
Take that, haters. Katy Perry was feeling herself while performing for a sold-out crowd at New York’s famed Madison Square Garden.
According to People, during her Aug. 11 show at the iconic arena, which seats nearly 20,000 people, Katy told the crowd, “They said, ‘No way! MSG, it couldn’t be done.’ And I was scared too.”
She then said she “finally” understood what New York City is all about. “New York City represents life — the highs, the lows, the in-betweens, everything that is messy, everything that is beautiful, and it sure as hell is not perfect, ’cause perfection is an illusion,” she told the crowd.
“I understood it because I resonate with it so much, because one of my favorite words is authenticity, and you know what New York is? Authentic!”
Katy, who’s from Santa Barbara, California, also joked about the Big Apple, saying, “I rolled into New York, and it smelled like New York City. And you know what I’m talking about. It was late at night. We got in from Philly, and there were drunk people vomiting on the same corner as people making out. That was New York City! And I loved it.”
Katy has been under fire for her under-performing 2024 album 143, as well as for her participation in the Blue Origin flight to space in April along with Gayle King, Lauren Sanchez and others. She addressed the criticism in the comments section of a fan post in April, writing, “When the ‘online’ world tries to make me a human Piñata, I take it with grace and send them love, cause I know so many people are hurting in so many ways and the internet is very much so a dumping ground for unhinged and unhealed.”
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