Katy Perry Trivia
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59 free Katy Perry trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
52 free Katy Perry trivia questions with answers. Katy Perry went from a pastor's daughter selling a couple hundred gospel albums to one of the best-selling pop artists ever, and this quiz covers the whole arc. Fifty questions run from her Santa Barbara childhood and the stage name borrowed from her mother, through 'I Kissed a Girl', the five Hot 100 number ones from Teenage Dream, 'Roar' and 'Dark Horse', the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show and Left Shark, her marriage to Russell Brand and engagement to Orlando Bloom, American Idol, the Las Vegas residency Play, the 143 era and her 2025 Blue Origin spaceflight. Easy questions ask who raps on 'California Gurls' and who she married in 2010; the hard ones want the scent of the Teenage Dream packaging, the band behind the 'Gurls' spelling and the dancer inside the Left Shark suit. Built for anyone who has ever argued about the best Katy Perry single. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on Perry, her albums, singles and the halftime show, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up. No lyrics are quoted anywhere.
30 of 59 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city was Katy Perry born?
Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara: in 2018 she returned to headline a benefit concert there for people hit by the wildfires and mudslides.
Q 02What did both of Katy Perry's parents do for a living?
Pentecostal pastors
As Pentecostal pastors, her parents discouraged secular music at home, so she grew up singing gospel in church.
Q 03Under what name did Katy Perry release her 2001 gospel debut album at age 16?
Katy Hudson
Katy Hudson was promoted on the road, with Perry opening shows on Phil Joel's Strangely Normal Tour.
Q 04Roughly how many copies did Katy Perry's 2001 debut album sell?
Around 200
Around 200 copies sold before Red Hill Records closed down, and she soon moved to Los Angeles to chase secular pop.
Q 05Where did the 'Perry' in Katy Perry's stage name come from?
Her mother's maiden name
Her mother's maiden name supplied the Perry, a switch she made so she wouldn't be confused with a well-known actress.
Q 06Which city did teenage Katy Perry head to while pursuing a Christian music career?
Nashville
Nashville is where she began recording music, and at 15 she had already earned her GED and dropped out of high school.
Q 07Which musician does Katy Perry cite as her biggest influence?
Freddie Mercury
Freddie Mercury's 'Killer Queen' had a profound effect on Perry as a teenager and helped draw her into music.
Q 08Which 1995 album did Katy Perry call 'the most perfect female record ever made'?
Jagged Little Pill
Jagged Little Pill is Alanis Morissette's album, and friends introduced Perry to Morissette's music, which shaped her own songwriting.
Q 09Katy Perry sang backing vocals on Mick Jagger's 'Old Habits Die Hard' from which 2004 film?
Alfie
Alfie's soundtrack came from Mick Jagger and Dave Stewart, and in 2013 Perry guested on stage during the Rolling Stones' tour.
Q 10Katy Perry played the love interest in the 'Cupid's Chokehold' video for which band, fronted by her then-boyfriend?
Gym Class Heroes
Gym Class Heroes frontman Travie McCoy was her boyfriend, and in summer 2008 she joined him on the Warped Tour.
Q 11Which pop icon publicly praised Katy Perry's early song 'Ur So Gay'?
Madonna
Madonna's approval helped the song take off, even though Capitol had released it online with no plans for radio.
Q 12Which Rihanna hit ended the Hot 100 reign of Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl'?
Disturbia
Disturbia also won a 2009 NRJ Music Award in France, but Perry went up and accepted that prize by mistake.
Q 13Which Katy Perry song did she sing with Elmo in a Sesame Street segment pulled before airing?
Hot n Cold
Hot n Cold was reworked with Elmo, but parents' feedback about her low-cut outfit kept it off TV, though it stayed online.
Q 21Which stars play the parents of Kathy Beth Terry, Katy Perry's nerdy music-video alter ego?
Corey Feldman and Debbie Gibson
Corey Feldman and Debbie Gibson turn up in a clip built as a tribute to '80s teen movies.
Q 22Which rapper joined Katy Perry on the 2011 single 'E.T.'?
Kanye West
Kanye West wasn't on the album track: his two verses were added when E.T. was reworked for its single release.
Q 23Katy Perry's 2010–11 run in the Billboard Hot 100 top ten broke a record held by which Swedish group?
Ace of Base
Ace of Base had held the mark at 48 weeks since 1993–94, and Perry passed it by stacking five straight Teenage Dream number ones.
Q 14What was Katy Perry's first headlining world tour, launched in 2009, called?
Hello Katy Tour
Hello Katy Tour ran from January to August 2009, booking intimate clubs and theaters so every room would be packed.
Q 15Which rapper is featured on Katy Perry's 2010 hit 'California Gurls'?
Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg got the call after Perry looked up rappers online and decided he was still the best.
Q 16Katy Perry has said 'California Gurls' was written as an answer to which New York anthem?
Empire State of Mind
Empire State of Mind had given New York its big song, so Perry asked 'What about California?' and wrote her own.
Q 17Katy Perry's 'California Gurls' twists the title of which band's 1965 hit?
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys' 'California Girls' shaped the title, but the 'u' spelling honors Big Star's 'September Gurls' after singer Alex Chilton died in 2010.
Q 18Limited copies of Katy Perry's Teenage Dream album carried what scent?
Cotton candy
Cotton candy fit the cover too: Perry emailed artist Will Cotton to buy a painting, and he offered to paint her instead.
Q 19Teenage Dream tied whose album for the record of five Billboard Hot 100 number ones from one album?
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson's Bad got its five number ones faster, but Perry's five spent 19 weeks at the top to his seven.
Q 20Which single became the fifth Billboard Hot 100 number one from Teenage Dream in August 2011?
Last Friday Night
Last Friday Night got a Missy Elliott remix the week before it hit number one.
Q 24The music video for 'Firework' was shot in which European capital?
Budapest
Budapest hosted the shoot, and Perry dedicated the finished video to the It Gets Better campaign against anti-LGBT bullying.
Q 25Which prize did 'Firework' take at the 2011 MTV VMAs?
Video of the Year
Video of the Year went to Firework, beating Adele's 'Rolling in the Deep', which won only technical awards that night.
Q 26Katy Perry made her film debut voicing which character in the 2011 movie The Smurfs?
Smurfette
Smurfette was first created by Gargamel to work against the Smurfs, until Papa Smurf's magic turned her into a real Smurf.
Q 27Whom did Katy Perry marry in October 2010?
Russell Brand
Russell Brand met her while she filmed a kissing cameo for his movie Get Him to the Greek, but the scene was cut.
Q 28The 2012 documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me followed which of her live outings?
California Dreams Tour
California Dreams Tour footage runs through the film, which also shows Perry coping as her marriage broke down during that tour.
Q 29How was the title of Katy Perry's album Prism first revealed in July 2013?
On a golden truck
On a golden truck the title and release date rolled around Los Angeles, and that August a drunk driver's semi hit the truck in Pennsylvania.
Q 30On its release, many accused 'Roar' of copying which Sara Bareilles song?
Brave
Brave came out ahead: Bareilles's label, Epic, began pushing it to pop radio as a direct result of the chatter over the similarity.