PHOENIX — Pop star Katy Perry, a former contemporary Christian artist, promoted experimenting with lesbianism during the halftime show during Super Bowl XLIX, singing her 2008 hit song “I Kissed a Girl” to the thousands gathered at the University of Phoenix stadium and the millions watching on television.
“I kissed a girl and I liked it, the taste of her cherry chapstick,” she sang out, rubbing her bottom against the leg of rocker Lenny Kravitz, who joined her on the song. “I kissed a girl just to try it/I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it/It felt so wrong, it felt so right/Don’t mean I’m in love tonight/I kissed a girl and I liked it.”
Perry performed several other songs during the show, including “Roar,” “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream” and “Fireworks.” During “Roar,” the pop star rode a giant mechanical lion, and during “California Girls” and “Teenage Dream” she was accompanied by dancers dressed in shark costumes.
“Let’s go all the way tonight/No regrets, just love,” she sang during “Teenage Dream.” “[I’ll] let you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans/Be your teenage dream tonight.”
As previously reported, Perry, an evangelical minister’s daughter, was raised in California, and was brought up to avoid secular music and television programs. She began singing as a Contemporary Christian artist at age 15, and released her first national album in 2001.
In an interview with CCM (Contemporary Christian Music Magazine), she stated that one of her musical influences was Keith Green, who was known to be bold in his lyrical witness for Christ.
However, in 2007, Perry signed with with the secular label Capitol Records and released her first single, “I Kissed a Girl,” which rose to the number one position on the secular pop charts. The popularity of Perry’s single brought continued national attention until she became one of the most well-known pop artists in the secular music industry.
Perry’s parents, Keith and Mary Hudson, who attend Jentezen Franklin’s Free Chapel in Orange County, Calif., state that they do not agree with all of the choices that their daughter has made in her music career.
In a book proposal by Perry’s mother, which was shopped in 2011, Mary Hudson reportedly outlined a number of concerns to set the record straight about her feelings.
“I recognized the psalmist gift in her performance. Yet she sang out, ‘I kissed a girl, and I liked it,’ while thousands joined her,” she wrote. “One part of my heart soared … [but] the other part broke for the thousands of hungry souls being fed something that didn’t nourish their spirit, but fed their flesh.”
Perry’s father, Keith, who once spoke against judging his daughter, made an apparent about-face in 2013, reportedly referring to Perry as a “devil child.”
“[People] ask: How I can preach if I produce a girl who sang about kissing another girl?” he said during a speaking engagement in Santa Fe, Calif.
“I was at a concert of Katy’s where there were 20,000. I’m watching this generation and they were going at it. It almost looked like church,” Hudson continued. “I stood there and wept and kept on weeping and weeping. They’re loving and worshiping the wrong thing.”
According to reports, last night’s Super Bowl generated record ratings, up 4 percent from last year, with over 100 million people estimated as viewing the game, including the halftime show featuring Perry. She was also joined on stage by rapper Missy Elliott.
Secular outlets praised Perry’s performance, stating that she “blew away” the halftime show.