Katy Perry has more than a few similarities with Hillary Clinton.
The singer campaigned for Clinton in 2016 and said her upcoming album has a song inspired by the election. Both women have resumes that on paper, at least, point to success — but could Perry suffer a similar fate as her political idol?
Here are some of the ways, good, bad and merely noteworthy, that Perry is the Hillary Clinton of pop:
They both used to be conservative: Clinton’s father was conservative and she supported 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater as a teen, and Perry was raised in a conservative Christian household.
They have impressive resumes: Clinton was championed as the most qualified candidate to run for president (including by former President Barack Obama), and Perry has nine No. 1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.
They appeal to a liberal audience, but some liberals are upset with them: Clinton couldn’t shake Sen. Bernie Sanders (who isn’t even technically a Democrat) for months during the Democratic primaries, and Perry has come under fire from liberals for her recent joke about Obama during a Facebook live video and for wearing a designer at the Met Gala who once made anti-Semitic remarks.
Their stance on LGBT issues has “evolved”: In 2000, Clinton said marriage was between a man and a woman, and she didn’t change her stance until 2013. Perry released songs “Ur So Gay” and “I Kissed a Girl” in 2007 and 2008, respectively, that are considered by some today homophobic. Then at the 2015 Super Bowl halftime show, she sang “I Kissed a Girl” with a man, Lenny Kravitz, which freed her from being criticized as a straight woman for singing about kissing a girl.
They campaign on a message of unity: Clinton’s slogan was “Stronger Together,” and Perry told Entertainment Weekly her next album “is about me being seen and heard so that I can see and hear everyone else!”
They’re products of an earlier time: Clinton was an establishment candidate who ran in a change election, while Perry, a pop star who made it big in the late-’00s Europop wave that favored bold female stars with big beats and colorful wigs, now finds herself competing on a male-dominated chart (this week’s Top 10 on Billboard Hot 100 is all male-lead songs) that favors hip-hop and frat-EDM with dolphin noises.
They could both be in trouble?: Clinton, as you may remember, lost the 2016 election, and as of right now, Perry isn’t faring well on pop’s approval poll, the Billboard Hot 100. Her song “Chained to the Rhythm” debuted high at No. 4, but since then, it’s dropped every week but one, and 12 weeks later, it sits at No. 74. Her follow-up, “Bon Appetit,” debuted this week at No. 76.
Like politics, predicting pop can be difficult. The fate of Perry’s album isn’t dictated by a few gaffes or early single chart performance, but it might not be a bad idea if she did whatever the pop equivalent of campaigning in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan is. As Clinton herself said, presenting a Unicef award to Perry last year, Perry’s “powerful voice and creative lyrics remind us when you get knocked down, to get back up.”