Smile (Katy Perry album)


Smile is the upcoming sixth studio album by American singer Katy Perry. It is scheduled to be released on August 28, 2020, by Capitol Records, three years after her previous album Witness. It is preceded by the singles "Never Really Over", "Harleys in Hawaii", "Daisies" and "Smile". Perry described the album as her "journey towards the light, with stories of resilience, hope, and love".

Background

In March 2018, Ian Kirkpatrick announced he had worked with Perry on new music. In an interview with The Fader, he stated: "We did a couple of days and she is amazing." He further stated that working with Perry was "someone I've wanted to work with my whole life, and she was literally the most normal, no-ego person." In June of the same year, Perry was seen working with Max Martin in his native Sweden. In March 2020, Ryan Tedder revealed he had worked with Perry on new music for the album. In an interview with Official Charts, he explained: "I was working with Katy two weeks ago." He continued explaining how Perry was "in a really cool headspace. I’ve only cut one song with her but I'm in love with it."
In March 2020, Perry announced her intentions of releasing "a lot" of new music during the summer months of the same year. In May, she announced "Daisies" as the album's lead single. The same month, Amazon Alexa announced the album's release date as August 14, 2020. In a June 2020 interview with Billboard, Perry discussed a new song, titled "Teary Eyes". She later confirmed in a July 2020 interview that "Never Really Over" will be on the album. The same month, the album's title was confirmed as Smile, after one of the songs on the album. The album will also be released as a bone white vinyl, alongside with a picture disc one, a cassette, and a limited deluxe edition CD, with a lenticular cover, and titled "Fan edition", being the latter available for preorder so far on Perry's and Universal Music Czech Republic's official webstores.
On July 27, Perry announced on social media that the album release date had been pushed back to August 28 due to "unavoidable production delays".

Conception and artwork

Perry explained that Smile is about "finding the light at the end of the tunnel", and taking back your smile, and that the album comes from a place where she fell in after her career and relationship hit a low point back in 2017. Perry stated that she struggled with depression and suicidal thoughts, and that gratitude is what saved her life. Perry also defined the album as her "journey towards the light, with stories of resilience, hope, and love".
The album's artwork features Perry as "a glum clown with a red nose and a blue and white checkered suit above the title, Smile". It was unveiled via a Twitter game that involved her fans/followers tweeting about the album to "tweet to pop virtual balloons in order to uncover" the album cover.

Promotion and singles

"Daisies" was released on May 15, 2020 as the album's lead single. The album was made available to pre-order on July 10, 2020, alongside the title track.
Throughout 2019 and 2020, Perry released four solo songs, originally intended to be non-album singles. "Never Really Over", released on May 31, 2019, was announced to be on Smile by Perry in June 2020. "Harleys in Hawaii", released on October 16, 2019, was revealed to be on the standard track list upon the release of the album pre-order. "Small Talk", released August 9, 2019, and "Never Worn White", released March 5, 2020, did not make the standard track list, but ended up as bonus tracks on the "Fan edition" of the album.

Track listing

;Notes and samples