At one point during the live stream, Perry invited a therapist for a session, which is an experience that many viewers may not have had. Then there were moments that could have gone awry or be embarrassing, but ended up being emotional without coming off as too earnest. It was like having Perry reminisce along with you. It was an inviting moment filled with little tidbits - that Kesha starred in her video for “I Kissed a Girl,” that she barely remembered the video for “E.T.” and forgot that Kanye West even had a second verse on the song. You felt compelled to laugh when they did. As a viewer, you felt like you were in the room with her when she was watching back on her old music videos with her stylist Johnny Wujek, jewelry designer Markus Molinari and YouTube star Liza Koshy. It was those humanizing moments that made the stream such a compelling view. It all seemed too conveniently timed, as if it were a ploy to get people to buy her CD. “Swish Swish” featuring Nicki Minaj soon followed, stoking speculation that Perry was sub-writing a diss toward Taylor Swift, something she finally addressed during a ride-along with James Corden in his Carpool Karaoke segment. 59 on the Hot 100 - one of her lowest showings yet. “Bon Appétit” was largely derided as the antithesis to Perry’s declaration that Witness was a work of “purposeful pop,” and it largely slumped on the charts, topping out at No.

In the months that followed the release of “Chained to the Rhythm,” Perry seemed to be trying too hard to recapture past attention. What makes Perry such an enigmatic pop star is that she doesn’t seem to try so hard, even when it’s clear she is. 4 and continued to slip, despite the fact that it marked the highest-debuting song by a female artist since Adele’s “Hello” landed at No. “Chained to the Rhythm” featuring Skip Marley bowed at No. But in the lead-up to Witness, Perry faltered, for the first consistent time in her career. Though 2013’s Prism didn’t quite achieve the monstrous success of its predecessor, 2010’s Teenage Dream, it still cemented her reign as one of pop’s queens, sending two of her singles - “Roar” and “Dark Horse” - to No. Going into the launch of her fifth album Witness, Katy Perry had an air of desperation the world hadn’t yet seen from her.

Katy perry witness