HBD, KP! From her real name to the songs she secretly wrote for other pop stars, Us Weekly Video rounded up four facts you probably never knew about Katy Perry in honor of her 32nd birthday on Tuesday, October 2 — which you can watch in the video above!
First, let’s start off with the moniker Perry was actually born with: Kate Hudson. Before the “Firework” singer — who was previously known as Katheryn Hudson during her short-lived career as a teen contemporary Christian artist — hit it big, she decided to adopt a new stage name to avoid any confusion with the Almost Famous actress.
Perry is actually a friend of Hudson’s. During a 2013 SiriusXM Town Hall interview, the chart-topper opened up about their special bond.
“When we text, it’s like ‘Hudson here,'” she said. “We are buds and we get along … We have become friends and go to game nights together, we play this game called Mafia … We play it all the time.”
Along with sharing her name with Hudson, 37, you may also not know that the Katy Perry: Part of Me star has collaborated on hits for a string of other Top 40 acts. Among the divas who have sung Perry’s music and lyrics are none other than Britney Spears (“Passenger”), Iggy Azalea and Rita Ora (“Black Widow”), Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande (“Get on Your Knees”) and Kelly Clarkson (“I Do Not Hook Up”).
During a 2009 interview with MTV News, Perry opened up about writing for Clarkson’s fourth studio album, All I Ever Wanted.
“[I] wrote a song for my record called ‘I Do Not Hook Up,’ but it didn’t make it on my record,” Perry said of her sophomore 2008 LP, One of the Boys. “Just because there were so many different songs and there were only 12 slots allotted for the record, so … it was kind of one of those songs that was just, like, still there. And Kelly Clarkson heard it. I guess she liked it, and she recorded it — and another song too.”
She jokingly added: “I’m so excited, [Now I have a] house in Malibu! Thank you, Kelly!”
For more about Perry — and her uncanny talent for delivering babies — watch the video above.
