Before you flame me, I love both girls, and have the same amount of respect for them. But please keep the discussion thoughtful.
It seems that in 2009-2011, Lady Gaga had the world under her hands. Breaking records, left and right, selling many millions of albums worldwide. TF+TFM, BTW, from singles, to albums sales, to critical acclaim, and to touring power. It seems that no one was good enough to compete with her.
And there in Lady Gaga's shadow was Katy Perry, who at that time had the same amount of chart success as Lady Gaga, but always seemed to be #2, or #3 on the list behind her and Rihanna. She never had a year when she owned. She never really had great touring success at the start of her career. Even her label was disappointed that TD debuted with lackluster first week numbers. However, with constant push and promotion, and with all the right marketing, she managed to keep the album alive, and the singles huge, reaching #1 in so many countries, just like Gaga.
But with all the successes, it all seemed as if she's always in Lady Gaga's shadow.
Fast forward to this day, the tables seemed to have turned the opposite direction. Whilst ARTPOP struggled to sell 1M copies, Prism comfortably sold 3.5m, going on 4M along the way. Roar became such a global hit - it's video is on track to reach 1B views. Dark Horse as well.
Not just in charting success, but also touring success. For the first time, Prism tour became Katy's biggest to date, while ARTPOP tour has struggled. It seems that while Lady Gaga's star power has always been bigger than Katy, it's just as erratic and inconsistent as Petra Kvitova's slam results.
Katy seems to be getting bigger and bigger each era, even breaking tour records in Australia.
But it's the Superbowl that really made me appreciate Katy Perry. It made me realize that "hey, maybe Katy has star power after all", and it turns out that she does, and it's huge. She broke the all time records for the viewership, with 118M viewers. Not only that, but she puts on a hell of an amazing show. But that's not to say Lady Gaga couldn't do the same thing, as she does too. Both ladies are talented people. And I love them.
The one thing that Katy can't touch Gaga on, is the Grammys. I think Katy's tied with Bjork for having the most nominations with no wins, where as Gaga has the same amount of winning rate as Beyonce. That, I truly commend Lady Gaga on, she has worked herself off to deserve those awards. But Katy works equally as hard. Maybe one day, Katy. Maybe.
But the question is, has Katy surpassed Lady Gaga? In any sort of way at least? Or do you think overall, she already has?
