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<\/a><\/p>\nWhite achromes fish eye jacquard dress with a circle-cut skirt by VIONNET and white mesh bow by SIBLING BY BERNSTOCK SPEIRS<\/em><\/p>\n Katy Perry unzips the gusset of her shark outfit and peers into the fuzzy crotch area that\u2019s hanging somewhere near her knees. Her famously anim\u00e9 wide eyes look surprised, like there should be something in there, before she quickly zips it back up and waves goodbye to the group of US Marines who have come backstage to meet her. We are backstage at her show in Vienna\u2019s Stadthalle, a 16,000 capacity venue in the Austrian capital. Tomorrow night, Simply Red will play here. For Perry, this kind of malarkey \u2013 waving at foam-mouthed fans like she\u2019s Queen Elizabeth trundling down Pall Mall \u2013 is business as usual. She is, after all, the reigning queen of pop. The next day we meet again, shuffling through the plush carpeted hallways of the hotel she\u2019s staying in. She tells me the guy who just interviewed her wrote a song for her. Though I don\u2019t have anything to compete with this, I don\u2019t mind telling Perry I really enjoyed the huge, floating turd emoji that made its way through the audience the night before. And why wouldn\u2019t I? Of all the emojis it\u2019s clearly the best.<\/p>\n It\u2019s been a long year for K-Pez. Her ongoing Prismatic tour \u2013 promoting Perry\u2019s barnstorming fourth LP, 2013\u2019s PRISM <\/i>\u2013 was the highest-grossing one by a female artist last year. It\u2019s scooped over $150 mil and has been seen by over 1.5 million people. Last night was her 115th time at the poo emoji rodeo (she also appears out of a massive illuminated triangle, rides a very regal and life-size Egyptian horse and vogues with a selection of dancers dressed as fashion savvy cats \u2013 one is even a tin of sardines). So it\u2019s no wonder she\u2019s late for our meeting. \u201cI mean, my work day is not 9-5,\u201d she sighs, settling on a sofa perpendicular to my seat. She\u2019s lying on her front and it makes me feel like a shrink. \u201cMy show days, I get on stage at 9pm and then get to bed at 3am. I had to wake up this morning to do press and this…\u201d she gesticulates to her face, \u201c…I can\u2019t go into press looking like a potato.\u201d<\/p>\n She doesn\u2019t look like a potato, and with more Twitter followers to her name than anyone \u2013 66 million and counting \u2013 it barely matters anyway. Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s paltry 12 million looks a tad pathetic in comparison, doesn\u2019t it? Judging by last night\u2019s audience, it\u2019s clear Perry appeals to a wide cross-section of people; from the young girls whose high pitch screams fill the Stadthalle every time she asks the audience a question, to the 20-something lads in tracksuits gobbling hot-dogs next to me. Maybe the key to Perry\u2019s mass market appeal lies in her tongue in cheek sexiness, like Bettie Page injected with Disney (\u201cI wanna see your Peacock, cock, cock,\u201d she screamed onstage) or maybe it\u2019s her empowering self- sufficiency (\u201cYou held me down, but I got up\/ already brushing off the dust\/ you hear my voice, you hear that sound\u201d she intones in PRISM <\/i>track, \u201cRoar\u201d). Whatever it is though, she has plenty of it.<\/p>\n For someone who even my mum\u2019s heard of, she\u2019s pretty grounded. Early life wasn\u2019t particularly easy for young Perry, whose parents were born- again Christians. Growing up in Santa Barbara, the family often struggled financially. Perry took guitar and singing lessons from an early age and would earn her first few bucks busking in her local farmer\u2019s market. After releasing a gospel album titled Katy Hudson <\/i>in 2001, she moved to LA, where she lived hand-to-mouth while figuring it all out. She signed to Island Def Jam, then got dropped, provided Mick Jagger with some backing vocals for Old Habits Die Hard<\/i>, signed to Columbia and was dropped again, but somehow by 2004 was being heralded as \u201cthe next big thing\u201d. She eventually signed to Capitol in 2007, and teamed up with all-star pop producers Dr Luke and Max Martin, with whom she co-wrote her breakthrough hit \u201cI Kissed A Girl\u201d and follow-up smash \u201cHot N Cold\u201d. A trio of albums, One of the Boys <\/i>(2008), Teenage Dreams <\/i>(2010) and PRISM <\/i>(2013) and three headline world tours later, Katy Perry was pretty serious pop property.<\/p>\n White achromes fish eye jacquard dress with a circle-cut skirt by VIONNET and white mesh bow by SIBLING BY BERNSTOCK SPEIRS<\/em><\/p>\n Blue, pink and white feathered organza and leather dress by FENDI and white drop marble earring by CHRISTIAN DIOR<\/em><\/p>\n Late last year she hit another milestone \u2013 turning 30. Like most people who have turned that corner, she is fully aware, in retrospect, how pants your twenties can be. \u201cOh yeah,\u201d she agrees once I\u2019ve fully explained the semiotics of the word \u201cpants\u201d. \u201cIt\u2019s a struggle and so many thoughts are like, wasted.\u201d Does she use looking back to her early life as a reality check? \u201cI mean, I use it as a reality check, but my whole vibe is kind of: if all of this went away tomorrow, or if my bank account went back to zero, I\u2019d just start again. I\u2019d find another way. Because I am curious about life, I\u2019m very absorbent \u2013 I want to learn everything. My education really started in my twenties, I didn\u2019t have much [of an education] as a kid, and so I continue to educate myself through going out there, seeing museums. When I\u2019m on tour, I do a lot of sight seeing every day I have off. I\u2019m out in those streets, having experiences. I wear this black and white adidas outfit and a down coat, which is boring and not for anyone else but me. It\u2019s to protect myself so that I can still have human experiences.\u201d Why is that? \u201cBecause if I am out looking like this [Pez was painfully radiant when we spoke], I don\u2019t get to do anything. I have to be somewhat considerate about people, I understand people get very excited, interested and curious and it turns into a parade. So in order to like, really, still be connected with reality, I have to take off the costume and look very drab, like, not homeless, but on-my-way-to-the-gym-homeless.\u201d<\/p>\n For someone whose Twitter followers match the population of Great Britain, she certainly gives off an air of normal, pouring my tea for me and asking about my girlfriend. Does she get stopped a lot? \u201cIt depends on how I present myself. Like this, yes. I don\u2019t get to walk anywhere. I see life through a Mercedes Viano. If I am in my adidas cape of invisibility, I\u2019m always wearing headphones, a hat and sunglasses, no matter if it\u2019s night or day because these big ol\u2019 bulging eyeballs give away my identity. I don\u2019t respond to anyone calling my name. And here\u2019s a big secret revealed now, I am usually not listening to anything, I have my headphones on for protection.\u201d<\/p>\n Is there a big gulf between the Katy Perry who last night burst out of an illuminated prism, with a waist-length rope-light hair-piece in, and the one who wears sunglasses at night, listening to absolutely nothing? \u201cNot really, I\u2019m pretty consistent in being who I am in the spotlight and who I am out of the spotlight. When I\u2019m on stage I\u2019m just a caricature of myself in some ways, a very exaggerated cartoon-esque diva, a performer. I am very conscious of who I am as a person and my connectivity to the earth and people. Not just living in my bubble, although my bubble is very comfortable.\u201d I kind of get the impression that although she might not know the price of a pint of milk off the top of her head, she probably wouldn\u2019t mind popping out to get some in an emergency. \u201cIt\u2019s very nice being in a bubble, but nobody wants to hear about people\u2019s experiences in their 1% talent bubble, it doesn\u2019t relate to them. I\u2019ve lived a lot of lives.\u201d Perhaps that\u2019s <\/i>what her appeal is \u2013 the popstar\u2019s familiar grasp on the cheerily mundane, the reassuringly everyday. \u201cI have lived on extreme scales in some ways. I\u2019m a self-made woman, I\u2019ve made my own success, but I\u2019ve also come from nothing. I didn\u2019t have any connections. I grew up, not in complete poverty, but in a lower class system. My parents survived week by week, they had good times and really low times \u2013 the basis of arguments in our family were always financially related. It\u2019s nice to be able to have perspective on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n Though undeniably grounded and able to small-talk, Perry\u2019s penchant for fantasy, which rears its head in her choice fluoro party-wear and fantastical side projects (she\u2019s played a Smurf, a Simpson<\/i>\u2019s character, and once auditioned for Sesame Street<\/i>) is just as resounding. \u201cI feel really cartoon-y all of the time, just in the way that I present myself. It was a natural progression,\u201d she said back in 2011, about playing Smurfette in Pixar\u2019s half live-action, half-computer animated movie, The Smurfs<\/i>. Watching through videos of her reading lines for the role\u2013all bright eyed, bushy tailed and chipper voiced \u2013 she\u2019s gleefully lost in the comic book colony\u2019s miniaturized, infantile world.<\/p>\n And nowhere does Perry get to unleash her obsessions with playful, glitter-tinted childishness more than onstage. I get the impression that the floating turd emojis, the cat-walking sardines, all come from her. \u201cYour assumption is correct,\u201d she says smartly. \u201cI am very collaborative. I have a fantastic group of people that I surround myself with for logistics and creative purposes and they really execute all of my dreams, if they can. If it\u2019s feasible, then they will get it done.\u201d Is there anything that she\u2019s dreamt up for the shows that hasn\u2019t been accomplished? \u201cI can\u2019t remember the last time I haven\u2019t been able to do something, which sounds like a crazy, selfish statement. But I work really, really hard to get to this place. Also, it\u2019s like a compounded amount of hard work. When you get older you have more mouths to feed, there\u2019s more pressure \u2013 I have like, 127 people on tour with me.\u201d Walking round the back of the Stadthalle, trying to find the entrance, I noticed at least five double decker tour buses. It must feel like there\u2019s a lot on her shoulders. \u201cWell, I have learned something fantastic. I\u2019ve learned how to delegate.\u201d<\/p>\n So here she is, the biggest pop star the world has ever known, showing me a kind of bra-strap hanger on her phone case (\u201cso you don\u2019t drop it\u201d), and about to drive to central Europe for her 116th show as part of one of the most successful female solo tours ever. What is there left for her to accomplish (other than world domination and her own emoji line). \u201cThere\u2019s only ever evolution. It\u2019s not levels of success that have been the goal \u2013 I think anything that is true, honest and connective will always be successful. For me, it\u2019s important to be brave and try new things. A lot of people have ideas about me, and that\u2019s fine, I\u2019m in no rush to prove anything to them. I feel like a chameleon, I can do many different things. I haven\u2019t shown everyone all of them yet.\u201d And when the tour does eventually end, what will she do? Kick back, take her wig off and just chill out? She beams. \u201cMy goal for the summer is to walk down the farmer\u2019s market in my hometown, and pick fruit. I know \u2013 very normal, and very sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n Until then though, the show must go on. Perry\u2019s manager gently nudges us to wrap up as we discuss our favourite emojis. She flicks through her most used emojis. \u201cListen,\u201d she bends in, \u201cI feel like I really need an update. I like the angel because I use it for a cherub. I use the artist\u2019s palette a lot. I like this girl, the frumpy-frump girl. I like going deep into the right on emojis, you know? Deep into the right.\u201d And with that she\u2019s off, walking through an exit I hadn\u2019t even noticed was there, that definitely wasn\u2019t the way we came in. I\u2019m left alone, holding my phone \u2013 open on the emoji keyboard. I guess we\u2019re living in a Katy Perry emoji world, and I am an emoji girl.<\/p>\n Multicoloured silk beaded backless dress with white lace by NICOLAS JEBRAN, blue open toe heels by GIANRITTO ROSSI and jewellery Katy’s own<\/em><\/p>\n Green leather laser cut sleeveless dress with floral detailing by GILES, 18k tsavorite and diamond ring, and 18k tsavorite pink spineland diamond ring both by IVY NEW YORK<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n