Katy Perry Drops New Music Tease In Bikini And Robotic Chaps, And Fans Have A Lot Of Thoughts About Her Post-Idol Move (2024)

Katy Perry’s spent the last few years performing as part of the Vegas circuit between 2021 and 2023 and hitting the TV schedule each week as a mainstay on American Idol. Her last new album, Smile, in fact, came out way back in 2020 (and to middling ratings). It’s been time for a new music comeback from the singer for a while, and she pulled out all the stops with robot-looking chaps and a white, underboob-baring bikini for her new song “Woman’s World.”

Some big names like Zoe Saldaña and Jessica Simpson were all in on the fire emojis when she dropped the video on Instagram and TikTok ahead of the song’s official release on July 11. Some fans even called the song a “bop.” You can take a look at the sneak peek of “Woman’s World,” below.

However, elsewhere on social media, people were less kind about what Ms. Perry has coming up. In fact on X (Twitter) some of the fans were pretty brutal, writing comments in one viral thread that did not pull any punches. (Editor note: Punctuation has been added to these comments for clarity)

• @yungrexhar I was rooting for Katy but these lyrics are so dated it’s giving 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign material. It’s over.
• @slade_tex: It's giving knock off stupid love
• @pickledspork She saw the first half of Barbie and left to call Dr. Luke immediately for this one.
• @bonjourladiess Listen in an ironic way and it actually bops!

Then again, some of them did seem jazzed, writing about the “queen’s comeback” and saying Katy Perry is refreshing in an era where we’ve gotten “so tired of Taylor Swift” and have heard nothing but relationship-oriented pop songs for 18 months. So, we’ll have to wait and see. This level of excitement can also be seen on varying posts:

What’s definitely true is that the music will be dropping just a few short weeks after Katy Perry said goodbye to her American Idol gig. Her exit from Idol six years after joining in 2018 was apparently a good opportunity to push out new music and to set up a comeback in the world of pop music. Co-judges like Lional Ritchie may already miss her, but she has her next career steps planned out. While “Woman’s World” is only one brief tease of what is to come, it’s clear Ms. Perry is making music a priority again coming up.

Now, we just need to find out what American Idol has planned for her replacement--though Perry herself has pitched Jelly Roll.

Personally, I think she’s always been pretty literal when it comes to her song lyrics, and this snippet doesn’t really give me a lot in terms of what to expect from Perry’s new album as a whole. However, there’s one thing for certain: She’s always been able to make an out-of-context bikini look cool.