With all the excitement of Pink’s just finished, record-breaking run of seven sold out New Zealand concerts (six in Auckland and one in Dunedin), it’s easy to forget that another female superstar of the same generation was also in town at almost the exact same time. If we wind the clock back about three years, it was Katy Perry who was the bigger international drawcard, but as my review for the NZ Herald says, Perry finds herself at a curious career juncture.

As you can read, I disagree with some of the more harsh Australian critics who predict Perry is in some sort of career free fall. Yes, the now just wrapped Witness tour sold half of what the Prismatic tour of 2014/2015 did, but we’re still talking roughly one million tickets worldwide. However, there is an undeniable drop in popularity for Perry, something I try to explain in the review.

Cards on the table, I’m an unabashed fan of the hook-laden pop that Perry has done better than virtually any of her peers for the past decade. While she’s still fun in a live setting (“bonkers” fun), it is fair to say she has bigger concerns than merely touring at the same time as Pink.

Whether it’s a couple of poorly chosen recent singles, immovable set-lists or concerts with more emphasis on bombastic staging and special effects than on the music, Perry is at a crossroads. The good news is, any long career of any note will have highs and lows. And who doesn’t love a good comeback story?

As Perry sings on the Witness track Pendulum that should’ve been the album’s second single after Chained To The Rhythm, “life’s a pendulum, it all comes back around”.

Here’s my NZ Herald review of her August 20th concert at Spark Arena with several of my own photos below:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=12110676