Katy Perry’s ‘Witness 1.3’: What We Know About The Single That Is No More
A new Katy Perry single entitled “Witness 1.3” was leaked when Perry’s Twitter account was hacked last night! Unfortunately, the SoundCloud recording of the song has since been taken down, and no one managed to snag a recording of the song for the brief period it was up. The song was discussed, however, and from the discussion, we can piece together a bit of what Katy was going for.
The internet exploded on Monday night when Katy Perry’s Twitter account, one of the most-followed accounts on the site, was hacked. The hacker, who is still unidentified except by his Twitter account, which claims he is Romanian, gained access to Perry’s account last night and tweeted out a series of odd messages accompanied by a SoundCloud link to a never-before-heard Katy Perry song posted under a SoundCloud account entitled “slut.”
The song was heard by a few people and discussed online, but it was very quickly taken down by the administrators of the SoundCloud account (presumably Katy Perry’s representatives).
The silver lining of the situation is that Perry’s quick deletion of the recording almost certainly means what was up there is real, but the sad reality is that now Katy Perry fans can only imagine what it sounded like by piecing together comments from forums regarding the song.
Hacker Takes Over Katy Perry's Twitter To Leak Song And Give Taylor Swift A Shout-Out https://t.co/U2BxXN3qKy pic.twitter.com/jCVFWAAX0v
— Student Edge (@student_edge) May 31, 2016
Gaga Daily hosted a forum that discussed the song at length.
For example, user PMKKARDASHiAN says that the song has a definite “trippy/70sish/discoish/punkish” vibe that is rarely found in music these days, and myCD added that she greatly enjoys the song’s trip-hop feel, which she says suits Perry’s voice very well.
They compare the song’s sound to that of a piece by bands The Weeknd and Calvin Harris or the one heard in Jess Glynne’s “Hold My Hand,” suggesting that the song will be a bit more somber and soulful than Katy Perry’s traditional brand of candy-sweet, high-energy power pop, and user gagzus says that Katy is imitating the voice of fellow pop artist Sia during the song.
“She seems to be known as a bright happy popstar but she definitely excels at darker songs,” writes NickARTPOP.
Even music publication Mic notes that the song’s style sounds drastically different than Perry’s past work, meaning that she is likely headed in a very different musical direction with her next album.
Commenters also reveal there is a male vocalist accompanying Perry on the track. Unfortunately, he remained unidentified.
Katy Perry joins John Mayer on stage for ‘Who You Love’ duet – http://t.co/wTVO906D2r pic.twitter.com/TteKYeEYgT
— SemKogan (@semkogan) December 18, 2013
Users pointed out that, due to the track’s very rough production, they could tell it was a demo, but the overall reaction, even from people who had not previously been Katy Perry fans, was very positive.
“This is clearly a demo (there’s a huge chunk where lyrics are obviously yet to go) but it actually sounds quite good,” wrote a commenter who simply went by Harry.
“I’m not a fan of pretty much any of Katy’s music but this seems to be a step in the right direction for her. It’s all over the place but with a better arrangement and polished production this could actually be a nice song.”
The leak is almost definitely legitimate, as Sway, the hacker, proudly showed an image of the “Soundcloud has removed this track due to ownership infringement” email on his Twitter (not Katy’s) after the song was removed.
But, as commenter HausOfNicole asks, was the “leak” a genuine breach or simply a clever viral marketing tool on Katy Perry’s part? It does help drum up interest in Perry’s music, she explains, and Katy just revealed a few days ago that she is embarking on a world tour in 2017.
“Sometimes I think these ‘leaks’ are totally staged,” HausOfNicole wrote.
“Like she announces a new tour and what not a few days ago and now her account as been ‘hacked’ and a song is posted. Like even if this isn’t a real song, I still feel like its purely to get some press.”
By “not a real song,” Nicole was referring to the fact that “Witness 1.3” was a demo.
Are you in favor of Katy Perry heading towards a more R&B, less strictly pop music vibe, or would you prefer if she just keeps doing what she’s been doing? And who do you hope the still-unknown male collaborator is? Make yourself heard in the comments section!
[Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images]
