She may have cans of whipped cream spraying from her chest and the most deliciously catchy radio songs, but she also has a heart that can be broken - and in the new documentary ‘Katy Perry: Part of Me’, we see just that.
Embarking on the biggest tour of her career, Katy travels the globe with her crew, friends and family playing to sell-out shows almost every night. Her one mandate? Every two weeks she must have three or four days off to see her husband in what she dubs “relationship days”. Throughout the film, interspersed with the most colourful, whimsical and elaborate concert numbers ever committed to film (sorry Baz Lurhmann), the audience is witness to the toll this commitment and self-imposed responsibility takes on Katy both physically and emotionally. Katy constantly battles her extreme loyalties to her fans, her health and her marriage and you feel yourself exhausted and weeping along with her at times.
'KATY PERRY: PART OF ME' TRAILER
Along the way, we’re privy to the inner dynamics of her family and the role Katy and her sibling’s pentecostal upbringing had on their adult selves. The children of traveling ministers, the only music they were allowed access to was gospel. The only movie they were allowed to watch was ‘Sister Act 2’ (not ‘Sister Act’). So how does that little girl become the adult superstar lying naked in a sea of pink clouds on her album cover we know and love today?
The story takes us from recording her first album of gospel music at the age of 15, adding to the mix Katy's tremendous archive of home movies, footage of recording in studios, performing in pubs and clubs and an 18-year-old Katy’s straight-to-camera confessionals, all documenting her journey and rise to “overnight success”. Picked up and dropped by several labels before finding the right fit, the film also features interviews with the people who believed in Katy from the beginning and fought to get her to where she is now.
The audience is witness to the toll this commitment and self-imposed responsibility takes on Katy.
Even Katy’s non-fans can’t help but know the lyrics to at least one of her songs - ‘Hot and Cold’, ‘Teenage Dream‘ or ‘Last Friday Night‘ perhaps? Regardless of your opinion of her musical stylings, this documentary showcases a hardworking, committed, loving and kind woman who is just human as any of us at the end of the day, struggling to balance all the elements of her life. ‘Part of Me‘ is beautifully put together; it's extensive and intimate in a way audiences so rarely get to see.