Katy Perry had an incredible run in the early 2000s, even if that streak ended with the short-sighted Witness. But back in the day, especially with her record-breaking classic album, Teenage Dream, somehow in the middle of all that success she never won the music industry’s biggest award — a Grammy. In a recent issue of Variety, she actually addressed the fact that even with a whopping nine No. 1 hits, she’s never won the oh-so-coveted Grammy.
“In your career, you’ve sold over 48 million adjusted albums and your songs have accumulated 50 billion streams, yet you’ve never won a Grammy?” Variety‘s Shirley Halperin asked. Perry responded: “No, I’ve been nominated 13 times before. … To be honest, I always go by numbers, and they don’t lie. And I’m good with that. Everyone has an opinion and that’s wonderful, but numbers are numbers. Math is sacred.”
That’s very true Katy Perry, math is sacred. But math isn’t quite the same as critical respect from your peers… and though poptimism has come a long way in the last decade, pop wasn’t quite getting the respect back then that it does now. Honestly? I probably would’ve given Teenage Dream the trophy over Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs back in 2011. Everyone knows Funeral is the one in that band’s discography that actually had that kind of impact.
Check out Variety‘s full cover story here.