For the fourth time in her storied career, hitmaking pop diva Katy Perry will perform in Manila.
The 33-year-old American singer-songwriter announced the Asian leg of her ongoing “Witness: The Tour,” and it includes Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Bangkok, Jakarta and, yes, Manila. Produced by AEG Presents and Ovation Productions, the Manila leg of the tour will take place at the Mall Of Asia Arena on April 2 next year but tickets will officially begin on sale December 11 at 12 noon.
Perry is best known for her string of hits over the last nine years including anthemic songs like “I Kissed a Girl,” “Hot n’ Cold,” “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “Firework,” “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.),” “Roar,” “Dark Horse,” and “Chained to the Rhythm.” The latter song featuring Jamaican reggae star Skip Marley is the first of three singles released from her latest album, “Witness,” distributed in the Philippines by MCA Music.
Since its release last June, “Witness” — which also features “Bon Appetit” with Migos and “Swish Swish” featuring Nicki Minaj — has topped the US and Canadian album charts and has peaked in the Top 10 of eight other countries. UK trade publication NME hails Perry’s conscious effort to “meld social awareness with high-octane electropop.”
“Sure, ‘Witness’ isn’t about subtlety, but if you’re going to deliver important messages about female autonomy to a young audience, it’s surely better to shout than whisper,” wrote NME’s Leonie Cooper. Hannah J. Davies of The Guardian, on the other hand, took note of Perry’s “edgy, new look” as in perfect contrast with the album’s “melodic flair.”
The supporting tour is not lacking in superlatives either. Described as “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,” it boasts of a stage layout that assures fans “there isn’t a bad seat in the house.”
The tour’s North American leg, which began in September, has drawn rave reviews from USA Today, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, InStyle, Billboard and Variety.
“As concert productions go, Perry’s is the definition of top-notch and an Instagram dream: a highly choreographed, sensory overloaded assault that sparkles, swings, struts, and even flies,” wrote Shirley Halperin of Variety.
“Perry essentially went back to basics — enormous, colorful sets with eye-popping props, strong vocals that kept her at the front of top-40 live performers, and a presence now more refined than radicalized,” opined August Brown of the Los Angeles Times.
Perry has previously performed in the Philippines for each of her four world tours: “Hello Katy” tour in 2009 at the Mall of Asia Concert Grounds, “California Dreams” in 2012 again at the same venue, and for her sold out “Prismatic World Tour” in 2015 at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
