The singer wants her daughter to 'think for herself.'
Katy Perry wants her and Orlando Bloom's daughter to grow up leaning into "the magic in life." In a new interview with ET's Rachel Smith to celebrate the upcoming release of her new album, Smile, Perry opened up about why she's excited to raise her daughter in a "different way" than she was.
"I am just excited to be able to raise her in a different way than what I was raised and to let her think for herself and have choice and discover and just lean into the magic in life and dress like whatever she wants to dress like for Halloween," Perry explains. "That is going to be really, really important. I was never allowed to go trick-or-treating or dress up, which is probably why I make up for it so much."
Perry was born to pastor parents Mary and Maurice, with her childhood heavily influenced by their religious beliefs. The American Idol judge started singing in church and pursued a career in gospel music as a teenager before breaking out as a pop artist.
"I'm excited," Perry tells ET of meeting her baby girl. "We're here to support her."
The "Roar" singer, who feels like she's been "pregnant forever," is playing a guessing game for which will arrive sooner -- her daughter or Smile, which releases Friday.
"I don't know who's going to come first, her or the record. We'll see what kind of headline she wants, if she wants to be the opener or the closer," she says with a laugh. "I have a feeling that she does not follow."
Perry knows she's "packing it all in" before both the baby and the album's arrival, but is happy she didn't have to extensively postpone the record amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"I'm just grateful that I get to do it this summer. It's a summer record and it's full of hopefulness, it's full of light and joy and it's not just taking up space and noise," she shares. "I hope that these songs which I wrote going through one of the darkest times of my life could be inspirational to anyone else that's going through whatever they're going through, because music has always been that for me."
Smile comes 10 years after the release of Teenage Dream, which spawned five chart-topping U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles, tying Perry with Michael Jackson's record for Bad. Smile has the "same type of energy" as Teenage Dream, Perry described.
"Personally, I feel like everyone changes from their 20s to their 30s whether you like it or not," the now-35-year-old singer says of how she's evolved over the past decade. "I am so proud of everything I have been able to put out and I love it and I love that Teenage Dream became like a real cool marker for numbers... but I definitely don't live in that headspace anymore."
"I have more dimension and life. I am experiencing all of it. I am just not on the pop star rodeo, but I like jumping on and jumping off everyone once in a while," she adds.
While she pivots to focus on motherhood, Perry is intent on keeping the music flowing. She starts shooting season 4 of American Idol this fall and will continue working on other projects.
"A lot of people have asked me, 'Are you gonna, like, go away?' and I'm like, 'I mean, doesn't Beyoncé have, like, three kids and she's still putting out Black Is King? She is doing the best. Her whole life is amazing,'" Perry reasons. "I don't feel like you have to choose between what you love and what you love, and for me this doesn't feel like work. It feels like just something that really makes me happy. And I would hope that my happiness is [my daughter's] happiness and her happiness is my happiness."
"I'm so excited for both deliveries -- obviously the child and obviously the record," she says. "I think 2020 may have a silver lining for me."
See more on Perry in the video below.
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