Katy Perry is finally talking about it. After going months without addressing her controversial decision to work with Dr. Luke on her comeback single “Woman’s World,” which dropped in July, the 39-year-old pop star opened up about her reasons for working with the producer Kesha accused of sexual assault in 2014 on the latest episode of Call Her Daddy.
In the podcast episode posted Wednesday (Sept 4), Perry acknowledged that the collaboration “started a lot of conversations.”
“He was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with,” she continued of Dr. Luke, who helped craft “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream” and several more of her biggest hits over the years. “But the reality is, it comes from me. 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,” Perry added. “When I speak about ‘Woman’s World,’ I speak about feeling so empowered now as a mother, as a woman, giving birth, creating life … I’m still a matriarch and feeling really grounded in that. That’s where I’m speaking from. So I created all of this with several different collaborators, people that I’ve collaborated with from the past, from the Teenage Dream era, all of that.”
Word that the “Roar” singer had enlisted Dr. Luke for “Woman’s World” emerged shortly before the singer dropped, leading many to criticize Perry for doing so in spite of the producer’s nine-year legal battle with Kesha. After the “Tik Tok” artist accused the Kemosabe Records founder of drugging and raping her at a 2005 party, which he strongly denied, he countered with a defamation lawsuit that the two parties eventually settled in 2023.
Other critics also pointed out the irony of “Woman’s World” — which Perry branded as an ode to female empowerment — being produced and written by a team of mostly men, with a male director helming its music video. Luke also worked on the singer’s followup single “Lifetimes,” which dropped Aug. 8.
The interview comes a few weeks ahead of Perry’s new album, 143, which is set to arrive Sept. 20. Her conversation with Cooper also spanned the American Idol alum’s relationship with husband Orlando Bloom and how they’re raising their 4-year-old daughter, Daisy. At one point, Perry apologized to parents of kids who innocently sang along to her cheeky track “Peacock” in 2010 — because now she’s going through the same thing with her own child.
“Even now my daughter sings the song ‘Peacock’ — dancing around the house — that I wrote as a double-entendre, funny song about dicks,” Perry said, laughing. “And I’m like, ‘Don’t sing that song!’ My karma has now served me.”
Listen to Perry’s episode of Call Her Daddy below.
