Katy Perry Isn’t the 1st Pop Star to Release a Song Called ‘Woman’s World’
Katy Perry has announced that she’s putting out a new song called “Woman’s World.” She’s not the first pop star to use that provocative phrase in her music. Here’s a look at Perry’s interesting relationship with feminism.
Katy Perry’s new song will have the same name as a Cher track
Perry has written many songs about empowerment, the most famous being “Firework,” “Roar,” and “Part of Me.” None of those songs is about a specific group of people, the way that Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” is about the LGBTQ community or how Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman” is about women. However, it’s pretty easy to use the aforementioned Perry songs as female empowerment anthems, especially since the music videos for “Roar” and “Part of Me” have girl power storylines.
Perry seems to be taking this theme to its ultimate conclusion with her upcoming single. Variety reports that the “I Kissed a Girl” star is planning on releasing a song called “Woman’s World.” The track is probably a play on the saying “it’s a man’s world,” which was famously incorporated into the track “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” by James Brown. However, Cher released a song called “Woman’s World” in 2013, long before Perry used that title.
Should we care which song is better?
Cher is similar to Perry in many regards. The Goddess of Pop has repeatedly released empowering music that could be interpreted as feminist, but she rarely released tunes about female empowerment. “Woman’s World” is the exception to the rule. It’s one of many 21st-century Cher songs that uses her 1999 hit “Believe” as a template. “Woman’s World” isn’t as catchy as “Believe,” but it’s a lot of campy fun.
Which song will turn out to be better? We’ll all have our own opinions and that’s fine. However, it’s probably for the best that the fans don’t pit these two awesome women against each other.
How Katy Perry feels about female rivalries
During a 2020 interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Perry discussed why female singers sometimes get competitive. “Some of it comes from the audience,” she said. “They like to pit us against each other. We never see Niall Horan and Shawn Mendes fighting. Like we never see it. But we don’t see it, you don’t hear about that. You don’t read about like Ed Sheeran, you know, and Justin Bieber fighting. Right? You never hear that.
“But take any female performer, and you hear about it every single day,” she added. “You wanna read Twitter comments? Somebody wanna take my account and read my Twitter comments? No, you don’t! You don’t because it’s like, ‘Who’s better than who? Who’s skinnier than who? Who’s sold more No. 1s than who? Who’s doing better this year than who? Who made this much more than who?'”
The “California Gurls” singer discussed her feelings about competition. “It’s like, ‘Okay. Well, what about just liking the music?'” she said. “I am competitive, but I’m not competitive with women. No, no, no. I’m competitive in that I want to succeed.”
Regardless of what you think of Perry or Cher as artists, it’s clear that they have both empowered women through their music.
