Katy Perry: Part of Me

Confession: I didn't really get Katy Perry- I thought she was just a concoction dreamed up by a record company to impress young girls and about 5 boys who might or might not grow up to be costume designers. She was too cutesy and too, well, nice.
Confession: I was SO wrong.

Look- she is really beloved by a lot of kids and teens. And this is a documentary made during her year long (and VERY exhausting) world tour. It is her first world tour- and she gives it her all. This is a smart, caring and decent woman. She isn't that young- she is 27 rapidly closing in on 28. But she is young in spirit and certainly in shape.  I was interested in her from the first frame to the last. She is a role model for anyone who has talent and a dream. And her personality made her influential friends along the way- especially the woman who got her to Capitol records.  When she marries Russell Brand, you feel the chill in your heart for her because you have the knowledge that hindsight gives. Near the end of her tour, when the exhaustion and the breakup have pulled her into a cave, if you are female, you cry with her. She is broken in the way that girls and women get when someone doesn't love them anymore.  She has tried so HARD to make it all perfect. I have a newfound and HUGE respect for her. Some critics have called this film manipulative and promotional- but it is a documentary after all. She isn't going to be the gross Ho that Madonna was (hey thanks Madonna for giving MY kid such a crap music role model).  Moms aren't going to wring their hands over I Kissed a Girl. They love her, too.
I wish everyone with a music ambition would watch this very carefully- particularly if you aren't as talented and driven as Perry. Because that is what it takes.