposed to be “slapstick” and “sarcastic”.
The 39-year-old singer returned to music with her new track earlier this week but has faced criticism for the sexualised nature of the video, in particular a moment where she and her dancers perform sexy choreography on a construction site before she is “smashed” by an anvil and returns in a new costume.
In a behind-the-scenes video shared to Instagram, Katy said of the moment: “We’re kind of just having fun, being a bit sarcastic with it. It’s very slapstick and very on the nose.
“With this set it’s like, ‘Oooh, we’re not about the male gaze, but we really are about the male gaze.’ And we’re really overplaying it and on the nose.”
The former ‘American Idol’ judge explained the anvil moment was meant as a “reset” to help her embrace the “idea of feminine divine”.
She added: “We wanted to open this video making it look like a super high-gloss pop star video.”
‘Woman’s World’ is the first single from the ‘Teenage Dream’ hitmaker’s upcoming album ‘143’, which will be released on 20 September.
The title ‘143’ is a code for ‘I love you’ which was often used in messages sent on pagers during the 1990s.
Katy said in a statement: “I set out to create a bold, exuberant, celebratory dance-pop album with the symbolic 143 numerical expression of love as a throughline message.”
It will mark the star’s first album since 2020’s ‘Smile’, which did not replicate the success of her previous records.
The ‘Firework’ singer previously told how the album will be “pure joy and fun”.
Katy told Access Hollywood: “I just have yet to make a record from a place of feeling really happy and whole and full of love.
“Sometimes artists are like, ‘Oh, that’s boring, you want to make music from kind of like a tougher place,’ but actually it’s very bright and joyful, like pure joy and fun and playful and celebratory and a party.”