Katy Perry once revealed the meaning behind her song “Firework” as well as the literature that inspired the lyrics.
In 2010 everything was completely different: Justin Bieber had just released his cult hit “Baby”, 127 hours had prevented us from travelling alone and Scott Pilgrim against the World had rewired our brains forever.
That same year, Katy Perry, now 39, persuaded Snoop Dogg to appear in the steamy music video for “California Gurls” and released her confidence-boosting dance-pop song “Firework.”
From their third album, Teenage dream“Firework” eventually reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and later sold over a million copies in the UK.
Perry and a songwriting team consisting of Stargate, Sandy Wilhelm and Ester Dean wrote “Firework” together. The song was performed live on The Late Show with David Letterman and remains an absolute favorite of the singer’s fans.
However, many KatyCats – the nickname of Perry fans – still don’t know that there is a deeper meaning behind this uplifting song.
When “Firework” came out, Perry admitted to Billboard that she wanted to be cremated and buried amid fireworks when she died.
“Basically, I have this very morbid idea that when I die, I want to be put in a fireworks display and shot across the sky over the Santa Barbara Ocean as my last hurrah,” she told the outlet in 2010.
Perry further explained her idea, admitting that she came to this decision after one of her friends showed her a paragraph from Jack Kerouac’s 1957 novel: On the way.
Firework was released in 2010. (Capitol Records/Katy Perry/YouTube)
She added: “(It’s) about people who are busy and sparkling and full of life and never say anything mundane.
“They shoot across the sky like fireworks and make people go ‘Ahhh.’ I guess making people go ‘Ahhh’ is kind of my motto.”
In March 2022, Perry clarified which paragraph On the way She spoke about it before claiming that her fans had been singing the lyrics wrong all these years,
On Instagram, the Californian posted a video of American Idol She corrected Luke Bryan’s lyrics of her song.
“It’s not ‘up, up, up’ and not ‘uh, uh, uh’,” she told the now 47-year-old singer.
“It’s ‘Awe, Awe, Awe’ – AWE. Yes, it’s ‘Awe, Awe, Awe’, everybody does it right.”
Following the clip, she shared a screenshot of the Kerouac quote she was referring to.
It said: “For me there are only the madmen, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, who long for everything at once, who never yawn or say banal things but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow sparklers that explode like spiders among the stars and in the middle you see the blue light burst and everyone says ‘Ohhhh!'”
In the caption of the post, Perry wrote: “For the official record. It’s awe, not cheers. It’s fireworks, not fireworksss.”
Katy Perry left American Idol earlier this year. (Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Perry served as a judge for seven seasons of American Idolwho joined in 2018 alongside Bryan and 74-year-old music legend Lionel Richie.
Last month, the ‘Dark Horse’ singer said goodbye to the talent show after telling Jimmy Kimmel: “I feel like I need to feel my own pulse.”
At the time of this writing, it has not been announced who will replace Perry on the jury.
Photo credit: Capitol Records/Katy Perry/YouTube
Topics: Celebrity, Katy Perry, Music
