Katy Perry’s Vanguard 2024 VMAs performance showed just how good she used to be

Making a career shuffle at the VMAs as the Vanguard winner should be a victory lap. Especially for someone like Perry, one of the biggest stars of the late 2010s and early 2010s, whose seminal album “Teenage Dream” is one of only two songs in history to yield five No. 1 songs. (The other is “Bad” by Michael Jackson).

But her latest comeback didn’t go according to plan.

After an early career peak — Perry has released nine chart-topping hits to date, all before 2015 — she’s had none in the last decade. Her career then suffered a series of false starts and setbacks, from the ill-received ‘intentional pop’ of ‘Witness’ in 2017 to the banal clown imagery of ‘Smile’ in 2020.

That brings us to July 2024, when Perry launched his new era. Armed with flashy visuals, eye-catching outfits and a big-budget music video, it was clear that Perry planned to return to pop’s upper echelon.

Unfortunately, the lead single, “Woman’s World” was derided by fans and critics as tone-deaf, tight and unpleasant. It was bad enough to put Perry’s comeback in jeopardy, quickly turning into a “career crisis”.

It’s unclear whether Perry was chosen as this year’s Vanguard recipient before she began releasing her new album, or whether it was negotiated as a last-ditch effort to save it. But Perry’s new album “143” drops next week, and she still has to convince people it’s worth listening to. (“Woman’s World” debuted at No. 63 on the Billboard Hot 100, while his follow-up “Lifetimes” didn’t even crack the chart.)

Either way, Perry arrived at the VMAs ready to celebrate her career. She walked the red carpet, taking selfies with fans and chatting happily with the MTV hosts. As she walked through the press area, a journalist next to me called out, “How does it feel to be the most beautiful woman on the carpet?” Perry immediately replied in a coquettish voice, “You would know!” Everyone burst into giggles and applause. Perry was in charm mode.

I admit I had very low expectations for her Vanguard performance. If you had asked me yesterday about the most anticipated entertainers of the night, Perry wouldn’t have even made the short list. (The answer would have been Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, obviously.)

But when Perry took the stage—or, rather, hovered over it—and opened with an acrobatic medley of “Dark Horse” and “ET,” my first honest-to-God thought was, “Shit. He caught me”.

Perry’s signature hits still sound as fun, fresh and quirky as ever. At her creative peak, Perry’s lyrics were cheeky, her songs stickier than anyone else’s. Even as I write this, the morning after the VMAs, I caught myself repeatedly humming, “Kiss me, kk-kiss me.”

The highlight was easily “Teenage Dream,” the title track from Perry’s 2010 album and one of the most perfectly constructed pop songs of all time. After the show ended a few hours later, I heard one girl say in a quiet, reverential tone, “Being so close to Katy Perry singing ‘Teenage Dream’ was…surreal.” And it was.

The sheer power of Perry’s early discography on display last night was both her triumph and her downfall.

Perry has timeless hits in her catalog. No one can take that away from him. But mixing them into a medley of singles from “143,” Perry’s latest work sounds even more empty and derivative by comparison.

Perry’s Doechii collaboration “I’m His, He’s Mine,” out tomorrow, had the misfortune of being sandwiched between “ET” and “California Gurls.” There’s nothing wrong with the duet itself, but it had the effect of an interlude – a forced pause before returning to the stuff we all know and love. Perry and Doechii carefully executed their intimate, tabloid-style choreography, lacing their legs (a la Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion) and bringing their faces close enough to kiss, as if trying to be jarring to distract from the song itself.

Perry closed out the medley with “Lifetimes,” a dance-by-the-numbers song that would have been a disappointing closer even if it hadn’t been preceded by the one-two punch of “I Kissed a Girl” and “Fireworks.” I would never recommend watching fireworks with a plastic bag floating in the wind.

If Perry wanted to give an impressive performance and sing her heart out, then she certainly succeeded. But if she set out to prove that her new songs could stand alongside her beloved hits, I’m sorry to report that she failed.