Three months shy of the big 4-0 and Teenage Dream singer Katy Perry's cringy comeback is fast becoming a mid-life nightmare.
The prolific hitmaker has stalled with a tacky, flesh-flashing video and dismal single sales.
Now in promotional overdrive, she's hawking her new album titled '143', which she says is a reference to her 'symbolic angel number' but on current form it's more likely an optimistic chart placement.
What is clear is that after a four-year hiatus from releasing music, the ageing starlet's renewed bid for relevance has hit a bum note.
Signs were ominous in June when she attended Balenciaga's latest couture showing in Paris bare-chested in an unzipped fur jacket and not much else.
Three months shy of the big 4-0 and Teenage Dream singer Katy Perry 's cringy comeback is becoming a mid-life nightmare.
Signs were ominous in June when she attended Balenciaga 's latest couture showing in Paris bare-chested in an unzipped fur jacket and not much else.
Po-faced Perry looked more like a Bianca Censori wannabe than a credible, global pop sensation – it was a taster of what was to come.
Then her 'Woman's World' single dropped… off a cliff, limping into the Billboard charts at No.63.
Masquerading as a feminist, 'girl-power' anthem, the synthpop shocker has come under fire for alleged-rapist Dr Luke's co-production credit, as well as the widely derided accompanying music video that's all about the male gaze.
Dated and desperate, it's a crass mess of phallic gas pumps, vibrators and under boob – with Perry using urinals and warbling risibly bad lyrics such as: 'She's a flower, she's a thorn, superhuman, number one.'
Amid the backlash, Perry has tried to explain away the video's tacky thirst for attention as some sort of satire – but no one is fooled.
And as she mom dances her way through this Gaga-lite B side, the joke is very much on her.
Bikini clad and rictus grinned, she's been getting down with the kids on a trawl of the big Ibiza clubs, hosting 'listening parties' for the new album in Paris and London, and even buying drinks for packed-out bars while bragging 'I'm rich' to the cameras.
It all reeks of desperation – and is certainly a far cry from years past.
Never the strongest singer or dancer, the Santa Barbara native has nonetheless enjoyed her moment in the California sun.
Now worth an estimated $350 million, she is one of the world's wealthiest musicians thanks to her particular brand of tongue-in-cheek high camp.
Her 2008 debut 'I Kissed a Girl' has surpassed 850 million streams on Spotify. In 2010, Perry became the second artist ever (after Michael Jackson) to have five No.1s from one album (Teenage Dream), while her 2015 Super Bowl halftime show was, until recently, the most watched in history.
She also seems to have a happy family life with actor Orlando Bloom and their young daughter – but clearly, at 39, it's not enough for a diva addicted to the cheap oxygen of fame and validation.
She also seems to have a happy family life with her actor husband Orlando Bloom and their young daughter – but clearly, at 39, it's not enough for a diva addicted to the cheap oxygen of fame and validation.
It's a delusion that saw her recently endorse Democratic nominee Kamala Harris by – what else? – sharing an edited video of the Vice President set to 'Woman's World'.
And it's this kind of entitlement that assumes people will lap up her tired trash, keeping her coffers full regardless of the quality.
But the public's patience for tacky, banal pop dressed up as faux-feminism is waning.
Canny collaborations with the likes of Kanye West (pre-antisemitism) seem a lifetime ago, while that certain chutzpah that carried her catchy hits to triumph may no longer be enough.
Especially as the material gets weaker and fans grow up.
Unlike successful contemporaries such as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, Perry appears to have failed to artistically evolve.
And it's left the 39-year-old, who recently quit her American Idol judging gig – that big payday staple for many a fading popstar – very exposed.
For all the beach body efforts and money thrown at this increasingly humiliating campaign, Perry's ill-judged comeback is proving to be more of a damp squib than a firework.
