“Woman’s World” was Katy Perry’s first solo single in three years, and it might be her downfall.

The pop star who enjoyed great success with incredible albums such as Teenage Dream and Prism is now facing perhaps the worst reviews of her career.

Her song hasn’t appealed to either fans or critics, but the backlash comes from more than just her having released a bad track.

The song, ostensibly a call for female empowerment, was co-written by Dr. Luke, who was accused of sexual assault.

Now, amid the harsh criticism, Katy Perry has decided to explain herself.

Katy Perry Defends Her Choices For Her New Music

Katy Perry’s new single, “Woman’s World”, part of her upcoming album 143, was not well received. The former American Idol judge released what she supposedly hoped would be a feminist anthem, and instead, it ended up getting mocked and slammed on social media and by critics.

And it’s not only her creative choices people were mocking. One big problem fans seemed to have with the song “Woman’s World” was that it was co-written and co-produced by Dr. Luke, who Kesha had previously accused of sexual assault.against her song and the video accompanying it, Katy Perry offered an explanation on her Instagram account.

The video was considered to be oversexualized and corny, but the singer defended it, saying that it was purposely excessive because it was sarcastic. It opens with exclamations like “You can do it! You go girl! You were born to shine!” that Katy claims were meant to be off-putting.

“We’re kind of just having fun, being a bit sarcastic with it. It’s very slapstick and very on the nose,” she said. “With this set it’s like, ‘Oooh, we’re not about the male gaze, but we really are about the male gaze.’”

“We’re really overplaying it and on the nose, because we’re about to get smashed, which is like a reset for me and for my idea of feminine divine, and it’s a whole different world we go to after this.”

‘Woman’s World’ Was Destroyed By Critics

Despite her explanation of what the video truly meant, Katy Perry’s song was still not appreciated, and the reviews were brutal.

The Guardian gave the track 1 star out of 5, with the reviewer Laura Snapes saying that the song made her “feel stupider every sorry time I listened to it.” She also compared Katy unfavorably with younger pop stars.

“[Chappell] Roan – along with Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX – is modelling how to be a pop star in 2024: they’re inventive, self-aware, silly, deep, some of the qualities Perry had at the peak of her promise but seems to have lost forever.”

For Pitchfork, “Woman’s World” sounded “like its author had to have feminism explained to her by the top half of the first page of Google.”

Both publications pointed out that her association with Dr. Luke was a bad choice, especially for a song seemingly about feminism, with Pitchfork saying that the song’s message “rang false, simply because it was co-written and co-produced by Dr. Luke, the producer Kesha accused, in a since-dismissed lawsuit, of sexual assault and emotional abuse.”

While her upcoming album might still turn things around, Katy Perry’s comeback to music is not looking good so far.