“Some of it comes from the audience”: When Katy Perry opened up about her mental health in 2020

Fans can make or break a celebrity and Katy Perry's August 2020 interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music Thursday proves it right. The American singer, a global pop icon with chart topping hits like Firework, Last Friday Night, and Roar, is no stranger to fame, but as per her this previous interview, fame has acted as a doubled-edged sword for her.

Katy Perry got candid about her vulnerabilities in the conversation with Zane Lowe. The American singer-songwriter opened up about how social media was impacting her negatively when Lowe introduced the topic of how fans control so much of what an artist does:

"Some of it comes from the audience. They like to pit us against each other," the singer-songwriter claimed.

Katy Perry revealed that fans would leave nasty comments on Twitter, comparing her to other singers, trying to pit her against others, and would always have something degrading to say about her. Already dealing with depression and anxiety, all the unwarranted hate from the internet took a heavy toll on her mental health as she found it becoming increasingly difficult to stay positive:

"It's like [on her Twitter], 'Who's better than who? Who's skinnier than who? Who's sold more number ones than who? Who's doing better this year than who? Who made this much more than who?'"

What's worse was that she was being constantly compared with other female artists, thereby bringing down the value of women's contribution to music to a petty catfight. All these problematic aspects of the internet started to disgust Perry but, as she stated, she got "through it" and "overcame to the other side," a journey that she reportedly recorded in her 2020 album, Smile.

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"I just couldn't get out of bed for weeks...": Katy Perry on how real her mental health crisis was

In the aforementioned interview, Katy Perry confessed to having a mental health scare where she found herself on heavy medication after being diagnosed as clinically depressed. Sadly, the songstress reportedly felt "ashamed" at the diagnosis. She felt she was "too weak" and that as a singer who sang inspirational and motivational hits like Firework and Roar, it was especially difficult for her to see herself in this sorry state.

Recalling her mental state, Perry stated:

"I just couldn't get out of bed for weeks and became clinically depressed and had to get on medication for the first time in my life, and I was so ashamed of it. I was like, 'I'm Katy Perry. I wrote 'Firework.' I'm on medication. This is f***** up.'"

In the same interview, Katy Perry also noted that women have an especially hard path in the music industry. Reflecting on the general awesomeness of women, Katy Perry said in the interview that women deserve more credit for all that they go through - to "create a life," just "live," deal with "all [negative] stuff," and give "birth to a watermelon."

She also talked about the multidimensionality of women as boundless entities capable of doing just about everything:

"They are not just one thing. They are so malleable and so elastic," Katy Perry stated.

All the hate that the American singer experienced on Twitter and the way she was exposed to the ugly ways in which fans compare and degrade female performers inspired her to write the song What Makes A Woman, wherein she showed her "appreciation" for women.

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What is the California Gurls singer upto now?

Perry just wrapped up judging the final round of American Idol season 21. Meanwhile, she has also taken to designing shoes by launching her own namesake brand.

Recently, her summer hit California Gurls, from her third studio album Teenage Dream (2010), officially hit 10x Platinum in the US.