Katy Perry says she feels like ‘a human piñata’ after recent criticism

Katy Perry feels the pressure of mounting online criticism directed against her.

“Please know I am ok, I have done a lot work around knowing who I am, what is real and what is important to me,” the “Teenage Dream” singer, 40, wrote in a comment under an April 29 post by a Brazilian fan group dedicated to her. The post announced that the group had purchased a digital billboard alongside several other fan groups to run for 24 hours in Times Square, congratulating the singer on the first week of her Lifetimes Tour.

“Know that you are safe, seen, and celebrated,” the billboard reads in part.

Perry explained in her comment, “When the ‘online’ world tries to make me a human Piñata, I take it with grace and send them love, 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. What’s real is seeing your faces every night, singing in unison, reading your notes, feeling your warmth.”

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to a representative for Perry for comment.

Perry thanked the fans from groups based in China, Argentina, Germany, and beyond for their gesture, writing, “I’m so grateful for you guys. We’re in this beautiful and wild journey together. I can continue to remain true to myself, heart open and honest especially because of our bond. I love you guys and have grown up together with you and am so excited to see you all over the world this year!”

“Congratulations on the opening week of the tour,” the billboard read. “We are so proud of you and your magical journey. And we love you to the moon and back!” In the caption to the post, the fan group wrote, “[Katy Perry] has taught us that love is the key that opens every door. Today, we wanted to remind her that she is never alone; our love for her is boundless, unwavering, and eternal.”

Closing out her comment, Perry wrote, “I’m not perfect, and I actually have omitted that word from my vocabulary, 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.”

Perry has lately been the subject of several waves of criticism, most recently over her participation in an all-female flight aboard Jeff Bezos’ private space company, Blue Origin, on April 14.

Even before Perry’s rocket launched, she and her fellow passengers — including CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King, Bezos fiancée Lauren Sanchez, and others — received substantial pushback. Olivia Munn called the flight “gluttonous,” Olivia Wilde bitterly joked that a “billion dollars bought some good memes I guess,” and when Perry safely landed, the fast food chain Wendy’s snarked, “Can we send her back.”

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But that’s not all. Perry’s on-stage dance moves during the Lifetimes Tour have come under fire; 143, the album that launched that tour, received some of the worst reviews of Perry’s career; and the singer has been roundly critiqued for working again with producer Dr. Luke, whom the singer Kesha accused of sexual assault in a 2014 lawsuit. The music producer denied her claims, countersued for defamation, she countersued that countersuit, and the parties settled in 2023.

The singer’s 143 is the sixth studio album she has released under the name Katy Perry, and her seventh overall.

The Lifetimes Tour kicked off on April 23, 2025, in Mexico City, and will conclude on December 7, 2025, in Abu Dhabi.