Divorce what? Hibernation served Katy Perry right. She was nowhere near the divorce-dealing, depressed ex-wife tabloids painted of the pop star who worried too much over “The One That Got Away” a.k.a Russell Brand.
In her 9th and 10th song, though, during her Jan. 22 Manila concert and the last of her “California Dreams Tour” at Mall of Asia Concert Grounds, Katy was most vulnerable belting her coarse but hands-down best vocals of the night in ballads “Not Like The Movies” and “The One That Got Away.” Fans saw Katy in near tears while closing the latter.
Katy, who avoided the spotlight since the holiday split, returned to Manila late Sunday. Armed with more hits this time compared to her 2009 Philippine show, Katy did not fire blanks and was on target hitting most of her screaming fanatics, mostly girls, bully’s eye.
While she still belongs to the eye-candy, pop-manicured lot most female artists are patterned after, she has enough hits to weave magic through two hours of money’s worth tickets. Imploring a video story layout that allowed her to change, Katy channeled her inner Barbie sucked in a fantasy world where Wonka’s candies supplied backdrop to her own Pepperland.
More than 25,000 fans (as Katy herself tallied via a pre-concert tweet) whose patience was tried (because Katy showed up past 10 p.m. when tickets said 8), came hard-wired for the outing singing to the hits that cemented the singer’s Billboard conquests. She started the concert with banner song “Teenage Dream” before #ManilaDream turned #ManilaNightmare since girls started falling asleep while waiting for the pop tart as it was way past bedtime. These very same little girls who slept the waiting off were wild awake jumping up and down during “Firework,” “California Girls” “Waking Up In Vegas” and the neatly-arranged, jazzed-up “I Kissed A Girl.”
Before “I Kissed A Girl,” Katy searched for a “boyfriend in Manila” and found a shirtless male model amongst the crowd whom she kissed as her way of realizing his dream. “I bet you’ve never kissed a pop star,” she said. The boy turned out to be Ivan Dorschner, a former housemate in PBB.
Critics have placed Perry’s talent and longevity somewhere between Kesha’s and Britney Spears’ or same level with gal pal Rihanna’s somewhere near Lady Gaga’s and farthest from current toast Adele’s. But when she sings less upbeat songs like “Not Like The Movies” or “Thinking Of You” (which was missing from the repertoire), fans find themselves peeling the blue wig and seeing through traffic-stopping outfits.
What’s left is an artist whose lyrics, admit or not, have camped their words, meanings, beats and catch on pop consciousness. After all, who doesn’t want to live, relive “Teenage Dream” and “never look back” or recall how “Hot ‘N’ Cold” gave a theme to indecisiveness of significant others.
Katy’s brand (no pun intended) of bedazzled pop-rock also brought all the set and costume stops. During “Hot N Cold,” she changed outfits at least 10 times. Song after song, Perry made sure it’s “Burlesque” meets “Moulin Rouge” meets “Enchanted,” even when the band drowned her vocals in some numbers.
If tab reports claiming a rattled Katy is worried over a memoir of sorts that her ex-hubby is reportedly about to come up with, the candy- coated outfits provided the singer enough armor to hide her personal struggles.