ONTARIO, Calif. — In less than a year, Katy Perry has released an album, campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris and, just last week, flown to space. As she heads to Mexico City to kick off a world tour, the pop superstar shows no intention of slowing down.
“I’m always open and I say, ‘Why not?’ and ‘Let’s just try,'” she told The Associated Press. “The power of your thoughts are so incredible because everything starts with a thought. I had this thought, ‘I want to go on tour.’ And here we are.”
With that openness to try comes accepting that not every endeavor will be a victory. Her September album, “143,” was critically panned, and celebrities like Olivia Munn and Emily Ratajkowski critiqued the spaceflight’s use of resources as superfluous and indulgent.
But Perry’s longevity and the scale of her fame since her 2008 breakout hit, “I Kissed a Girl,” are attributable at least in part to her willingness to get back up in the wake of a setback, as she belts in her 2013 empowerment anthem, “Roar.”
“I can control what I can control,” she said.
That mantra has been refined over the past 15 years through her practice of Transcendental Meditation. The meditation technique has been embraced by a handful of celebrities, including — perhaps most zealously — the late David Lynch, whom Perry credits with spreading the practice and its message.
“That changed my life. And I’ve gone on a long inner space journey to untangle some wires, to answer some questions, to become more grounded, to find the power within myself,” she said.
Perry is fascinated by all things spiritual, casually weaving into conversation references to astrology, the enneagram and cardology, which purports to impart mystical insights into an individual’s personality through playing cards.
That journey has informed her approach to music and performing, down to the narrative of her sci-fi themed “Lifetimes Tour.”
Perry’s tour of more than 80 performances will primarily be a career-spanning showcase of past hits, but with a dance-infused flare to some of the traditional pop songs.
In the nearly two decades since Perry emerged as a pop star, she has made tongue in cheek lyricism — in line with her “very sarcastic” sense of humor — and catchy messages of empowerment a signature of her songs. Critical reception to her more recent albums has been less than enthusiastic, but that hasn’t stopped the 40-year-old from going all out for this tour, calling it “Disneyland on wheels.”
