When Katy Perry played Pontiac's Clutch Cargo's in March 2009, she was still an emerging star on the rise.
Four No. 1 singles and one high-profile marriage later, Perry is a full-blown superstar, and she headlines The Palace of Auburn Hills on Tuesday, part of her first-ever arena jaunt.
Perry's 2010 album "Teenage Dream," which followed her 2008 set "One of the Boys," was the opposite of a sophomore slump, solidifying her as one of pop's reigning hitmakers. First single "California Gurls" rocketed to No. 1, and subsequent singles "Teenage Dream," "Firework" and "E.T." all followed. Her latest single, "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)," is currently climbing the charts, and if it hits No. 1, Perry will be only the second artist in history to notch five No. 1 hits off one album. (Michael Jackson is the only one to do it, with "Bad.")
"Teenage Dream" was nominated for Album of the Year at this year's Grammy Awards, a category it lost to Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs." "The Suburbs" might have been more thematically weighty, but did it come coated in cotton candy scent? Didn't think so.
There's a wink-wink, nudge-nudge to Perry, like she understands the joke and is comfortable enough in her own skin to laugh at herself. Her sense of humor is oftentimes dorky — her alter ego Kathy Beth Terry probably doesn't need her own Twitter account — but at least she's trying. Perry, 26, married comedian Russell Brand in October, but settling down has done nothing to dissuade her pinup status. She still prances around in her glossy videos, mixing her sexuality with a sweetness that makes her decidedly PG-13. And for millions of boys and girls, she's still their teenage dream.