Katy Perry reveals inspiration behind 143 album title

By Ellie Iorizzo, PA Los Angeles Correspondent

Katy Perry has dedicated her new album to the numbers 143, which she began seeing several years ago “in some of my hardest moments”.

The US music star released the album’s first single Woman’s World alongside a cinematic music video, which features a cameo from online star Trisha Paytas and celebrates “the divine feminine”.

Former American Idol judge Perry said she felt “super grateful and excited” after releasing the song, and explained the inspiration behind the album’s unusual title on Instagram.

“I don’t know about you, but 143 for me is a message from my angels,” Perry said.

“It means I love you in some digital language, but it’s a symbol that I get and have received in some of my hardest moments and it was something that started coming to me about two-and-a-half years ago.

“I see 143 everywhere and not just like on the phone, even though that’s always a good sign, but I see it everywhere.

“…The angels always want to speak with you, (you’ve) just got to be willing to hear it.”

The music video sees Perry dressed as both US cultural symbol Rosie the Riveter and a bionic woman, having woken up with bionic legs in a world of destruction after being crushed by an anvil.

“It’s a woman’s world and you’re lucky to be living in it, meaning us ladies are so full of love and light and we love you and we are soft, we are strong, we are chaos, we are cool – we are feminine divine,” Perry said, ending the video.

The album will be released on September 20, a month before her 40th birthday.

Perry has had five number one singles in the UK with tracks including I Kissed A Girl, California Gurls and Roar, as well as two number one albums with Teenage Dream in 2010 and Prism in 2013.

Her last album, Smile, was released in 2020, and went to number five in the UK albums chart in the same month Perry gave birth to daughter Daisy Dove, with her partner, Lord Of The Rings actor Orlando Bloom.