In 2008, Katy Perry rocketed onto the global pop music scene by telling the world she kissed a girl and she liked it.
A decade later, Perry says she’d change a few things about her breakout single, “I Kissed a Girl,” noting that the song perpetuates “a couple of stereotypes.”
In the above video for Glamour, the pop songstress checks out fan covers of her biggest hits, including “Firework,” “Unconditionally” and “The One That Got Away.” By the time she gets to an acoustic version of “I Kissed a Girl” by Ramona Rox, however, she offers a renewed take on the song’s message. (Her comments on “I Kissed a Girl” begin around 8:23.)
“I think we’ve really changed, conversationally, in the past 10 years. We’ve come a long way,” she notes. “Bisexuality wasn’t as talked about back then, or any type of fluidity.”
Though Perry had praise for Rox’s “nice vocal texture,” she says she “probably would make an edit” to the song if she were to write it today.
“Your mind changes so much in 10 years, and you grow so much,” she said. “What’s true for you can evolve.”
In the 10 years since its release, “I Kissed a Girl” has sparkeda fair amount of debate among music critics and LGBTQ activists over how to interpret its lyrics. (The fact that another one of Perry’s early singles, “Ur So Gay,” referenced sexuality and gender roles didn’t help.)
Perry, who has since been recognized for her work on behalf of LGBTQ equality, said in 2012 that anyone who took serious offense to the song “was either looking for a fight, or taking it completely out of context.”