She first gained recognition with the release of her first mainstream album, One of the Boys in 2008, which spawned three Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"I Kissed A Girl", "Hot n Cold" and "Waking Up In Vegas". Perry supported the album with her Hello Katy Tour. In 2010, Perry released her third studio album, Teenage Dream (2010), which topped the Billboard 200 chart, and spawned five number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T." and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)". Teenage Dream became the first and so far only album (after Michael Jackson's Bad)—to do so, and Perry became the first female in history to achieve this milestone. She embarked on the California Dreams Tour, which grossed nearly $60 million worldwide.[2] Perry re-released the album under the name of Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection on March 26, 2012, and the re-release has already spawned the number-one single "Part of Me" and top two single "Wide Awake".
Perry is the only artist to spend over 52 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, and has since extended this to 69 weeks.[3] As of 2012, Perry has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year (Teenage Dream) and Record of the Year ("Firework"). She was named 2011's "Artist of the Year" by MTV.[4] She has sold 37.6 million digital tracks in the United States and 11 million albums worldwide,[5] and sold over 74.6 million digital tracks worldwide.[6] Perry was a guest judge on the seventh series of The X Factor UK and the ninth season of American Idol. She has released fragrances "Purr" and "Meow". She ventured into film, voicing Smurfette in the 2011 film The Smurfs and being spotlighted in the 3D biopic-concert film Katy Perry: Part of Me. Perry was married to British comedian Russell Brand from 2010 to 2012. In 2012, Perry was ranked at number fourteenth on Billboard's list of top moneymakers of 2011, grossing more than $11 million.
Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Santa Barbara, California[8] to Keith, a West Coast scenester in the 1960s,[9] and Mary Hudson (née Perry), an evangelist who grew up in Southern California, attended Berkeley, and had a "tempestuous" first marriage in Zimbabwe.[9] Perry has Portuguese, German, Irish, and English ancestry.[10][11][12] She is the second child of two pastors.[13] She has an older sister named Angela Hudson and a younger brother named David Hudson.[14] Perry's uncle was director Frank Perry (who was her mother's half-brother).[9]
Perry was incorporated into her parents' ministry[13] and sang in their church between the ages of 9 and 17.[15] She grew up listening to gospel music,[16] was not allowed to listen to what her mother called "secular music",[15][17] and attended Christian schools and camps.[13] As a child, Perry learned how to dance in a recreation building in Santa Barbara. She was taught by seasoned dancers and began with swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug.[18] She took her GED after her first year at Dos Pueblos High School and decided to leave school in the pursuit of a career in music.[19] Perry initially started singing "because [she] was at that point in [her] childhood where [she] was copycatting [her] sister and everything she [would do]."[19] Her sister practiced with cassette tapes, while Perry took the tapes herself when her sister was not around. She rehearsed the songs and performed them in front of her parents, who suggested she take vocal coaching. She grabbed the opportunity and began taking lessons at the age of nine and continued until she was sixteen.
