Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have been pitted against each other as pop rivals for the better part of the year. As dueling singles, albums, music videos and press opportunities have found critics and fans questioning which singer is the reigning princess of pop, Perry is speaking out to quash the rivalry image that exists between the two.
“Gaga and I like to publicly dismiss it because it’s not healthy," Perry told Entertainment Weekly. "You want to feel music. You want it to resonate and relate to you. You can’t look at it like a competition because you ruin the reason why you love music. But I think that sometimes our fan groups are so big and strong, they use it as ammunition.”
That "ammunition" first kicked into high gear when Gaga's "Applause" and Perry's "Roar" -- the lead singles from their respective albums, which arrive just a few weeks apart from each other -- leaked at the same time. Since then, it's been a tit-for-tat between the singers' fans. It's a bit easier for Perry to denounce any form of a "competition," as forecasts for the sales of the two singles indicated that Perry would come out on top by a wide margin. Indeed, "Roar" sold 557,000 digital copies, while "Applause" saw 218,000 downloads.
In a year that's seen Joan Rivers, Sinead O'Connor, Cher and others speak out against Miley Cyrus' pop-culture reign, the conversation about fostering female rivalries in the media has escalated.
"I just think it's very unfair of anyone to pit another woman against another woman, especially in the space of music, when we're all just trying to be taken seriously at all as females," Gaga told Andy Cohen in September during an appearance on "Watch What Happens Live."
Now, as Gaga's "ARTPOP" makes its long-awaited debut on Nov. 11, the album will inevitably face comparisons with Perry's "Prism," which came out Oct. 18. "Prism" debuted at No. 1 with 286,000 copies sold. The next needless contest between the two women will center on which of them can produce the more impressive first-week sales. Perry topped Cyrus as the highest-selling debut of the year by a female artist. Can Gaga now top Perry? It's all in the "competition."
For more on Perry, including her thoughts on Cyrus and boyfriend John Mayer, head over to EW.
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