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60 free Katy Perry trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 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 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which California city was Katy Perry born?
Santa Barbara
She moved around the country as a child while her parents set up churches, then the family settled back there.
Q 02What did both of Katy Perry's parents do for a living?
Pentecostal pastors
Secular music was discouraged at home, so she grew up mostly on gospel and sang in church from ages nine to 17.
Q 03Under what name did the future pop star, then 16, release her 2001 gospel debut album?
Katy Hudson
The contemporary Christian record came out on Red Hill Records when she was 16, and the label folded that December.
Q 04Roughly how many copies did Katy Perry's 2001 debut album sell?
Around 200
The record got mixed reviews and the label ceased operations before the year was out.
Q 05Where did the 'Perry' in her stage moniker come from?
Her mother's maiden name
She briefly performed as Katheryn Perry in 2003 to avoid being confused with an actress who shared her birth surname.
Q 06At what age did Katy Perry complete her GED, leaving high school to pursue music?
Fifteen
She left Dos Pueblos High School during her first year there.
Q 07Which musician does Katy Perry cite as her biggest influence?
Freddie Mercury
A friend played her Queen's 'Killer Queen' when she was 17, and she later named her third fragrance after the song.
Q 08Which 1995 album did Katy Perry call 'the most perfect female record ever made'?
Jagged Little Pill
She chose to work with producer Glen Ballard early in her career specifically because he had made that album with Alanis Morissette.
Q 09Katy Perry sang backing vocals on Jagger's 'Old Habits Die Hard' from which 2004 film?
Alfie
That same year Blender magazine named her 'The Next Big Thing', four years before her breakthrough.
Q 10Katy Perry played the love interest in the 'Cupid's Chokehold' video for which band, fronted by her then-boyfriend?
Gym Class Heroes
The frontman was Travie McCoy, and the couple later toured together on the 2008 Warped Tour.
Q 11Which pop icon praised Katy Perry's early song 'Ur So Gay' on radio in 2008?
Madonna
The song had gone out as a promotional single months before her debut album, to build a campaign around her.
Q 12How many consecutive weeks did 'I Kissed a Girl' spend at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2008?
Seven
It was the 1,000th chart-topper of the rock era and was finally displaced by Rihanna's 'Disturbia'.
Q 13Which Katy Perry song did she sing with Elmo in a Sesame Street segment pulled before airing?
Hot n Cold
The clip was meant to teach antonyms; complaints about her outfit led Sesame Workshop to keep it off the TV broadcast.
Q 21In the music video where Katy Perry plays nerdy teenager Kathy Beth Terry, which pair play her parents?
Corey Feldman and Debbie Gibson
Kenny G appears as Uncle Kenny, and Rebecca Black and Hanson show up as themselves.
Q 22Which rapper joined Katy Perry on the 2011 single 'E.T.'?
Kanye West
The song spent five non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Hot 100.
Q 23In September 2011, Katy Perry set a record for consecutive weeks in the Hot 100 top ten. How many?
69
The streak was fuelled by the run of hit singles from Teenage Dream.
Q 14What was her first headlining world outing, in 2009, called?
Hello Katy Tour
It ran from January to November 2009 in support of One of the Boys.
Q 15Which rapper is featured on Katy Perry's 2010 hit 'California Gurls'?
Snoop Dogg
It gave him his third US number one and Perry her second.
Q 16Katy Perry has said 'California Gurls' was written as an answer to which New York anthem?
Empire State of Mind
That Jay-Z and Alicia Keys hit was the East Coast blueprint she wanted a West Coast reply to.
Q 17The odd spelling of 'California Gurls' was a tribute to which band's song 'September Gurls'?
Big Star
The change was made after the death of the band's Alex Chilton in 2010.
Q 18Limited copies of the Teenage Dream album carried what scent?
Cotton candy
The cover, painted by Will Cotton, shows Perry lying on clouds of pink cotton candy.
Q 19Teenage Dream tied whose album for the record of five Billboard Hot 100 number ones from one album?
Michael Jackson
The record set by that album in the late 1980s stood alone for over 20 years until Perry matched it in 2011.
Q 20Which single became the fifth Billboard Hot 100 number one from Teenage Dream in August 2011?
Last Friday Night
It made her the first woman to pull five number ones from a single album.
Q 24The music video for 'Firework' was shot in which European capital?
Budapest
Perry dedicated the video, directed by Dave Meyers, to the It Gets Better Project.
Q 25Which prize did 'Firework' take at the 2011 MTV VMAs?
Video of the Year
It was also nominated in the newly introduced Best Video with a Message category.
Q 26Katy Perry made her film debut voicing which character in the 2011 movie The Smurfs?
Smurfette
She reprised the role across the film series through 2013.
Q 27Whom did Katy Perry marry in October 2010?
Russell Brand
The ceremony was a traditional Hindu one held near a tiger sanctuary in Rajasthan.
Q 28The 2012 documentary Katy Perry: Part of Me followed which of her live outings?
California Dreams Tour
The 3D film was released by Paramount and grossed about $32.7 million worldwide.
Q 29How was the title of Katy Perry's album Prism first revealed in July 2013?
On the side of a golden truck
The truck drove around Los Angeles carrying the title and the planned release date.
Q 30On its release, many accused 'Roar' of copying which Sara Bareilles song?
Brave
Bareilles shrugged it off, saying that if she wasn't mad she didn't know why anyone else was upset.