Katy Perry told not to perform panned new songs at huge sporting event

Katy Perry and the Australian Football League disagreed about which songs the pop star will play at the league’s Grand Final.

The 39-year-old pop icon was announced as the pre-game act back in July, to the delight of AFL and Katy Perry fans alike. 

But it wasn’t smooth sailing for Perry and her team, who reportedly had to fight the league for the star to play songs from her latest project in her five-song set. 

Journalist Tom Morris first reported that the AFL asked Perry to only sing hit songs from her catalogue – like Firework and Roar – and avoid songs from her widely panned latest release, 143.

Perry pushed to sing two songs from the new album, with the two sides ultimately compromising and agreeing that Perry would play one song from her latest project. 

The album – in particular the lead single Woman’s World – has been criticised as regressive and uncreative.

Morris revealed the drama on SEN Breakfast on Monday, alongside former AFL players Kane Cornes and Nathan Buckley.

‘I love Katy Perry. I think they’ve nailed it. I think she’s going to put on a great show,’ Cornes said.

‘The AFL are saying, “We only want your hits. We only want your bangers. We only want your best stuff,”’ he continued.

“We want Roar, We want Teenage Dream, we want Firework. They want all the songs we know and love. And she’s pushed back and said, ‘No, no I want to play two of my new songs.’

‘You know when you go to a concert and maybe they’re old and all you want is their good stuff. You just want their greatest hits. That’s what the AFL have requested with the Katy Perry. And she’s gone, clearly, I want to promote some of my new music.’

Buckley pointed out that if their request wasn’t specifically in the contract with Perry, it was unlikely the AFL had much ground to stand on.

He said: ‘I reckon if they wanted one (a say) they should have written it into the contract.’

‘It’s too late now to ask her something if it’s not written into the contract. If in fact it is, then Katy, you’re just going to have to come to the party.’

Perry is the latest A-list star to appear for the AFL, with Robbie Williams’ performance last year costing the AFL more than $1million AUD (£513,115).

In contrast, Perry will be paid $5m AUD (£2.56m) for her performance. She will perform five songs, meaning she will earn a staggering $1m AUD for each song.

Perry also recently teased that she will be joined by an Australian pop star during her performance, revealing only that the unnamed star is a ‘scorpio.’ 

Saturday will not be the first time Perry has performed at the MCG, as the singer also performed at the 2020 Cricket World Cup final in front of 87,000 fans.

When the news that Perry would be playing the final first broke, she released a statement saying: ‘I’m so excited to be back in Australia and back at the mighty MCG to perform in front of 100,000 of the best and loudest fans in the world at this year’s Toyota AFL Grand Final,” she said in a statement released by the league.

‘See you in September Oi Oi Oi!’

Perry has been embroiled in plenty of drama recently, facing criticism for working with controversial producer Dr. Luke on her new era of music.

Dr. Luke, 50, was previously accused by Kesha of raping and drugging her as well as physical and verbal abuse, which he has denied.

While the claims were settled out of court after a defamation case was raised, many fans felt it was in poor taste for Perry to work with Dr. Luke again.

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