“Show Them This!”: Katy Perry Claps Back At Critics

Katy Perry is not here for the haters, and she’s making sure the world knows it. After catching some heat online for her dance moves during earlier stops of her Lifetimes Tour, Katy kicked off the North American leg in Houston on May 7 with energy, humor, and a whole lot of confidence. 

Performing at the Toyota Center, she seized the moment during Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) to send a playful message to her critics.

As the music paused for an instrumental break, Katy looked out at the crowd and said with a smirk, “Show them this when they say I can’t dance!” 

She then broke into a hilarious, carefree dance; flailing her arms and legs like she was doing jumping jacks, and even lifting her skirt to cheekily flash her backside at the audience. The crowd loved it.

This moment came after some fans on social media labeled her earlier performances in Mexico City as “cringe” and “embarrassing.” The tour officially launched on April 23 at Arena CDMX, and while many cheered her return to the stage, a vocal few had plenty to say about her choreography.

But Katy’s been through this kind of thing before and she’s not losing sleep over it. Last week, she addressed the wave of negativity in a heartfelt Instagram comment under a post celebrating a Times Square billboard dedicated to her by fans.

“When the ‘online’ world tries to make me a human Piñata, I take it with grace and send them love,” she wrote, “cause I know so many people are hurting in so many ways and the internet is very much so a dumping ground for unhinged and unhealed.”

She thanked her fans for standing by her through it all, saying, “I love you guys and have grown up together with you and am so excited to see you all over the world this year!” 

The Teenage Dream singer also reminded everyone that she’s done the inner work and knows who she is. “Please know I am okay,” she added. “My therapist said something years ago that has been a game changer, ‘no one can make you believe something about yourself that you don’t already believe about yourself’ and if I ever do have any feelings about it then it’s an opportunity to investigate the feeling underneath it.” 

She’s not pretending to be perfect either. In her words: “I’m on a human journey playing the game of life with an audience of many and sometimes I fall but… I get back up and go on and continue to play the game and somehow through my battered and bruised adventure I keep looking to the light and in that light a new level UNLOCKS.”