With a new baby, new music, and new residency in Las Vegas, mega pop-star Katy Perry’s life has a whole new tempo.

Photography Greg Swales

Styled by Danielle Goldberg

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Staring into&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/katy-perry-orlando-bloom-instagram-style" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Katy Perry&rsquo;s</a>&nbsp;pixelated eyeballs through the screen, where she sits in the backyard of her California home, I&rsquo;m compelled to call her dichotomous. For I&rsquo;ve witnessed two very clear versions of her over the years. There&rsquo;s Katy Perry, the church kid turned cartoonishly larger-than-life pop star, who has made a career of smashing records (including scoring five No. 1 singles from one album, a feat equalled only by Michael Jackson), fashioning the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHWRqiljo8M" rel="noopener" target="_blank">most-watched Super Bowl halftime show</a>&nbsp;ever, and becoming the most-followed woman on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/katyperry" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Twitter</a>. And then, there is Katheryn Hudson, who first revealed her truest self to the world in the 2012 documentary,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K16NvLCk2CY" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Part of Me</a>, which followed the singer throughout the exhaustive 124 sold-out shows of her&nbsp;California Dreams&nbsp;tour. With her marriage imploding and the kind of tears that send you into heaving breaths, we voyeuristically watched Hudson, outfitted in her trademark peppermint-swirl-themed bustier with mechanized pasties made to look like after-dinner mints, modulate into Perry. A fake smile flickers onto her face and she becomes a real-life Velma Kelly (minus the murder) ascending onto the stage at the beginning of&nbsp;Chicago&rsquo;s&nbsp;&ldquo;All That Jazz.&rdquo;

But with Perry, thanks to a perspicacity that comes with time and experience, there&rsquo;s a gradation. This, that,&nbsp;and&nbsp;the other. &ldquo;I have gone through a real journey in the past few years of having fun with costumes and lights and props and theatrics, but I have another life at home and it&rsquo;s very small and normal,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t feel like I have to be &lsquo;on&rsquo; anymore, and I think that&rsquo;s because I&rsquo;ve figured out both my professional and personal lives. I&rsquo;ve weaved them together to be a full-fledged functioning human...of sorts.&rdquo; Levity creeps in as she laughs at her own self-reflection. &ldquo;I used to be really upset about going out into the world with no makeup on. Even for something like this, I&rsquo;d be like, &lsquo;Let&rsquo;s do some hair and makeup,&rsquo; and now I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;You know, I&rsquo;m good. I know who I am. And what you think of me is none of my business.&rsquo;&rdquo; I&rsquo;m reminded of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/rupaul-drag-race-fashion-designer-model-guest-judges" rel="noopener" target="_blank">RuPaul&rsquo;s</a>&nbsp;signature line: &ldquo;Unless they gonna pay your bills, pay them bitches no mind.&rdquo;

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<img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/39109/1621976900-1katyperry.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress" />

Jacket and skirt PROENZA SCHOULER Shoes SALVATORE FERRAGAMO Earrings HARRY WINSTON

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I&rsquo;m immediately charmed by her&mdash;her in her sports bra with two necklaces dangling from her neck (one that reads &ldquo;Daisy Dove&rdquo; and the other a custom design of the flower) and, true to her word, a makeup-free face. She&rsquo;s serving realness, and I&rsquo;m eating it up, no crumbs. Maybe it&rsquo;s a calculated realness, crafted with as much meticulous detail as the pop superstar with whipped cream exploding from her breasts. I choose to believe the realness was, well...real. &lsquo;Cause the thing is, we&rsquo;ll never know. And why live in uncertainty?&nbsp;

One could say&mdash;and should say&mdash;it&rsquo;s been a big year for Perry. Last August she gave birth to her first child,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop-culture/ariana-grande-katy-perry-daughter-daisy-bloom-givenchy-snowsuit-instagram" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Daisy Dove Bloom</a>, with her partner, the actor Orlando Bloom. Two days later, she released her sixth studio album,&nbsp;Smile, deemed by many a return to her familiar fizzy pop and scaling hooks. Several months later, in January of this year, she performed her song &ldquo;Firework&rdquo; live in front of the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate the inauguration of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/president-joe-biden-young-photos" rel="noopener" target="_blank">U.S. President Joe Biden</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/meaning-behind-kamala-harris-victory-fashion-election" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Vice President Kamala Harris</a>. These happenings were all synergistic by design. The lead single from the album, &ldquo;Daisies,&rdquo; is a tribute to her Daisy, and the Washington D.C. performance was threaded to her as well. &ldquo;I just thought about my daughter [when she turns] 36, and thought, &lsquo;What kind of world am I going to be leaving her with?&rsquo; So I was really singing for climate change and for leaders that are taking big, bold steps to address it.&rdquo; All that and she still found time&nbsp;to do the &ldquo;normal&rdquo; stuff that one does in a global pandemic, like binge&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/the-queens-gambit-netflix-checkerboard-print-trend-2021" rel="noopener" target="_blank">The Queen&rsquo;s Gambit</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;Succession&nbsp;(&ldquo;It&rsquo;s the best TV show out there, period,&rdquo; she confirms confidently) and fall back in love with books. Her current favorite? David Brooks&rsquo;&nbsp;The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life.

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<img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/39109/1621978028-2katyperry.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress" />

Top MAX MARA Pants and shoes NINA RICCI

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It&rsquo;s this extended time at home with her family that&rsquo;s given her the ability to recalibrate. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m grateful that I didn&rsquo;t try to keep continuously climbing career mountains. I was like, &lsquo;I think that there is another mountain to climb that has as beautiful of a view, if not even more fulfilling.&rsquo;&rdquo; In many ways, Daisy allowed Perry to create without criticism, comparison, expectation, or fear of failure&mdash;something she&rsquo;s been plagued by throughout much of her career, thanks in part to her stratospheric success since its start. &ldquo;As a performer I&rsquo;ve always relied on the love and acceptance and validation of the outside world and that ultimately can waver at times,&rdquo; she admits. &ldquo;When you have a child, you have someone who looks at you and doesn&rsquo;t know anything on your resume, doesn&rsquo;t know anything about your bank account, doesn&rsquo;t know anything, doesn&rsquo;t care, and just loves you. Unconditional love. It&rsquo;s just...everything I think I was looking for.&rdquo;

Daisy&rsquo;s birth brought Perry a sense of wholeness, and helped heal deep-seated wounds that she&rsquo;d developed over the years. &ldquo;I always felt like I was walking around with a little bit of pain in my heart concerning love,&rdquo; she says, her eyes slowly trailing to elsewhere in her mind. &ldquo;And my fianc&eacute; has done a great job at really helping to mend that. But this just went underneath all that and got so deep. It&rsquo;s just there, that love is there.&rdquo; Her penetrating gaze returns, focused, assured. &ldquo;I&rsquo;d heard about unconditional love, but now I&rsquo;m really experiencing it. There&rsquo;s a wholeness that has happened.&rdquo;

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It&rsquo;s in this relationship with Bloom, and now their beautiful Daisy, that the honeymoon phase&mdash;or the &ldquo;zsa zsa zsu,&rdquo; as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/sex-and-the-city-reboot-hbo-sarah-jessica-parker" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Carrie Bradshaw</a>&nbsp;once called it&mdash;now feels unending; layered by a deep foundation that has, through time, extended below the surface to depths previously closed off. Perry&rsquo;s infectious smile practically beams at the mere mention of her fianc&eacute;. &ldquo;I was able to witness him and his fatherhood,&rdquo; she says. (Bloom has a 10-year-old son, Flynn, with ex-wife Miranda Kerr.) &ldquo;The way that he showed up for him and continues to show up for him, and the efforts that he makes and the distance he goes, I think that&rsquo;s one of the reasons I made that conscious decision. &ldquo;I was like, &lsquo;Here&rsquo;s the father of my future children.&rsquo; I could see his kindness, empathy, care, and tenderness. I courted that. I was like, &lsquo;Okay, this is different.&rsquo;&nbsp;And this is his first girl, so it&rsquo;s a totally different feeling for him. I&rsquo;m really, really grateful to have him. And he really shows up in a huge emotional way, which is unique for me.&rdquo;

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I don’t feel like I have to be ‘on’ anymore, and I think it’s because I’ve figured out both my professional and personal lives.

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<img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/39109/1621978363-6katyperry.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress" />

Coat HERM&Egrave;S Bodysuit SKIMS Pants VERSACE Necklace HARRY WINSTON

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Like many new mothers&mdash;or perhaps anyone who has spent the last year in relative isolation&mdash;Perry is using these major shifts to reflect on her life as a whole. &ldquo;I had 35 years of calling the shots and doing what I wanted to do, zipping all over the world and taking care of my career,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;Now I have this huge responsibility to look after such an incredible gift. It makes you quite vulnerable and reminds you of your own childhood that you want to probably do differently. I want to do it differently.&rdquo; But, of course, she also experienced reservations. &ldquo;I was nervous to be a mom,&rdquo; she admits, saying&nbsp;she went on a &ldquo;healing journey&rdquo; to figure out why that was, got to the source of it, and did the work to seek resolution. &ldquo;Now I get it. Now I realize this is it. This is the living part. Every day I&rsquo;m like, &lsquo;When can we go for a walk? When can we go for a swim?&rsquo; There was a good 12 years where none of that smallness existed. It was amazing to live big and wild, but sometimes it&rsquo;s nice just to throw the ball on the grass and watch your daughter laugh from the simple joys of the dog coming and bringing it back.&rdquo;

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<img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/39109/1621978438-7katyperry.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress" />

Shirt and skirt SALVATORE FERRAGAMO

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<img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/39109/1621978641-10katyperry.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress" />

Dress, shoes, hat, and socks PRADA

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Daisies. Mountains. Grass. Maybe it&rsquo;s true what they say, nature is healing. Perry is clearly falling in love with a world more tranquil than the bombast of the ever-probing spotlight, which she says can be overwhelming. &ldquo;You just gotta learn how to get out of the burning car alive. Every once in a while, you can go back in and say, &lsquo;Here&rsquo;s my magic trick.&rsquo; I think that the music and the message are empowering and helpful for people, but you don&rsquo;t want it to be all-consuming. You want to carve out a real life as well.&rdquo;&nbsp;

That real life, or the &ldquo;smallest, best life&rdquo; as Perry refers to it, has meant ample time with her family&mdash;and not just Orlando and Daisy, but their extended family as well, including Perry&rsquo;s parents as well as her brother and sister. There&rsquo;s Taco Tuesdays and Pancake Sundays, which feature jazz music and Danish pancakes (her brother-in-law is Danish). &ldquo;When you spend this much time with your family, there are a lot of opportunities for healing.&rdquo;

I’d heard about unconditional love, but now I’m really experiencing it. There’s a wholeness that has happened.

&nbsp;

<img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/39109/1621978508-8katyperry.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress" />

Sweater and vest THE ELDER STATESMAN Shoes BIRKENSTOCK

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She&rsquo;s also begun considering her future&mdash;and not just one that includes an upcoming Las Vegas residency and a new song and video, &ldquo;Electric,&rdquo; for a collaboration with Pok&eacute;mon, but further down the line. &ldquo;What is that next interval of my life and what does that look like? And where do I find that fulfillment? I&rsquo;ve always had this dream of going to school and learning either about psychology or a combination of psychology and philosophy. And I know once I get into an educational program and a structure, I&rsquo;ll see all these subjects that I want to learn about. I know that&rsquo;s something in the future for me, but Vegas definitely comes first.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Opening this winter, the residency will see Perry join an all-star lineup of rotating talent including&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/celine-dion-best-style-moments" rel="noopener" target="_blank">C&eacute;line Dion</a>, Carrie Underwood, and Luke Bryan as well as Zedd and Ti&euml;sto at the new Resorts World Las Vegas. The return to the stage will mark Perry&rsquo;s first live performances since before the pandemic. When I ask her if she&rsquo;s nervous or at all apprehensive to step back out, she scoffs, making it clear that the off switch can very easily flip back on when needed. &ldquo;I know that when I go back on the stage, I&rsquo;m going to do my best and give it my all as I always do with my projects.&rdquo; But until then? &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been professionally busy since I was 13, and now I&rsquo;ve really stopped to smell the roses.&rdquo;&nbsp;

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<img src="https://www.datocms-assets.com/39109/1621978608-9katyperry.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress" />

Coat KHAITE

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HAIR&nbsp;Jesus Guerrero&nbsp; 
MAKEUP&nbsp;Michael Anthony&nbsp; 
NAILS&nbsp;Kim Diem Truong 
PRODUCTION&nbsp;Dana Brockman&nbsp;VIEWFINDERS&nbsp; 
PRODUCTION COORDINATOR&nbsp;Molly O&rsquo;Brien 
DIGITAL TECH&nbsp;Amanda Yanez&nbsp; 
LIGHTING ASSISTANTS&nbsp;Yolanda Leaney and Sebastien Keefe 
STYLIST ASSISTANTS&nbsp;Alexis Asquith and Jamison Diertrich&nbsp; 
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT&nbsp;Jeremy Alvarez&nbsp; 
SPECIAL THANKS&nbsp;Rosewood Miramar Beach

Katy Perry is Smelling the Daisies

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