“I can’t dance, but I can shuffffffffle!” Katy Perry screamed during one of the last songs at her sold-out Madison Square Garden show last week. She then proceeded to do a little jig with her dancers, as the crowd laughed and hooted along before continuing to whirl and twirl around the stage. Minutes later, Perry closed out her set with “Firework,” with confetti raining down from paper butterflies over the rapturous crowd. After the nonstop criticism of Perry’s tour on TikTok, many might have walked into the arena unsure of what the night would hold—but left as bona fide Katycats. “That was amazing, I’m so shocked,” said one skeptic on the way out. “It was a top-three concert,” a friend of mine said. My roommate, midway through her set, rushed to buy merch. “I need a hat, now,” he said, returning with an orange KP cap moments later.
Most videos of The Lifetimes Tour that are popping up on your feed are probably casting Perry in a bad light. Yes, she’s suspended in the air for part of the show, hopping over her dancers as if they’re a stone path. Yes, she quips at her audience, sometimes roasting them in a way you’d only do with a close friend. Yes, she even talked about the “mistake” she made during her New York tour stop—eating a hotdog the day before the show (fingers crossed for her stomach). And yes, on top of that, she runs around the stage and dresses like a robo-alien.
It also doesn’t help that Perry has had a run of less-than-ideal publicity. She got flak for partaking in a recent Blue Origin spaceflight, split from Orlando Bloom, and has stumbled through her 143 album rollout. The string of events further alienated her fans.
The story of the Lifetimes Tour, too, doesn’t seem to do her any favors either. The theme of the show is that Perry, essentially, has to save the world by saving the butterflies, a motif used in many of her musical eras. She positions herself as our last hope. Many on TikTok are left thinking, If Perry is our last hope, we truly are doomed.
However, as Perry succeeds at her mission and butterflies rain over the crowd in the final number, “Firework,” I was left astounded. She is no perfect celebrity, for many of the reasons mentioned above, but for two hours straight, Perry gave her all. Perhaps her “all” is not what modern day music fans have come to expect, but it does makes sense in the wider context of her career.
Back in 2010, when Perry released Teenage Dream, she was never known as a dancer. Yes, she could perform, but she was never hitting the moves like her counterparts. She, at times, became reliant on gimmicks, which allowed for visual diversity in her shows. You will never get Perry sitting at a piano for hours on end. You will instead get Perry sitting on a toilet at her Play Vegas residency, or Perry embracing the “cringe” in her dancing. This has been true of her career for quite some time. During her Super Bowl Halftime Show, her dance moves were limited, however the spectacle (like that giant tiger and dynamic chess board to name a few) and crystal-clear vocals allowed her performance to go down as one of the best shows of all time. Perry knows how to put on a damn good show.
The Lifetimes Tour is no different. As she soars through the air and through her many hits, she is absolutely captivating and remarkable. Yes, there are gimmicks, and yes, she is wildly unserious at times, but she knows that. It seems like the singer is fully in touch with herself—the wacky, weird, and at times irreverent Perry the world first fell in love with. Her show is also a reminder of how many hits she’s had. She catapults through “Dark Horse,” “Roar,” “Teenage Dream,” and more. Perry, for so long, was synonymous with a banger.
Fans in MSG, throughout the entire night, were on their feet. Someone even proposed on stage. Many came dressed in costume. There is an audience for Perry, and in the arena last night, the motif was what Perry has always preached: love and radical acceptance. Perhaps we just need to accept Perry for what she is, and once you do that, you can let yourself go in her iconic, game-changing music. Let Katy Perry “Roar.”
