Katy Perry Performed at the World Cup Opening. Now She Has New Music Out. Does the Pop Era Still Work for Her?

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Katy Perry performed at the FIFA World Cup 2026 opening ceremony at the Los Angeles Stadium on June 12 in front of a crowd of 80,000 people and a global television audience, delivering a set that included Firework, Roar and a preview of her June 26 single release. The performance was watched by many as a test of whether Perry, who struggled commercially with her 2022 album 143 and has not had a UK top ten since Dark Horse in 2013, still has the cultural presence to hold that scale of stage. The general critical consensus was that she did, though the performance was more about spectacle than vocal revelation.

The June 26 single, released the same day as the Muse and Beth Orton albums, is described by DraftKings Network's music roundup as one of the week's most anticipated releases alongside Tyler the Creator and Marshmello. The song represents Perry's attempt to reposition after the 143 commercial failure, which was candid about her approach: she has spoken in interviews about wanting to reconnect with the directness and emotional simplicity of her Teenage Dream era rather than the maximalist production approach of 143.

The broader question of whether the early 2010s pop maximalism that Perry epitomised still works in the mid-2020s streaming landscape is genuinely interesting. The sonic palette of that era, big drops, anthemic choruses, inspirational bridge, sounds dated in a way that some classic pop from twenty years earlier does not. Perry's instinct to go back toward something simpler is probably correct as a strategic instinct even if the execution remains to be evaluated on its merits over coming weeks.

New Music Friday release radar for June 26, 2026: top albums, song releasesdknetwork.draftkings.com