Some artists vehemently deny the existence of autobiographical elements in their songs, others wholeheartedly embrace them, and some reserve them for major life milestones. Now singer / songwriter Katy Perry, 27, is lending her voice to the autobiographical side of things — specifically her recent divorce from funnyman Russell Brand, 37, after a 14-month marriage.
Perry fully admits that the video for her new song, “Wide Awake,” bookends the last two years of her life, beginning with the pink, cotton-candy-cloud shoot from her “California Gurls” tune and ending with the recent concert tour for her Teenage Dream album. And it’s not just the evolution of a runaway music career that “Wide Awake” refers to, but Perry’s painfully public divorce from Brand six months ago.
“I’m wide awake / Yeah I was in the dark / I was falling hard / With an open heart,” Perry sings. “How did I read the stars so wrong?”
“It’s kind of like the labyrinth of my life in the last two years,” Perry said of the song and music video, which references fairy tales like Snow White and Alice in Wonderland, as well as Nightmare on Elm Street. The most telling scene involves Perry slugging a Prince Charming character in the jaw when he gallantly approaches her. No, he doesn’t look much like Brand, but the point is pretty clear.
“I just wanted to tell a story about myself kind of going through this journey, maybe sometimes trying to get out of the maze. There’s good parts, there’s bad parts, and the whole time there’s the younger version of me leading me through,” Perry explained, reports Entertainment Weekly. “Of course there’s been a lot of things that went on last year that I had to get through and overcome and obstacles that I had to, you know, go through. I think what kept me going is just, like, the purity of my belief in music and my love for music.”
Brand recently made some not-so-oblique references to Perry, as well, when he rebuked talk show host Graham Norton for bringing up his divorce during an interview in which Brand’s mother sat in the audience, according to the New York Daily News. “My mum is here,” Brand told Norton on the show. “She got upset when you dragged up my marriage. I saw her cry, Graham …. What I would have done, mate, in your position, is come up to me before the show and gone, ‘Eh, listen, it’s a bit odd your ex-missus was on last week. I might mention it, is that okay?'”
For more on Katy Perry and Russell Brand:
SPLIT: Russell Brand Files For Divorce From Katy Perry
VIDEO: Katy Perry To Become ‘Mrs. Brand’
Katy Perry, Russell Brand Finalize Divorce
Russell Brand: Marriage With Katy Perry Is Like A ‘Sitcom’
VIDEO: J-Lo, Katy Perry Performances Rock AMAs
Katy Perry Backs Out Of People’s Choice Awards
Katy Perry In No Rush To Release Next Album
Russell Brand Honors Amy Winehouse
SPLIT: Russell Brand Files For Divorce From Katy Perry
Russell Brand Films Re-Shoots Of ‘Arthur’
Russell Brand Speaks Out About Ex-Wife Katy Perry
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