Katy Perry might have gotten dumped by her boyfriend, but the guy is probably having a more difficult time dealing with the aftermath of the breakup since her song about him became the buzz of the Internet.
“Ur So Gay,” in which she pokes fun at her skinny-jean-wearing, guyliner-sporting emo ex, has gotten the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter plenty of attention since it was released last fall. The caustic song contains plenty of zingers, with the refrain, “Ur so gay, and you don’t even like boys.”
“‘Ur So Gay’ was mainly written for a couple of different reasons — mainly because I got dumped, and it was a nice outlet, a way to be like, ‘OK, you wanna play?”’ Perry told The Associated Press after one of her performances at the South by Southwest music festival Friday.
“It also takes a shot at the whole indie scene: The guys who are using the eyeliner, the straight irons, and my ex-boyfriends who would borrow my jeans and never give them back!”
And though it could come across as a politically incorrect taunt, Perry says most everyone understands the humor behind it.
“The reaction is always somewhat positive, and everybody gets the joke,” Perry said, laughing. “Everyone knows what it’s about and all my gay friends know what it’s about too.”
Though she’s garnering plenty of attention these days with her “Ur So Gay” EP, Perry has been working toward her music career about five years, and was signed to two major labels before landing at Capitol Records, which plans to release her CD in June.
“I’ve been in these situations before, with a major label ... at each time we’d gear up to do something and it would never happen,” said Perry.
Still, she didn’t let those disappointments dissuade her: “Every door that shut, a bigger door opened and it was always a reason.”
Perry, a Santa Barbara native who moved to Los Angeles seven years ago, has also been a face on the city’s party scene, but she says she’s no longer interested in hitting the bars and staying on the social circuit.
“Now it’s time to take it to the next level,” she said. “I can’t be hungover anymore, I have to be focused. There are too many girls who are (messing) up and they are creating a nice little pathway for those people who really want to own it like myself.”