Empowering songs

She has lost the blue hair, for now at least, and has come out with an empowerment anthem that pulled the carpet out from under Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” to take the number one spot. Of course we’re referring to Katy Perry and her song “Roar”, which soared to the top of the charts last week and stayed there this week.

The video, with its gimmicky jungle scenes seems a bit contrived, almost as though it’s being used to take the edge off what is in fact a very powerful song. In the beginning Perry is seen as a mousy-looking, beaten-down woman who emerges from a plane that has crashed in the jungle with Mr Chauvinistic himself. He tosses her his bag to carry, takes a ‘selfie’ and stalks off ahead of her only to be immediately taken out by a tiger. Perry runs off, obviously scared, but manages to survive and by the end of the video, she has conquered the jungle and everything in it. She is mother to the crocodile (brushing its teeth); she is ‘besties’ with the elephant (painting its nails) and she manages to out-roar the tiger. Yes, it is a bit over the top.

However, the lyrics she wrote and sang have a much more powerful and serious message that we hope her many fans, especially young girls, can see beyond the quirky video and get. She sings: “…I guess that I forgot I had a choice//I let you push me past the breaking point//I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything//You held me down, but I