There's one place left on Earth where Katy Perry can still be considered a dark horse: The Grammy Awards.
The Billboard chart-topping, Super Bowl-conquering pop star, who will be performing at Sunday's Grammys, has been shut out by the Recording Academy in 11 previous nominations dating back to 2009. She's got two more nods this year, and says it'd be "so amazing and so funny" to win her first Grammy for "Dark Horse," featuring rapper Juicy J, a song that's outside her traditional sunny soundscape.
"When I made that record, it was not serious even. Then it turned into like a thing," Perry said in a recent interview. "At the core of it, my music is very pop and bright. And 'Dark Horse' is like a little bit darker and trappier and just a different lane. I heard the beat and it wasn't even meant for me. I was like, let me try something on that."
As for new music, Perry said she's regularly jotting down ideas while touring, but plans to take time off after her final leg to get out of her "boring" touring "bubble" and craft songs about "real life experiences." Success — nine No. 1 singles on Billboard's Hot 100 — has bred a degree of restlessness.
"I also think it's important for me to maybe start reinventing myself. Because I can't keep topping myself because I'll just combust at some point," Perry said. "You can't keep topping yourself when you're at such a height. There's only one Mount Everest and once you've reached it, it's like where do you go from there? You've just got to sail somewhere else."
She was supposed to reinvent herself with PRISM. I'll believe it when I hear it and I'm actually interested to see what she does after this. Her thinking 'Dark Horse' is different when it was written and produced by the same people who do most of her music is a bit , though.
I'll believe it when I hear it and I'm actually interested to see what she does after this. Her thinking 'Dark Horse' is different when it was written and produced by the same people who do most of her music is a bit 
, though.