No.1 for Interviews - Katy Perry
Katy Perry

No.1 does some digging and finds out what makes Katy Perry tick

Since Katy first appeared on our radars back in 2008 with her irresistible sugary pop number 'I Kissed a Girl', she has never been far from the front page. With her penchant for, ahem, attention grabbing clothes, her fast-paced relationship with ex-womaniser Russell Brand and a super-successful singing career, there is just no stopping this little lady!

Katy arrived in the land of celebrity with an almighty bang and a shower of glitter but, while it may have seemed that she was an overnight success, the pop star has worked long and hard to get to where she is today, "When I was 20 I had someone say to me that I should probably go home because I was never going to get signed." Katy says. "I gave myself a timeline, I thought, 'Okay, if I don't make it by 25, I'm just going to get married and pop out some babies and do some crafts'. Now I feel like I'm at a point in my life right now where I could potentially stick around. I don't feel like a diva, but I think diva is a great and powerful word in the sense of what Beyoncé makes it. And maybe I can't be Beyoncé, but maybe I can be Cyndi Lauper. I mean be like her, not be her. That would just be weird."

This struggle to success can only have been made even more difficult by the fact that her parents, who run a Christian ministry back home in California, do not appear to have been 100 per cent behind the path their daughter's career has taken.

When her smash hit 'I Kissed A Girl' first took to the airwaves, Katy's mother, Mary Perry Hudson, was very outspoken about her feelings on the song and was reported to have said that she felt that her daughter was, "promoting sin". She has been quoted as saying, "I hate the song. It clearly promotes homosexuality and its message is shameful and disgusting. Katy knows how I feel. We are a very outspoken family and she knows how disappointed her father and I are. The first time I heard it I was in total shock. When it comes on the radio I bow my head and pray." Now it is even reported that Mary Perry Hudson is in talks with publishers and is planning to release a tell-all book about her daughter's career and personal life. The book is said to focus on the way in which Katy's fame has impacted on her parents' Christian ministry.

While we can't think of anything worse than our mother revealing all our secrets in a no-holds-barred book, Katy remains tight-lipped about the whole affair. She does not appear to feel any animosity towards her parents and simply says, "My parents are very quirky and eccentric, they have their own world. I understand that they are maybe not singing along with everything but they are very happy for me. I stopped trying to change them when I was 21".

Although her career and lifestyle choices are not exactly in-keeping with her strict Christian background, Katy speaks very warmly about her upbringing, "I feel really blessed because of where I come from. I'm not exactly what I was born into, but I still have my roots and I appreciate it and respect it to the fullest. I believe in faith and I believe that faith is pure." Katy's 'Jesus' tattoo on the inside of her left wrist is testament to this and she says it is a reminder of where she came from, "No matter how much changes around me or how much I change there isn't an eraser for this. It stares back at me when I play guitar and says 'remember, you came from this and you can always go back to it.'"

It isn't only Katy's song lyrics that don't conform to her Christian roots, her love of flesh flashing clothing must also cause a few raised eyebrows. Katy's risqué fashion choices mean that her body has frequently come under scrutiny but, despite this, she seems extremely comfortable in her own skin, "I don't have a Kate Moss body, but I'm very proud and happy with mine. At one time I was shaped like a square.' I had enormous boobs and I didn't know what to do with them so I wore minimisers, which were not cute. Those thick-ass straps! I got made fun of for the over the shoulder boulder holders! Little did I know that these things would come in handy someday." Katy's love of fancy dress, latex, bright colours and glitter means that she is guaranteed to stand out in a crowd, "I have multipersonality disorder - in a very good way of course - when it comes to my fashion choices!"

Perhaps it was Katy's 'out there' dress sense that first drew her now husband, Russell Brand, to her. Brand made his intentions towards Katy clear to the world at an award's ceremony in 2009 when he announced to the crowd, "Katy Perry didn't win an award and she's staying at the same hotel as me, so she's going to need a shoulder to cry on. So, in a way, I'm the real winner tonight!"

Shortly after this it was announced that Katy and Russell Brand had become an item and we all feared that it was destined for disaster. With his lothario reputation and diagnosis as a 'sex addict' the comedian didn't seem to make for a particularly suitable match for, well. anybody. But how wrong we were, "Everything clicked really fast," Katy says. "We kind of instantly got past all the surfacey stuff and ever since then, there hasn't been a dull moment. We both needed balance, and we give that to each other. It wasn't about me taming him, which is what everyone always says, it was about timing. We're both larger than life, we're kind of cartoony. Sense of humour is really important, it's how we de-stress. Our favourite time is just being at home with our cats!" So will there be any little Brands in the future? "I always knew I wanted someone who was going to be a be a lovely husband and father. I want to have kids!" Katy says. "I'm totally fine with saying that. I think some people are worried that it's going to ruin their career, but I want to live a full life."

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