"I Kissed A Girl" is a song performed by American recording artist Katy Perry for her debut album One of the Boys (2008). It was released as the album's first single on June 16, 2008 through Capitol Records. It was written by Perry, Lukasz Gottwald, Max Martin and Cathy Dennis, with production helmed by Gottwald under his production name Dr. Luke. Perry says the song is "about the magical beauty of a woman".^[2] The song is a electro-rock number that runs through a throbbing beat and contains influences of New Wave.

"I Kissed a Girl" received mixed reception for music critics upon reviewing the parent album, praising its sound and structure while highly criticizing its lyrical content. The song drew controversy for its irreverent lyrics and was notably criticized by numerous critics and singers. The song experienced commercial success domestically as well as internationally. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for seven consecutive weeks, becoming the 1000th chart-topper of the Rock Era.^[3] The single has sold over 4,155,000 digital copies in the US alone. "I Kissed a Girl" is one of six Perry songs to top 4 million paid downloads in the US, the others being "Hot n Cold", "California Gurls", "Firework", "E.T." and "Teenage Dream".^[4] It has reached the summit of the charts in nearly twenty countries, including Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom while peaking within the top five in other European countries like Belgium, Finland and France. The song was one of the best selling singles worldwide, selling 8 million copies, became the 21st song with the most paid downloads in history.

The accompanying music video for the song was released on May 16, 2008. The video, directed by Kinga Burza, features Perry in a setting inspired by burlesque and Moulin Rouge styles. It features an appearance from then-unknown American electropop singer Kesha. The song is recognized as the 10th best selling single in the 21st century.^[5] "I Kissed a Girl" was performed and a nominee at the 51st Grammy Awards (Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance). It was also nominated for Favorite Song at the 2009 Kids' Choice Awards.

Background[link]

According to Perry, I Kissed a Girl "was born as an idea in her head". She says: "The chorus actually popped into my head when I woke up. It was one of those moments where you hear artists talking about songs they get in dreams or in the middle of the night. I was like 'wow, what an interesting subject matter to kind of pop into the head' and I didn't do anything with it for about a year-and-a-half. Then all of a sudden at the very, very end of making my album, I literally had two days left in the recording studio with my producer, Dr Luke. We just said, 'we're gonna finish it - it's so catchy because it won't get out of our heads.'"^[6]

We brought it to the record label and they didn't even wanna put it on the record and we were like 'You're crazy, you need to put this on the record, you need to put it out as the first single". Capitol A&R, Chris Anokute, told HitQuarters that the song and its controversial theme met with strong resistance at the label, "People said, 'This is never going to get played on the radio. How do we sell this? How’s this going to be played in the Bible belt?'"^[7]

Anokute said that they needed the support of one of the label's radio promoters to convince people to believe in the record otherwise Perry would have likely been dropped again. Capitol's SVP of Promotions Dennis Reese saw the vision and helped push the single on national radio. The first station to pick it up and take a chance was 107.5 The River in Nashville. After playing it for three days they were inundated with enthusiastic calls.^[7]

Music and lyrics[link]

	"I Kissed a Girl" noicon A 18 second audio sample of Perry singing the chorus of "I Kissed a Girl".
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

"I Kissed a Girl" is a pop-rock and electropop song with a length of three minutes. The song contains influences of New Wave^[8] and runs through a throbbing beat^[9] and an organic instrumental thump, according to About.com's Bill Lamb.^[10] The track features instrumentation provided by drums, guitars and bass, courtesy of Dr. Luke.^[10][11] The song was produced by Dr. Luke, which was coordinated by Gary 'G' Silver and aided by American producer and songwriter Benny Blanco.^[11] There were a number of personnel who engineered the track for the album, including Emily Wright, Sam Holland, Nick Banns, Aniela Gottwald, Mike Caffrey and Tina Kennedy.^[11] Kitty Purty assisted in the engineering while Tim Roberts assisted in the engineering for mix, which was done by John Hanes.^[11] The song was mixed by Serban Ghenea at his studio, MixStar Studios, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.^[11] Cathy Dennis was on background vocals while Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco were featured on drums and programming.^[11] Steven Wolf provided the live drums on the song while Mike Caffrey recorded and produced the drums at Monster Island in New York City.^[11]

Perry, in an interview for The New Gay, describes the song to be about girls. She defends the lyrics, saying that "When we're young, we're very touchy-feeley. We have slumber party sing-a-longs, we make up dance routines in our pajamas. We’re a lot more intimate in a friendship than guys can be. It’s not perverse but just sweet,..."^[12] The song was partially inspired by Scarlett Johansson.^[13][14] Perry also stated that the lyrics were inspired by her friendship with a girl as a teenager, commenting that "I did kiss her. I was totally obsessed with her. She was beautiful – porcelain skin, perfect lips –"^[15]

Critical reception[link]

"I Kissed a Girl" has generally polarized music critics. Blogcritics Magazine called it "an instantly catchy number",^[18] and About.com said, "fueled by an instrumental wallop provided courtesy of producer Dr. Luke, 'I Kissed a Girl' is the perfect breakthrough".^[19] However, Rolling Stone magazine, while giving her album 2/5 stars, described the song as a "New Wave-y club single", saying the supposedly rebellious "attention-grabbing" lyrics are "a vanilla recounting of her chick-on-chick exploits" and that this "acting out" is "just to get a dude's attention".^[20] This song was number 20 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2008.^[21] Allmusic praises "the stomping Gary Glitter beat" before criticizing the producers for turning it "into a leaden stumble and burying Perry's voice underneath Pro Tools overdubs so it all winds up as a faceless wash of sound designed to be placed in TV shows, movie trailers, and malls".^[22]

Sal Cinquemani of Slant magazine wrote, Perry's "lead single 'I Kissed a Girl' features a throbbing beat and an infectious, bi-curious hook, but its self-satisfied, in-your-face posturing rings phony in comparison to the expertly constructed ambiguities of 'Justify My Love' or practically anything in the first decade of Ani DiFranco's catalog; it's like a tween version of DiFranco's tortured bisexual confession 'Light of Some Kind'".^[23] Hiponline.com wrote that the song is "not nearly as interesting or exciting as you’d expect. It’s not even half as good as Jill Sobule’s song 'I Kissed a Girl'".^[24] Glitterati Gossip agrees Sobule's song "was ten times better, because there was actual emotional content to her lyrics".^[25]

Controversy[link]

Perry performing “I Kissed a Girl” at her Hello Katy Tour in 2008

AllMusic concluded "the problem is not with Katy's gender-bending, it's that her heart isn't in it; she's just using it to get her places, so she sinks to crass, craven depths".^[22] Slant Magazine agrees, saying the song "isn't problematic because it promotes homosexuality, but because its appropriation of the gay lifestyle exists for the sole purpose of garnering attention — both from Perry's boyfriend and her audience".^[23]

Adam Holz of PluggedinOnline, a division of Focus on the Family, wrote an article entitled "A Tale of Two Katys"^[26] about the singer's image transformation from a Contemporary Christian music artist to one of the "girls gone wild". He criticizes the song for being the latest, "high-profile message to young women and men that our sexuality is a malleable commodity that can be reshaped at will". Holz also argues that Perry's message carries with it "no need to worry about who might get used or objectified in the process", causing Perry to live "down to a damaging, demeaning stereotype".

In some areas of the world, the song's lyrics have kept it from reaching the Top 40 or even being released at all. The song is banned in Singapore. Though the Toronto Star describes it as "a lesbian-friendly tune",^[27] whether homophobia fuels negative reactions to the song or the song itself appears to divide critics. Slant and other critics^[28][29] suggest that Perry may be homophobic, especially given her single "Ur So Gay", which makes "I Kissed a Girl" seem like "a classic example of the 'Guys kissing is gross, girls kissing is hot' line of thought," which promotes hypersexualization of queer women and demonization of queer men.^[30] MomLogic.com writer Vuv-A-Licious agrees, asking "What's the big deal? ...When this tune is playing and my son and daughter are dancing, I will be trying to dance along, or trying to acknowledge that they may one day dance to the beat of a different drummer than me".^[31]

Fan being kissed by Katy Perry previously performing the song at Rock in Rio.

In an August 2008 interview with British national newspaper Daily Mail, Perry's mother, Mary Hudson, an evangelical Christian preacher, was reported as saying that she disliked the song, stating: "It clearly promotes homosexuality and its message is shameful and disgusting..."^[32] However, Perry took to her official blog stating that her mother's supposed comments were completely fabricated, while also saying her parents love and support her and attend many of her shows.

Regarding the question of her own sexuality that the song has raised, Perry told Santa Barbara magazine "I like to kiss boys, but there is no doubt in my mind if Angelina Jolie or Gisele Bündchen came a callin', who wouldn't pucker up?"^[33] In an interview on the blog The New Gay, Perry admitted she has never actually kissed a girl and is heterosexual. She is quoted as saying "Yeah, it’s fantasy, it’s a song about curiosity."^[34] However, in a separate interview, Perry stated that she has kissed a girl.^[35][36]

During December 2008, openly bisexual singer Amanda Palmer performed a skit at several concerts where a Perry look-alike made her way to the stage and began singing "I Kissed A Girl", only to end up being groped, kissed, and fondled by Palmer and comedian Margaret Cho. The skit ended with the two forcing a bound and gagged Perry into a faux wedding with Palmer.^[37] On her blog, Palmer mentioned that the piece was meant as a protest against Proposition 8, and claimed to wonder if Perry was exploiting homosexuality to sell her music.^[38]

In February 2009, Márcio Barros, a substitute English language teacher in a Distrito Federal, Brazil public school was fired after he used the song in a class activity among students aged 12 to 14. He was accused of promoting "homosexualism" and alcoholic beverages usage through the lyrics of the song. The Secretary of Education supported the decision of the head of the school.^[39]

Chart performance[link]

"I Kissed a Girl" debuted at number 76 at Billboard Hot 100. After a couple of weeks, the single hit the top 5, due to the rising digital downloads and increasing radio airplay. It continued to rise the next week, reaching #2 just behind her labelmate, Coldplay. The following week, the song reached the summit of the US chart, becoming the 1000th #1 song of the rock era (the 961st #1 on the Billboard Hot 100).^[40] In addition the song also gave the Capitol label two consecutive Hot 100 #1's, as the week's prior #1 was fellow Capitol artist Coldplay's "Viva la Vida", making it the first time since 1976 Capitol has had two back to back chart toppers on the Hot 100.^[41] The single also crossed over to Billboard's sister publication R&R's Rhythmic chart in its July 5 issue, where not only did she have the highest debut ever for a non-rhythmic track, entering at number 26 with 1,065 spins, she also had the highest debut from a new artist in over five years. The bow is the best for a debut track at Rhythmic since Beyoncé entered at No. 21 with "Crazy In Love" in 2003.^[42][43] It also became the first song since Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" to simultaneously appear on the Mainstream Top 40, Rhythmic, Adult Top 40 and Alternative charts.^[44] On July 26, 2008, the track also made history by reaching the number one spot on Billboard's Hot Dance Airplay chart by three weeks, a first for a solo act with a debut single. The song topped the Hot 100 for seven weeks in a row before finally being dethroned by Rihanna's "Disturbia". It is the second longest running number one on the Hot 100 of 2008 (tied with "Whatever You Like"), with only Flo Rida's "Low" topping the chart for longer. As of September 2011, the song has sold more than 4,131,000 downloads in the United States.^[45]

In the United Kingdom, the single debuted at #4 on the UK Singles Chart on August 3, 2008 (for the week ending date August 9, 2008). A week later, it reached the #1 spot, where it remained for 5 weeks (a feat which would not be matched again until "Someone Like You" by Adele in 2011) until it was knocked off the summit by "Sex on Fire" by Kings of Leon.^[46] Alongside Basshunter's "Now You're Gone" and "Mercy" by Duffy, "I Kissed a Girl" spent more weeks at #1 on the charts in Britain than any other single in 2008. According to Britain's Official Charts Company, the single has sold over 635,000 copies in the United Kingdom as of June 2010, is the first Virgin label single to sell more than half a million copies since the Spice Girls' "Goodbye" in 1998. As of March 2012, the single had sold 654,560 copies in the United Kingdom becoming her third best-selling single there behind "Firework" and "California Gurls".^[47] In Canada, the single debuted at #55 at Canadian Hot 100, reaching #1 on June 12 in a 26-position jump, becoming the first country where the song reached the pole position.

In New Zealand, the song debuted at number 38, the single's first appearance in other countries chart outside North America, moving to number three the following week. The song was certified Gold after seven weeks with sales of over 7,500. On August 11, 2008, eight weeks after debuting on the chart, "I Kissed a Girl" finally made it to number one. "I Kissed a Girl" was certified Platinum in New Zealand after 20 weeks selling 15,000+ copies. In Australia, the song debuted at #13 on 30 June on downloads alone, then the next week jumped to second position behind Jordin Sparks, still on downloads alone. The next week it jumped to number one still solely off downloads, becoming only the second single to do so. Ironically, by the time the song went number 1, this was the time when World Youth Day 2008 had started and the event held anti-gay views. On July 21, 2008, after the singles physical release, the track retained its number one position and was certified Gold. The single has held the number one position for several weeks and was certified 2× Platinum.

Perry's response to the song's success[link]

According to Perry, the song became a massive hit because musically the song is catchy. "I think that it's one of those subject matters that is, you know, like 'Oh my God I can't believe she said that, that someone came out and said it'. I think that, whenever anyone writes something that is different than, like, your plain peanut butter and jelly song, 'I love you, you love me', everyone kind of perks up and says 'what's this?'."^[6]

Music video[link]

A music video for the song was released on May 16, 2008 on Perry's personal website and on MySpace. The video was directed by Kinga Burza and features a Moulin Rouge and burlesque-type setting with scenes of Perry, along with many other flamboyantly-dressed women dancing to the song. Towards the end of the video, she wakes up next to a male companion called Derek (DJ Skeet Skeet).^[48] Despite the song's title, there is no depiction of same-sex kissing. Perry features her real life friend and DJ, Mia Moretti, Markus Molinari's cat Bella and Kesha in the music video.^[49]

The video made its television debut on June 12, 2008 on TRL with the visit and interview by Perry in set show. On June 24, 2008 it became #1 on TRL. The video obtained high airplay on this music video channel, as well as on VH1. It debuted at #20 on VH1's VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown on June 28, 2008. On June 30, 2008 the video was premiered on MTV Latin America. On July 6, 2008, it rose to #4 on VH1's VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown. The video received five nominations for the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best Female Video and Best New Artist. The video has had over 38 million views on YouTube and an additional 67 million pre-vevo views. Due to the video and the song's popularity around the world, there are videos on YouTube which imitate and parody the song.

Cover versions[link]

A second cover version, by Barnicle, entered the UK Singles Chart (published August 3, 2008) at position #116.^[46] British girl-band The Saturdays did another cover version, never released commercially. The band performed it in each of their The Work Tour venues. An incomplete version, unreleased version of the song was covered in the Pilot episode of Glee. The song is alluded to by Smurfette, voiced by Perry, in the 2011 film The Smurfs. When mentioning songs to Patrick Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris), Smurfette mentions "I Kissed a Smurf (and I Liked It)". On March 9 (UK) and March 10 (US) metalcore band, Attack Attack! released a cover for the song for the Punk Goes Pop 2 compilation. Because of the success of the cover versions, the official release of Perry's version was brought forward from September 1 to July 30, 2008. On August 3, 2008, the song, which had entered the UK Singles Chart at number 139 the week before,^[50] climbed 135 places to reach position number 4.^[46] The song has become one of the most requested on Radio 1's request hour. The following week it climbed 3 places to reach number 1. The following week it stayed at the top spot for a second consecutive week and then went on to spend 5 consecutive weeks at #1. The song was covered by The Vibrators on the Troops of Tomorrow single released in 2009 on Cleopatra Records.

Even parodies of "I Kissed a Girl" are seeing chart success. Dr. Demento ranked Robert Lund's spoof "I Peed in the Pool"^[51] his #1 song of August 2008,^[52] and one of his Funny 25 for the year.^[53] The song climbed back into the top 20 (reaching #19) in the UK on January 4, 2009, five months after it was first released. The Blackout also covered this song on their single "Children of the Night". The song is featured in "Weird Al" Yankovic's album Alpocalypse in his polka medley "Polka Face".

Track listing[link]

Charts and certifications[link]

Usage in popular culture[link]

• This Song was featured in Glee in seasons one and three- first with an incomplete cover by Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz) in the Pilot and then in the season three episode "I Kissed a Girl" by Rachel Berry (Lea Michele), Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera), and the rest of the girls of the Glee Club.
• In 2011, Reece Mastin, X Factor Australia winner, covered this song for his album Reece Mastin (album)
• A snippet of the song was sung by Amy Farrah Fowler on the show The Big Bang Theory on the episode "The Agreement Dissection".

See also[link]

References[link]

"I Kissed a Girl" may refer to:

• "I Kissed a Girl", Katy Perry song
• "I Kissed a Girl (Jill Sobule song)"
• "I Kissed a Girl (Glee)", the seventh episode from the third season of the Glee television series

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Katy Perry
Katy Perry at the Logie Awards in 2011
Background information
Birth name	Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson
Also known as	Katy Hudson
Born	(1984-10-25) October 25, 1984 (age 27) Santa Barbara, California, U.S.
Genres	Pop, rock, dance, gospel
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, actress
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Red Hill, Island, Columbia, Capitol
Associated acts	The Matrix
Website	Katyperry.com

Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson^[1] (born October 25, 1984), known by her stage name Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Perry grew up with gospel music, and during her first year of high school she pursued a music career as Katy Hudson, releasing her first studio album called Katy Hudson which failed to chart. She recorded a solo album later, which was never released. After signing with Capitol Music Group in 2007, her fourth record label in seven years, she adopted the stage name Katy Perry.

She first gained recognition with the release of her first mainstream album, One of the Boys in 2008, which spawned three Billboard Hot 100 top-ten songs—"I Kissed A Girl", "Hot n Cold" and "Waking Up In Vegas". Perry supported the album with her Hello Katy Tour. In 2010, her third studio album, Teenage Dream (2010), which topped the Billboard 200 chart, and spawned five number one singles—"California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Firework", "E.T." and "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"—Teenage Dream was the only album (after Michael Jackson's Bad)—to do so, and the first female in history to achieve this milestone. She embarked on the California Dreams Tour, which grossed nearly $60 million worldwide.^[2] Perry re-released the album under the name of Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection on March 26, 2012, and the re-release has already spawned the number-one single "Part of Me".

Perry is the only artist to spend over 52 consecutive weeks in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, and has since heightened this to 69 weeks.^[3] As of 2012, Perry has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards. She was named 2011's "Artist of the Year" by MTV.^[4] She has sold 37.6 million digital tracks in the United States and 11 million albums worldwide.^[5] Perry was a guest judge on the seventh series of The X Factor UK and the ninth season of American Idol. She has released fragrances "Purr" and "Meow". She ventured into film, voicing Smurfette in the 2011 film The Smurfs. Perry was married to British comedian Russell Brand from 2010 to 2012.

Early life[link]

Perry was born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson in Santa Barbara, California^[6] to Keith, a West Coast scenester in the 1960s,^[7] and Mary Hudson (née Perry), an evangelist who grew up in Southern California and had a "tempestuous" first marriage in Zimbabwe.^[7] Perry has Portuguese, German, Irish, and English ancestry.^[8][9][10] She is the second child of two pastors.^[11] She has an older sister named Angela Hudson and younger brother named David Hudson.^[12] Perry's mother's aunt and uncle were screenwriter Eleanor Perry and director Frank Perry.^[7] Perry was incorporated into her parents' ministry^[11] and sang in their church between the ages of 9 and 17.^[13] She grew up listening to gospel music,^[14] was not allowed to listen to what her mother called "secular music",^[13][15] and attended Christian schools and camps.^[11] As a child, Perry learned how to dance in a recreation building in Santa Barbara. She was taught by seasoned dancers and began with swing, Lindy Hop, and jitterbug.^[16] She took her GED after her first year at Dos Pueblos High School and decided to leave school in the pursuit of a career in music.^[17] Perry initially started singing "because [she] was at that point in [her] childhood where [she] was copycatting [her] sister and everything she [would do]."^[17] Her sister practiced with cassette tapes, while Perry took the tapes herself when her sister was not around. She rehearsed the songs and performed them in front of her parents, who suggested she take vocal coaching. She grabbed the opportunity and began taking lessons at the age of nine and continued until she was sixteen. She later enrolled in at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and studied Italian opera for a short period of time.^[17]

Career[link]

1999–2006: Career beginnings[link]

Perry performing on her guitar, an instrument she learned to play when she was just starting her record career

When Perry was 15, her singing in church attracted the attention of rock veterans from Nashville, Tennessee, who brought her there to polish her writing skills.^[18] In Nashville, Perry started recording demos and was taught by country music veterans how to craft songs and play guitar.^[13][15] Perry signed to the Christian music label Red Hill, under which she recorded her first album at the age of 15.^[19] Performing as Katy Hudson, she released a self-titled gospel rock album in 2001.^[18] She supported this album with The Strangely Normal Tour, accompanied by Phil Joel, LaRue, Luna Halo, Earthsuit and V*Enna.^[20] The album was unsuccessful as the label ceased operations at the end of 2001.^[19] She later changed her surname to Perry, her mother's maiden name, because "Katy Hudson" was too close to film actress Kate Hudson.^[18][21]

Perry performs at the 2008 Warped Tour

At the age of 17, Perry left her home for Los Angeles, where she worked with Glen Ballard on an album for Island Records.^[22] Growing up listening to mostly gospel music, Perry had few references when she began recording songs.^[13] Asked by the producer with whom she would like to collaborate, Perry had no idea. That night, she went with her mother to a hotel. Inside, she turned on VH1 and saw producer Glen Ballard talking about Alanis Morissette;^[13] Ballard produced Morissette's Jagged Little Pill, which had a "huge influence" on Perry.^[18] She expressed interest in working with Ballard to her initial collaborator, who arranged a meeting for her with Ballard in Los Angeles. Perry presented one of her songs to Ballard. Ballard then helped Perry develop her songwriting over the next few years.^[13] The album was due for release in 2005,^[18][19] but Billboard reported it also went nowhere.^[19] Perry was dropped by The Island Def Jam Music Group.^[7] Some of Perry and Ballard's collaborations included "Box", "Diamonds" and "Long Shot", were posted on her official MySpace page. "Simple", one of the songs she recorded with Ballard, was released on the soundtrack to the 2005 film The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.^[23][24] "Long Shot" and "I Do Not Hook Up" was later recorded by Kelly Clarkson for her 2009 album All I Ever Wanted.^[25]

Perry signed to Columbia Records in 2004. However, the label was not amenable with her vision, not putting her in the "driver's seat".^[19] Instead, one of Columbia's ideas was to pair Perry with the record production team The Matrix, who was working on an album, to serve as its female vocalist. Although the album was later shelved,^[26] she caught the attention of the music press: Her burgeoning music career led to her being named "The Next Big Thing" in October 2004 by Blender magazine.^[19] With no album project ongoing, Perry began recording her own. Eighty percent completed, however, Columbia decided not to finish it and dropped her from the label.^[19] While waiting to find another label, she worked in an independent A&R company called Taxi Music. In 2006, Perry was featured in the tail-end of the video to P.O.D.'s single "Goodbye for Now".^[27] She made a cameo appearance in Carbon Leaf's video, "Learn to Fly".

[edit] 2007–09: Commercial success with One of the Boys and MTV Unplugged

While in the process of being dropped by Columbia in 2006, the company's publicity executive Angelica Cob-Baehler enthusiastically recommended Perry to Virgin Records chairman Jason Flom.^[28] At the time Flom was leading a complete revival in fortunes at the label and looking to crown recent achievements by breaking a global pop act.^[28] Despite mixed reactions from fellow Virgin executives, Flom became convinced that Perry could be that breakthrough star, and at the start of 2007 extended discussions with Columbia resulted in Perry signing to the newly created Capitol Music Group, a merger between Virgin and Capitol. As part of the deal, the label secured the masters to the unfinished album, recorded while at Columbia, that would go on to form a significant part of her official mainstream debut album, One of the Boys.^[28]

The Columbia recordings were seen by Flom as being "very strong but lacking an undeniable smash or two that would work both at U.S. pop radio and internationally" and so one of the executive's first actions after completing the signing was to set up a collaboration between Perry and the writer-producer Dr. Luke.^[28] The results were the songs "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold". Establishing her image was one of the immediate concerns of her management.^[19] A campaign was started in November 2007 with the release of the video to "Ur So Gay", aimed at introducing her to the music market. A digital EP led by "Ur So Gay" was later released to create online buzz and press story.^[11][19][29] This was a successful move that resulted in bringing Perry to the attention of Madonna,^[19] who mentioned her on KISS FM and KRQ's JohnJay & Rich morning show in Arizona. On March 10, 2008, she appeared as herself on the ABC Family television series, Wildfire, on the episode "Life's Too Short".^[30]

Perry during Hello Katy Tour on March 27, 2009

In the next step of promoting the album, Perry undertook a two-month tour of radio stations. The album's official lead single, "I Kissed a Girl", was released on May 6, 2008. Perry's A&R, Chris Anokute, told HitQuarters the song and its controversial theme had met with strong resistance at the label: "People said, 'This is never going to get played on the radio. How do we sell this? How’s this going to be played in the bible belt?'"^[29] Anokute said that they needed the support of one of the label's radio promoters to convince people to believe in the record; otherwise, Perry would have likely been dropped again. Capitol's SVP of Promotions, Dennis Reese, saw the vision and helped push the single on national radio. The first station to pick it up and take a chance was The River in Nashville. After playing it for three days they were innundated with enthusiastic calls.^[29] With the song climbing atop the charts, Perry embarked on the annual Warped Tour music festival, which her management used to "establish her as a credible performer and make sure she wasn't seen as just a one-hit wonder."^[19] The single was a commercial success, peaking at number one for seven weeks on the Billboard Hot 100.^[19] It has since become a major worldwide hit, topping charts in 30 countries,^[26] including Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.^[31] On June 12, 2008, Perry appeared as herself on the daytime soap opera The Young and the Restless,^[30] posing for the cover to the June 2008 issue of the fictional magazine Restless Style.^[32] Perry also performed backing vocals on the song, "Another Night in the Hills" from Gavin Rossdale's 2008 solo album Wanderlust.^[33]

One of the Boys was released on June 17, 2008, to mixed critical reviews.^[34] The album has reached number nine on the Billboard 200,^[35] and has been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.^[36] Perry released her second single, "Hot n Cold", which became her second top three single in dozens of countries around the world, including the United States where it reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100,^[19] as well as topping the charts in Germany, Canada, and Denmark. After Perry wrapped up her appearance at the Warped Tour, she went on tours in Europe. She later launched her first headlining tour, the Hello Katy Tour, in January 2009.^[19] "I Kissed a Girl" earned Perry a nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 2009 Grammy Awards.^[37] Perry was nominated in five categories at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, including Best New Artist and Best Female Video, but lost to Britney Spears.^[38] She won Best New Act at the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards, which she co-hosted,^[39] and Best International Female Artist at the 2009 BRIT Awards.^[40] On February 9, 2009, both "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot n Cold" were certified three-time platinum by Recording Industry Association of America for individual digital sales of over three million.^[41] The Guinness Book of World Records recognized Perry in its 2010 version as the "Best Start on the US Digital Chart by a Female Artist," for having her first two singles sell over two million digital copies.^[42]