The pop star says she wanted to go 'full hip' for her latest music video, which she describes as 'new age, esoteric, California.'
Katy Perry is back, and here to save your soul with an all-new vibe!
The 34-year-old pop star just released her new song, "Never Really Over," marking her first solo track in two years. The accompanying music video also dropped via YouTube Music, taking fans on a visual journey into her sun-splashed, ethereal world.
Directed by Philippa Price, the video begins with a hippie-chic Perry joining a psychedelic commune--turned-surreal health and wellness retreat and participating in all manner of new-age treatments as she dances and sings her way through some past heartache.
The video is also packed with plenty of fun, interpretative choreography, with dancers circling around Perry in a cult-like fashion. "Two years and just like that / My heart still takes me back," Perry sings. "It's never really over."
Perry holds hands with her fellow revelers around a bonfire, dances through a rolling meadow and partakes in some truly trippy therapy techniques as she belts out her ode to emotional maturity and moving beyond an addiction to nostalgia and living in the past.
Oh, and did we mention there's also some cupping and acupuncture involved? Watch it all go down below:
Speaking with Apple Music’s Beats 1 host Brooke Reese, in an interview airing June 2, Perry opened up about her new single and the meaning behind her hopeful video.
"There are so many ways to choose your own adventure these days," she shared. "I mean, you can be in the best position of your life and in the healthiest place in your life and then you get one text message that just makes you fall to your knees. Or you get one comment on social media or you get one like and you're like, here comes that wave of nostalgia from the past."
"But there is acceptance in that all these things that you did in the past led you to this place. And you had to go through all that to get here," she added. "So, I believe that we all have the option to be our best selves, but we've got to choose it."
Some lucky KatyCats (including ET) got an early look at the music video during Perry's "Never Really Over" fan event, held Wednesday night at YouTube Space Los Angeles. During an intimate Q&A session led by famed choreographer Kyle Hanagami, Perry explained the meaning behind the new visual and why she included some of those alternative medicine scenes.
"This time, or this video, or things that I'm touching on is kind of a time like age of Aquarius, new age, esoteric, California, healing, hippie, medicinal, plant-based… all those keywords," she shared. "There are many things like that, and honestly, these are the words that I've come to live by and incorporate these types of things and way of life in the past few years. So, I just wanted to put that in my music and my video."
"The funny thing is, I'm not sure if cupping has ever been in a music video, or facial acupuncture, which is really good for your face," she continued, adding that she underwent both treatments on camera for the video. "A gal came by and was like, 'I can put 100 on your face,' and I'm like, 'I'll just take 20!' The cupping is so interesting. The gal that did it, we didn't plan on doing the cupping, but then she showed me these heart-shaped cups that she had in her kit and I was like, 'Let's just go full hip!'"
As for the rest of the video, Perry said she wants fans to use their imagination. "I do love creating these worlds ... I really believe in symbolism and I believe in you finding your own meaning in this music and in this visual," she shared. "I can tell you kind of like the seed of the personal story about it, but I want to hear what it means to you."
Hear more details from the private fan experience in the video below!
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