Katy Perry Gave Dallas Fans Everything They Wanted at AAC

It’s a weird time to be Katy Perry.

The pop singer, who played the American Airlines Center on Thursday, May 22, has become the latest enemy of the internet as of late and in fairness, a lot of the hate is warranted. Last year’s album 143 was intended to be her comeback, a return to the imperial era she enjoyed with the blockbuster Teenage Dream in the early 2010s. But in the eyes of fans and haters alike, 143 was DOA no-thanks to the involvement of producer and alleged sexual predator Dr. Luke. Worse still, this controversial collaborator soured the girl power messaging of the lead single "Woman’s World."

Perry made even more waves last month when she took part in a Jeff Bezos-backed space flight that was viewed by many as wasteful and out-of-touch. She earned particular ire from the public for using some of her precious ten minutes above the Earth to mug for the camera and plug her tour.

All of this is understandably very off-putting, but the internet has a nasty habit of letting legitimate criticism snowball into something more feral. The latest crime that Perry is on trial for, and the worst of them all in the eyes of social media snarkers, is that of being cringe. The Lifetimes Tour has provided the wealth of those allegations.

According to thousands of TikTok compilations and YouTube videos with AI-generated thumbnails of Perry sobbing in rage, the Lifetimes Tour is cheap and shoddily thrown together. There are accusations that Perry plagiarized everyone from Taylor Swift (who apparently invented career-spanning greatest hits tours) to Pink (who apparently invented aerial stunts). She’s been called a bad singer, awkward dancer and overall lazy performer. There are even conspiracy theories that parts of her show were cut and replaced at the last minute.

As much as we understand and even agree with many of Perry's criticisms, it’s in our nature to be skeptical of an internet pile-on and to try to find out the full story before jumping to conclusions. Perry's show opener is a classic example of the importance of such discretion.

Today, Rebecca Black is an indie-pop artist on the rise, making cool-girl club anthems and sharing fans with the likes of Charli XCX. In 2011, however, she made her auspicious debut at the age of 13 with the song “Friday.” The vanity single made on a lark achieved internet notoriety overnight, with millions mocking and threatening the middle schooler for what was dubbed the worst song of all time.

Perry was an early sympathizer of Black’s, inviting her to star in the “Last Friday Night” music video, and Black is now returning the favor with an electrifying opening set with songs like “TRUST” and “Sugar Water Cyanide” that are destined to be hits (if we live in a fair world, that is).

Black’s energy, both as a performer and an internet hate train survivor, set a flawless tone for the so-called worst tour ever that followed.

The first step in understanding Perry’s show is to find out who it’s for. Who are the “Katy Cats” in 2025? The answer became clear as soon as we walked in the door: children. Like, literal children under the age of 12. More than one kid in our section told us that this was our first show, and one girl who looked no older than nine handed us a friendship bracelet as we headed up to our seats.

This was a little surprising to us at first. After all, Perry’s commercial peak was in the early 2010s, before many of these kids were born. It’s not shocking, however, that her cotton candy aesthetic and uplifting songs have continued to resonate with little girls across generations.

(That’s an easier pill for us to swallow than the equally valid theory that their moms are all the same age as us, so that’s what we’re going with.)
This also solves the mystery of why the cringe police were so put off by the show. It’s not for them, and it's not trying to be. Perry knows who her audience is and embraces them, with every element seeming to be geared toward dazzling young viewers.

The concert takes on the framing device of a video game, with Perry as the hero fighting against a villainous computer to free some trapped butterflies. The theming is thoughtful and consistent from the start, with Perry impressively using all the means of spectacle at her disposal—lasers, pyrotechnics, interactive set pieces—to tell her story.

(And yes, the show does beat the cheap allegations as well.)

The aerial portions of her show were probably the most impressive. The “NIRVANA” choreography simulated zero-gravity movement (as her video game character was meant to be in space) and allowed her to leap over her backup dancers and up to balconies to greet her fans.

The section of the show that got the most flack on social media was “ET,” where she used a lightsaber-esque sword to fight her video game final boss, whose face was on the LED screens behind her and whose arms extended out towards Perry. According to conspiracy theorists, this section of the show was originally meant to be about her controversial trip to space, complete with her blue spacesuit as a costume, but was scrapped after the backlash and hastily replaced with the lightsaber bit.

This seems highly unlikely to us. Not only does the sequence fit perfectly within the context of the show’s story as is, Perry did not shy away from talking about going to space. She told a story about running to hug her daughter after returning to Earth and laughing after the toddler asked her, “So what are we going to do today?”

“A mother’s job is never finished no matter where she goes,” Perry quipped.

She also invited an eight-year-old fan onstage to perform “The One That Got Away With Her” and affirmed to her that girls can be whatever they want to be. Even astronauts.

For better or for worse, she’s doubling down on the space thing.

As for the remaining charges of Perry being an awkward performer, she plays into that. There are entire sections where she’s dancing poorly on purpose for laughs or making fun of how she sang “Thinking of You” in 2008. She’s always been known for her sense of humor, after all. We don’t expect much gravitas from the performer who revolutionized the whipped cream bra.

That’s the other thing about the backlash that we’re still confused by – the fact that she’s always been like this. Even at her peak, she was polarizing. Even if you liked her songs, you might’ve been put off by her tacky, gross-out humor. She was largely perceived the same way her current tour is today: wildly entertaining, yet weird and unserious.

Yet there's an undeniable nostalgia for Perry's peak. This attitude almost certainly inspired Perry to dye her hair back to jet black in 2021 after spending several years (and two album cycles) as a blonde. In a behind-the-scenes video, Perry’s hairdresser can be heard saying, “I think it’s time to give them everything they want.”

That’s what Perry’s been doing ever since: trying to give fans everything they want. Her public wanted to relive the Teenage Dream era, and that’s what they’re getting. Warts and all.

So audiences in Dallas were treated to stone-cold classics like “California Gurls” and “Hot N Cold” and it was impossible not to sing and dance along. We laughed as she pulled a piece of cotton candy off of her costume to give to a fan, cried with her during the rarely-played ballad "Pearl" and questioned her choice to dedicate her breakout single, “I Kissed a Girl,” to the gay community, which is famously kind of divided on that song.

In other words, it was the quintessential Katy Perry experience.

After completing a literal victory lap around her infinity-shaped runway towards the end of her set, Perry addressed the backlash one more time before showering the room in confetti and leaving us to shake off the sugar rush on the drive home.

“They can say what they want about me,” Perry declared. “I know who I am.”

That’s one thing we can all agree on.