Katy Perry faces backlash amid new album criticism and Stevie Nicks’ viral internet rivalry comment

2 months ago 11

Despite marking her return to music and unveiling a brand new era over the last few months, 2024 has been marred with scathing headlines for Katy Perry.

First, in July, the pop star was raked over coals for working with producer and alleged abuser Dr. Luke on her single Woman’s World. Perry’s decision sparked backlash from fans and critics, given the allegations against Dr. Luke and the song’s strong feminist message.

Then, in September, her album 143 was dubbed “painfully dated and glaringly out of touch” by The Independent. Meanwhile, The Guardian gave the album two stars, and Rolling Stone labelled it “utterly hollow”.

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Now, overnight, Perry has unwittingly become the entry point to a new interview with Fleetwood Mac icon Stevie Nicks. The Firework singer became the subject of conversation when Rolling Stone US journalist Angie Martoccio asked Nicks if she had internet on her iPhone (she doesn’t).

Nicks — who following the chat performed her recent single The Lighthouse on Saturday Night Live — then detailed a conversation she had with Katy Perry a decade ago about internet trolls.

“Katy Perry was talking to me about the internet armies of all the girl singers, and how cruel and rancid they were,” Nicks told Rolling Stone US.

“I said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t know because I’m not on the internet’. She said, ‘So, who are your rivals?’ I just looked at her. It was my steely look. I said, ‘Katy, I don’t have rivals. I have friends. All the other women singers that I know are friends. Nobody’s competing. Get off the internet and you won’t have rivals either’.”

While the wide-ranging chat covered the time her former partner Don Henley announced her abortion publicly, why she didn’t vote until age 70, and her support of Vice President Kamala Harris, among many other topics, it’s the perceived dig at Katy Perry that’s filling social media timelines.

While Nicks is possibly reacting to the infamous 2013 feud between Taylor Swift and Katy Perry, and highlighting a much larger issue around the role social media plays in the psychological safety of celebrities, it’s not the first time Stevie Nicks has mentioned the same conversation with Katy Perry.

In a 2022 interview with The New Yorker, Nicks said: “People get knocked down because of their fame, and the internet, and all the things that I hate. You keep yourself above that, hopefully.

“I always think of Katy Perry and I having this long talk at the Corinthia Hotel, in London, once, and she said to me — this is probably 10 years ago — she said, ‘So, Stevie, who are your rivals?’ And I said, ‘I don’t have rivals.’ And her big blue eyes got bigger and bluer.”

Last month, Katy Perry announced her return to Australia for The Lifetimes Tour in June 2025.

The arena tour marks her first local visit in six years outside of her rousing, yet divisive, performance at the AFL Grand Final earlier this month.

KATY PERRY 2025 THE LIFETIMES TOUR — AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES