Katy Perry Skirts Question About Dr. Luke Collaboration Amid ‘Woman’s World’ Backlash
Katy Perry has dodged a question about her controversial decision to continue working with disgraced record producer Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald.
In case you missed it, the internet slammed the hell out of the pop star earlier this summer when she dropped her “Woman’s World” song in July, which was produced by Gottwald, off her new album, “143.”
Gottwald was embroiled in a lengthy legal battle with fellow pop star Kesha (real name Kesha Sebert) after she accused him of drugging and raping her.
Gottwald denied the accusations and sued for defamation. The pair eventually settled last year just weeks before a highly anticipated trial was to begin.
Not only did “Woman’s World” flop on the Billboard Hot 100, but Perry also faced backlash from social media users who argued that the song’s music video seemingly catered to the male gaze without actually reflecting its feminist lyrics.
While recently appearing on Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast, Perry admitted she’s aware her collaboration with Dr. Luke caused a stir.
“I understand that it started a lot of conversations, and he was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with. But the reality is it comes from me,” Perry said in the episode released Wednesday.
Perry teamed up with the songwriter and record producer for some of her biggest hits, including “I Kissed a Girl,” “Teenage Dream” and “California Gurls.”
“The truth is, I wrote these songs from my experience of my whole life going through this metamorphosis, and he was one of the people to help facilitate all that,” she said. “One of the writers, one of the producers. I am speaking from my own experience.”
The “Dark Horse” crooner then shifted the conversation, telling Cooper that “Woman’s World” was inspired by feeling “so empowered” by her many roles in life as a woman.
“When I speak about ‘Woman’s World,’ I speak about feeling so empowered now, as a mother, as a woman, giving birth, creating life, creating another set of organs. A brain! A heart! I created a whole-ass heart! And I did it, and I’m still doing it,” Perry said.
Noting that she’s speaking from the perspective of a “matriarch” and feels “really grounded in that,” Perry added, “I created all of this with several different collaborators, people that I’ve collaborated with from the past, from ‘Teenage Dream’ era. All of that.”
In July, Perry responded to the criticism of “Woman’s World” while alluding that the video was meant to be satirical.
“You can do anything! Even satire!” she tweeted on X in a July 13 post, alongside a clip in which she speaks about the “Woman’s World” video while standing alongside her background dancers on the set.
“We’re kind of just having fun, being a bit sarcastic with it,” Perry explained in the clip. “It’s very slapstick and very on the nose.”
“With this set, it’s like, ‘Ooh, we’re not about the male gaze, but we really are about the male gaze,’” she said at the time. “And we’re really overplaying it and on the nose because I’m about to get smashed, which is like a reset ― a reset for me, and a reset for my idea of ‘feminine divine,’ and it’s a whole different world we go to after this.” (Midway in the “Woman’s World” video, a giant anvil crushes Perry, who gets up in a new location and the song continues.)
