Katy Perry returns to the airwaves with her brand-new single "California Gurls," which hit radio with a surprise release on May 7. The single is now available for sale digitally worldwide. The track comes from Perry's new album, Teenage Dream, which Capitol Records will release on August 24th in the U.S. and Canada; August 30th in the rest of the world.
According to Capitol, an irresistible, hook-filled clarion call to throw on Daisy Dukes and a bikini top, "California Gurls" will "melt your popsicle," Katy assures us in this party anthem of the summer. The sizzling track — a fresh evolution of Perry's witty, sassy sound — is the follow-up to her back-to-back-to-back No. 1 chart-toppers "I Kissed A Girl", "Hot N Cold", and "Waking Up In Vegas" from One of the Boys.
The Santa Barbara-born Perry was inspired to write "California Gurls" as she watched her friends go crazy at a party listening to Jay-Z's salute to New York, "Empire State of Mind." "Everybody was holding their drinks in the air and dancing, and I thought, 'We're not in New York, we're in Los Angeles! What about California? What about all the homies, the gin and juice, the swaying palm trees, the sun-kissed skin 24-7,'" Perry recalls. "I decided that we needed to make a response. I want people to want to book a ticket to California the first time they hear it!"
And because it's practically un-American to release a song that mentions gin and juice without Snoop Dogg, Perry recruited the rap icon to contribute his inimitable vocals to "California Gurls." "We thought it would sound so cool and give the song another dimension," she says. "Snoop is as West Coast as it gets."
"California Gurls" is just a taste of what's to come when Katy unleashes her brand-new album Teenage Dream, which will be released by Capitol Records on August 24th in the U.S. and Canada; and August 30th in the rest of the world. The album is the follow-up to Perry's blockbuster debut One of the Boys, which has been certified platinum in the U.S. and has sold five million copies worldwide. The album spawned four smash singles, including the back-to-back No. 1, Grammy-nominated chart-toppers "I Kissed A Girl" and "Hot N Cold" (both selling more than a combined eight million copies in the US), "Thinking of You" (No. 1 Airplay in five countries), and "Waking Up in Vegas" (2.3 million sold in the US and No. 1 Airplay in five countries). Perry has sold more than 22 million singles, digital tracks, and mobile products worldwide.
