What Katy Perry Has to Say About Backlash from Working with Dr. Luke on New Album

Katy Perry is anticipating the release of her newest album, 143, but she’s been receiving a bit of backlash for working with Dr. Luke in light of his 9-year legal battle with Kesha. Perry addressed the controversy recently on the Call Her Daddy podcast.

“I understand that [working with him] started a lot of conversations, and he was one of many collaborators that I collaborated with. But the reality is, it comes from me,” said Perry. “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. One of the writers, one of the producers. I am speaking from my own experience.”

The reason working with Dr. Luke has become taboo in the music industry is the nature of the legal battle. Kesha filed a lawsuit claiming she had been drugged and sexually assaulted by Dr. Luke (AKA Lukasz Gottwald) and wanted to break her recording contract. Dr. Luke then filed for defamation and breach of contract, ultimately refuting Kesha’s claims.

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Katy Perry Touches On Backlash from Working with Dr. Luke, Then Pivots to Motherhood

This isn’t the first time Katy Perry has worked with Dr. Luke, however. They collaborated on “I Kissed A Girl,” “Teenage Dream,” and “California Gurls.” For the new album, he worked on the recent singles “Women’s World” and “Lifetimes,” co-writing and producing according to a report from The Hollywood Reporter.

“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,” said Perry.

She continued, “I’m still a matriarch and feeling really grounded in that, that’s where I’m speaking from. So 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.”

The singles from the new album have been questioned by both critics and fans. “Women’s World,” for example, was criticized for seemingly using outdated narratives and images to create a feminist anthem, according to Billboard. Perry explained that as being “a bit sarcastic with it, it’s very slapstick, and very on the nose.”

Additionally, the video for “Lifetimes” led to an investigation into her production company. Allegedly, the company didn’t obtain adequate permission to film on protected sand dunes on the island of S’Espalmador in Spain.

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