Katy Perry is coming to New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Katy Perry is coming to New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
After teasing a New Zealand tour in July, Katy Perry has now confirmed she will play Auckland's Spark Arena next year, on Monday, August 20.
The pop superstar is taking her Witness tour around the world off the back of the album release in June, and while it met harshcriticism from critics, fans have continued to rally around the singer, celebrating her first release since 2013's Prism.
Witness: The Tour promises to be "an imaginative trip from outer-space to inner-space, from the planets to the bottom of our oceans, and a musical journey through Katy Perry's biggest milestones and mega-hits right up to her latest album.
"The dramatically original staging means that there isn't a bad seat in the house, when Katy brings out her band and dancers, along with all the bells and whistles."
Things have changed in the last four years for Perry, with Witness hailing a departure from party anthems like I Kissed a Girl and TGIF and instead seeing Perry embarking on a mission to make what she calls "purposeful pop". On Twitter, she changed her bio to "Artist. Activist. Conscious".
Since then, she's been everywhere. Making headlines for her new look, playing Ariana Grande's concert for the victims of the Manchester Arena terror attack, and, most notably, hosting a three-day livestream from a purpose-built location to hype the release of her album.
During that time, fans saw Perry undergo a tear-filled therapy session with Dr Siri Sat Nam Singh, talk space and existentialism with Neil deGrasse Tyson, practise yoga and meditation, and host a discussion about love, sex and feminism with her fellow female stars.
Where her lyrics used to be about partying too hard, waking up with no memory, kissing girls and chilling by the pool, on Witness, even a song about dancing to your favourite song is a message about how we're all "zombie" slaves to pop culture; "So comfortable we live in a bubble / So comfortable we cannot see the trouble".
Pair all that with the fact that Perry hasn't played in New Zealand since selling out two Auckland shows in 2014, and it's fair to say Kiwi fans are about to meet a whole new version of the pop star.
That said, it's still bound to be a party, with hits like the noughties pop-type Hey Hey Hey; hip-hop heavy Bon Appetit and Swish Swish; and the upbeat 90s-esque Roulette, on top of a four-album strong discography to draw from, containing hits like Waking Up in Vegas, Teenage Dream, Firework and Roar.
A Visa Entertainment pre-sale will kick off next Monday from 10am, ahead of general release on Friday, September 1 at 10am.
LOWDOWN: What: Katy Perry's Witness: The Tour When: Monday August 20, 2018 Where: Spark Arena Tickets: On sale Friday September 1 from 10am via Ticketmaster
