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Katy Perry can’t help but celebrate her recent visit to New York City!
At the pop star’s sold-out Lifetimes show at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Monday, Aug. 11, she acknowledged that some people said she couldn’t perform for a sold-out crowd at the 19,500-seat arena.
As she greeted the crowd, she began, “They said, ‘No way! MSG, it couldn’t be done.’ And I was scared too,” she told the crowd before joking that she was scared about eating a “hot dog from the corner,” rather than performing a sold-out show.
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“New York you’re special and you know it,” Perry, 40, said. “But you know what, New York? You’re a beautiful hot mess.”
Perry then detailed the things she’s seen since arriving in New York City.
“I rolled into New York, and it smelled like New York City,” she explained. “And you know what I’m talking about. It was late at night. We got in from Philly, and there were drunk people vomiting on the same corner as people making out. That was New York City! And I loved it.”
The singer noted how she “all of a sudden” was able to “finally” understand what the city is all about. “You know why? Because New York City represents life — the highs, the lows, the in-betweens, everything that is messy, everything that is beautiful, and it sure as hell is not perfect ‘cause perfection is an illusion,” she said.
“I understood it because I resonate with it so much, because one of my favorite words is authenticity, and you know what New York is? Authentic!”
The One of the Boys singer’s brief speech follows months of dealing with online criticism.
Perry was previously scrutinized after she joined Gayle King, Lauren Sánchez, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen and Kerianne Flynn for the all-female Blue Origin flight in April.
Kevin Mazur/Getty
The mom of one later shared a vulnerable Instagram post, reassuring fans that she’s not letting the negativity affect her.
“When the ‘online’ world tries to make me a human Piñata, I take it with grace and send them love, cause I know so many people are hurting in so many ways and the internet is very much so a dumping ground for unhinged and unhealed,” the musician wrote in a comment on April 29, underneath a post about a tribute fan sites made for her in New York City’s Times Square.
She acknowledged that she continues to navigate her life with “an audience of many” watching. “Sometimes I fall but…I get back up and go on and continue to play the game and somehow through my battered and bruised adventure I keep looking to the light and in that light a new level UNLOCKS ♥️,” she concluded.
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Tickets to see Perry’s Lifetimes Tour can be purchased here.
