When I heard that Katy Perry had dropped a new song called “Rise,” my immediate thought was “is it a cover of that Andra Day song?” Andra Day’s “Rise Up” came out last year and it’s a really great song with a gospel core. If the Olympics wanted to plaster Andra Day’s song all over the place, I would be very happy. But that’s not what’s happening. Katy Perry has done a new song called “Rise” and it’s just been chosen as the anthem of the Rio Olympics. Here’s the Olympics-video:
I mean… it’s inspirational, absolutely. But you could layer many songs over those Olympic-moment clips and it would be inspirational. This seems like a fairly mundane offering from Katy. Katy debuted the video and song on the Today Show this morning, and here’s the little video:
ICYMI on @TodayShow, here’s why I wrote #RISE pic.twitter.com/cpjf25PRGb
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) July 15, 2016
I didn’t know that she was working on a new album right now. It makes sense though – she released the wildly popular Prism back in 2013, and she made crazy-money touring with that album. How much would you love it if Taylor Swift and Katy released new albums around the same time next year? It would be especially great if there were multiple songs referencing their feud, although… to Katy’s credit, she really doesn’t acknowledge the Swifty stuff. She’s made a handful of tweets about it and that’s it. I think that probably drives Taylor Swift crazy, that Katy isn’t doing “Bad Blood” songs about her. Why is Katy so MEAN?
Also: the Olympics are officially TEAM KATY. The Swiftlunatics are banned from watching this year’s Olympics, you guys. Now all we need is Calvin Harris deejaying at the Opening Ceremony.
— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) July 13, 2016
Photos courtesy of Katy Perry, WENN.
Another hit from Katy! New music today from her, MIA and Britney 🔥
The new Britney song is so horrible. The only good part about it is G-Eazy.
And queue the new generations attributing “but still I rise” to Katy.
I find her music has been super underwhelming… she had BIG hits- didn’t particularly like them, but they were big. The last few things I’ve heard from her is ‘meh’.
Taylor will say, “well I wrote Shake It Off FIRST!”
I agree, her work has been underwhelming lately. Nothing has topped Teenage Dream and everything that came from it and before.
But I do prefer Katy to Taylor… 🙂
While I give Perry the credit that she actually contributes to her albums, I have to be honest that I don’t think she’s a particularly good songwriter. She’s churned out some fun, catchy tunes, but when I listen to entire albums, I rarely find gems beyond the radio hits. I think part of the problem is that she (or her writing partners) often write the music outside of her range. You don’t have to be opera level talented to sing pop music, but you do have to be aware of what actually sounds good with your voice.
Sorry. Thirty-one seconds was all I could take before I had to shut her down.
Yeah, no. I’ll take vuvuzelas over her screeching.
Her voice and my ears just do not get along. I’ve made peace with this. 😉
Me too, BUTTERFLY. This is a crap song.
Remember “One Moment in Time”? THAT was an Olympic ballad.
I’m partial to Gloria Estefan’s “Reach.”
So does this mean that I won’t be able to watch the Olympics without hearing this song a million times? Ugh. I can’t stand Katy Perry, and it has absolutely nothing to do with her feud with Taylor Swift (I’m not a fan of either). I don’t like her music, and I really don’t like her cutesy shtick.
Same here. I do not like Katy’s cutesy/sexy schtick at all. I don’t care for her music, either. And, no, I’m not on anyone’s “team.”
Sounds good, much better for a sporting/inspirational anthem that the offering from David Guetta/Zara Larsson that was the Euro 2016 anthem, that sucked majorly. I always like Katy Perry’s more serious songs, she it gives her whole image much more gravitas and emotion than say California Girls.
Also the team behind that video deserve recognition, it’s really good.
#teamkaty forevs. Even though the song is meh, at least she’s honest about what she is. She’s a pop star, she makes pop songs. She’s not a delicate little flower. It’s all an act, but hers is authentic.
@FARRAHH Our revisionist history is pretty strong re: Katy Perry. A couple of months ago she was a nothing burger. People did tend to criticize her for being too cute and standing for nothing. This new Katy is a result of that PR adjustment. Don’t get me wrong, I really like Katy’s music but no need to make reference to another super star everyone currently hates for some reason to lift her up.
Will her new BFF Eppie Calvin be claiming writing credits?
Or maybe Taylor sjogren nils swift?
Shouldn’t a Brazilian create the theme for the Brazil Olympics?? I am confused…
Olympics are a global event and they want a global super star to sing the song. On the top of my head I can’t name any Brazilian pop stars who are big in the international pop charts.
That would have been nice, and a nice tradition to start, having the official song be from the host country.
@Lucy2 I agree with that idea, I remember quite a number of people being upset that the 2010 World Cup had Shakira singing about ‘this time for Africa’ when there were Africans who were capable of impressing the global audience ( eg. K’naan’s Coca Cola anthem).
It would make a nice change to support locals who host such a huge event.
As mentioned below it isn’t the theme for the Olympics itself just for the NBC coverage.
I think it kind of sounds like a Eurovision song constest song .
My favorite Olympic anthems were Shakira’s “Waka Waka” and K’naan’s “Waving Flag.” Still listen to those!
Katy Perry’s is forgettable.
The Shakira tune is a fun song … it was for the FIFA World Cup though.
Ha I get all my sports stuff confused. Knew it was for a sports thing!
My kids sang the “Waka Waka” song at their last choir concert and they all had a blast performing it. Great uplifting song!
Mine was the canadian Olympics and all u could ever her them play was “party in the USA” miley cyrus
I didn’t used to be a Katy fan…but if we’re taking sides I’m team Katy.
Still can’t bring myself to listen to the song all the way through, though.
I now want to see a Katy/Kanye/Calvin Harris collaboration ahhahahaha
Maybe Calvin could have written something better for her…oh, wait. 😉
LOL
It’s growing on me. The first listen, just okay. The second listen it seemed a lot catchier to me, and I liked the visuals with it, which helps the song. I think it fits the theme.
They should leave sporting events anthems to Shakira if this is what we get.
Still think Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time” is the best Olympics theme ever. 1988 Olympics….
Heck yeah!!
Is nobody gonna talk about the fact that it was produced by Dr.Luke????????
No more respect for this chick.
First thing I noticed and I really shocked me. Has she made any statements of support for Kesha all along? I don’t remember any.
She said this isn’t true.
https://twitter.com/katyperry/status/753807710307487744
Dr Luke oversees quite a lot of Sony’s output, not just his own label within Sony. He’s credited as ‘producing’ a lot of songs, but all he did was listen and approve of their production basically.
In this case it seems he had nothing to do with it at all, but in future he is going to be connected to many artists, most of whom never stepped into the studio with him. Blame Sony.
I tried to like it. I personally prefer upbeat poppy Katy. Her slow songs have just never ever worked for me.
I. Just. Can’t. It’s so bad. I generally think Katy makes good catchy songs but yikes, this isn’t great. Smart move capitalizing on the drama because it’s currently #1 on US iTunes.
They way I understand it, this is not the official 2016 Rio Olympic Games’ anthem, just the song NBC channel will be using as their anthem during the Olympics coverage.
I prefer catchy, upbeat tunes, so a remix might be a good idea.
Yes, you’re right. 🙂
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/latin/7424042/2016-rio-olympics-official-theme-song-video
I was wondering what the official song was. Thank you for posting the link.
Not a fan of her music, voice, or singing style, so this gets a no from me.
Made it 1 minute into the video. Nope.
Katy Perry should just stick to silly upbeat pop songs. When she tries to be more deep she makes such a fool of herself.
Correction- Katy Perry also named her freaking perfume (“Mad Love”) in reference to the Swift feud. She is SO not above this!
No she didn’t Mad love is part two of her other sent Mad Passion which came out in 2015. That’s just more meDia BS putting two women against each other.
Sounds like Evanescence.
I’m quite fond of the one being used by Channel 4 in the UK for the Paralympics ‘Yes I Can’
https://youtu.be/IocLkk3aYlk
They’ve also released signed and subtitles and audio described versions of the ad.
It’s just an Olympic theme song. These usually aren’t great or memorable. Someone mentioned Whitney Houston. That’s the only theme that I really remember and liked.
For Olympics set in Rio, that film clip features a bizarre number of US athletes….
It’s okay. Like a lot of her new stuff, I’m not crazy about it, but it’s not absolutely awful or infuriating ala Ur So Gay. I assume she’s trying to rebrand herself, for which I say YES PLEASE GO FOR IT. Please just do *something* instead of making headlines with passive aggressive swipes at T. Swift through other conflicts people have with her.
I saw her do an acoustic live song early in her career and she literally had one of the worst voices i had ever heard…..I just never managed to forget that even when listening to the poppy engineered stuff she does now.
One word, auto tune. Waste of money.
That’s most of today’s main stream music.
It sounds like every other screechy pop song out there. Honestly I can’t tell one song from another or any singer from another in that genre. I despise it.
I like it more than her other songs. But as many above commented, it does sound like an Eurovision Song Contest entry.
And it feels kinda unenthusiastic for its message.