California Dreams Tour

World tour byKaty Perry
Promotional poster for the tour
Associated album	Teenage Dream
Start date	February 20, 2011 (2011-02-20)
End date	January 22, 2012 (2012-01-22)
Legs	8
No. of shows	124
Supporting acts	DJ Skeet Skeet Zowie Robyn Marina and the Diamonds Janelle Monáe Oh Land Natalia Kills Ellie Goulding
Box office	$59.5 million ($80.81 million in 2024 dollars)[1]
Katy Perry concert chronology
Hello Katy Tour (2009) California Dreams Tour (2011–2012) Prismatic World Tour (2014–2015)

TheCalifornia Dreams Tour was the second concert tour by American singerKaty Perry, in-support of her third studio album,Teenage Dream (2010). The tour played 124 shows, beginning February 20, 2011 inLisbon, Portugal and concluding on January 22, 2012 inPasay,Philippines.^[2] It visited Europe, Oceania, Asia and the Americas.^[3] The tour became an international success, with tickets selling out and ranking 16th in Pollstar's "2011 Top 25 Worldwide Tours", earning over $59.5 million^[4] from over 1 million tickets sold. At the end of 2011,Billboard ranked it #13 on its annual "Top 25 Tours", earning nearly $48.9 million.^[5] It won an award for Favorite Tour Headliner at the38th People's Choice Awards.^[6]

In October 2010, Perry toldMTV about theCalifornia Dreams Tour, saying "I guess I'm looking forward to making music videos on this new album..... and I'm really excited about incorporating the look and the idea of some of the songs on tour and making a massive production of it. I'm gonna want a lot of visuals. I want it to be 10 times better than when I was on tour last."^[7] Baz Halpin was hired to direct the tour and production on the tour began in November 2010. Perry chose Halpin as the director after seeing his work withPink and wanted the tour to look like the work of artistsWill Cotton andMark Ryden. The show was originally conceived as a more intimate, theater-based production, with only one or two smaller indoor arena dates; however, as Perry's global popularity was rising, the tour was upgraded and revamped to accommodate significantly larger venues, capable of holding anywhere from 5,000 to nearly 30,000 spectators. With the tour's restyling came a larger, rolling stage, with more lighting and larger video screens, as well as more dramatic costume changes. Fourteen trucks were required to move the entire spectacle. Tour director Baz Halpin designed the show to be a "jukebox musical."^[8][9][10]

While promoting theTeenage Dream album, Perry expressed that she wanted her upcoming tour to be very visual, stating "I hope that it's going to engage all of your senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, touch".^[11] The tour was officially announced in October 2010 by several media outlets, including Perry's official website, in-conjunction with the release of her third single, "Firework". In 2011, Perry announced the North American tour during aFacebookLive chat. She stated that the tour would display "super girl power", with female artists, like Swedish pop starRobyn,Yelle,Marina Diamandis, andJanelle Monáe, as opening acts on various dates. Perry further stated she would actively participate with fans during the tour via social media, namely Facebook andTwitter.

British singerJessie J, a personal friend of Perry, was confirmed as a support act during the final autumnal leg of the tour, but was ordered by doctors to cancel after an injury during tour rehearsals; Perry was instead supported by fellow UK indietronica artistEllie Goulding.^[12][13][14]

Calvin Harris was advertised as the opening act for Perry during the English, Scottish, Welsh, and Irish shows;^[15] on March 27, 2011, Perry announced, via Twitter, that Harris was "no longer involved" with the tour. Harris cited technical restrictions as the reason for his cancellation, and he was replaced byDJ Skeet Skeet.^[16]

While Perry was performing at theTSB Bank Arena inWellington,New Zealand, on May 10, 2011, a 24-year-old female was injured in the floor section of the venue (in front of the stage), suffering ablack eye along with small cuts and bruises. The woman later stated she was attacked by another female concert attendee, who had been standing in-front of her, when she was aggressively told to "stop pushing".^[17]

Perry announced on her website that over $150,000 was raised for the Tickets-For-Charity fundraiser, from which a portion of proceeds are donated to charity. The money was divided between three charities—theChildren's Health Fund (CHF), Generosity Water, and theHumane Society of the United States.^[18]EMI donated a signed album by Perry to an auction for theSociety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) ofAuckland. The auction was for the promotion of severalCalifornia Dreams Tour dates in New Zealand. The auction closed on May 31, 2011.^[19] In November, Perry announced a free show atStaples Center in Los Angeles,^[20] which was recorded for a tour DVD.^[21] The recordings were later used for her documentary film,Katy Perry: Part of Me.

The show begins with a video screen introduction directed byCole Walliser which tells the story of a girl named Katy who lives in a colorless world wasting her life cutting meat for a mean old butcher. One night, Perry escapes her dreadful reality by falling asleep and visits a vibrant candy land in search of her pet cat, Kitty Purry, and also for her love interest, the Baker's Boy, played byNick Zano.^[22] Katy appears on stage and starts performing "Teenage Dream" with her dancers, while wearing a white dress with spinning peppermints.^[23] "Hummingbird Heartbeat" and "Waking Up in Vegas" are performed next, the latter accompanied by a human slot machine, showgirls and anElvis Presley impersonator.^[24] She leaves the stage briefly for a costume change while a video interlude shows Perry taking a shortcut that leads her into a candy forest where she meets two naughty mimes who join her on stage to perform "Ur So Gay". At the end of the performance, Perry takes a bite of their magical brownie.^[22] Perry then makes a wardrobe change on stage, trading her skirt for a feathered tail while she begins to perform "Peacock", an elaborated feathered fan dance number.^[22] After that, she is covered by peacock tails held by her dancers, and makes a costume change on stage by removing her peacock tail and wears a colorful vampy torch-singer garb over her blue suit. Perry interacts with the audience and invites a male fan on stage to flirt and kiss,^[25] and then goes on to perform a slow version of "I Kissed a Girl" which shortly transforms into arock version. Perry then exits the stage for a costume change while two female dancers keep dancing on stage until the song ends.

In the next section, a video interlude reveals that the mimes' brownie has transformed Perry into a catwoman, a plan executed by the evil butcher all along. "Circle the Drain" gets performed while Perry battles her dancers who are dressed as butchers before going into "E.T." where laser beams run across the stage while a futuristic lyrics video is projected on the screens.^[25] The show continues with "Who Am I Living For?" in which she was captivated by her dancers and strapped with elastic strings while being thrown back and forth and at the end of the performance is left on the ground defeated. She is then saved by her two backup singers who dress her in a sparkling dress and moves into "Pearl", at one moment she is lifted in the air sitting in the backs of two aerialists, while near the end Perry moves into the end of the catwalk on the stage where an area of the stage goes up in the air lifting her up. After a brief video interlude, Perry reappears on stage sitting on a swing to perform "Not Like the Movies".^[26] During the performance, Katy is lifted high above the stage as images of cartoons kissing are projected behind her.^[26] At the end of the number, Perry and her band move to the catwalk. Perry interacts with the audience, and introduces her band members, and picks her guitar to perform an acoustic version of "The One That Got Away", while in selected UK dates, Perry mashed the song withAdele's "Someone Like You". Then, she goes on to perform an acoustic medley of songs such asRihanna's "Only Girl (In the World)",Jay Z's "Big Pimpin'",Willow Smith's "Whip My Hair", andRebecca Black's "Friday" while interacting with the public.^[27] A giant pink colored cloud descends to the stage and Perry gets on top of it, she is then elevated above the crowd and performs "Thinking of You".^[28] When Perry exits the stage, the band and the dancers perform a medley of songs such as "I Want Candy", "Milkshake", "How Many Licks?", and "Tootsee Roll.

Another video interlude starts playing where Perry finally finds Kitty Purry and is now headed to the Big Bakers City Ball wearing a blue wig to meet her lover, the Baker's Boy. Trying to decide on what to wear, Perry starts performing "Hot n Cold", magically going through seven costume changes^[25] bursting immediately into "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)". During this song, photos of fans are displayed on the screens.^[29] This is followed by a cover ofWhitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody", in which Perry and her cat Kitty Purry invite up to 20 fans onto the stage at the end of the number. After a high-energy and sparkly performance of "Firework" the encore begins with the final interlude of the show, which reveals that Perry has been dreaming all along, suddenly the Baker's Boy enters her room dressed in a gingerbread costume to deliver cupcakes she has ordered for breakfast. Perry returns to the stage for a performance of "California Gurls" dressed in a silver bra shaped likeHershey's Kisses, dancing with a line of Gingerbread men, and dousing the crowd with a whip cream bazooka. At the end, Perry and the dancers bow to the audience as the curtain falls down.^[23]

The tour received positive reviews from music critics. Bridget Jones fromStuff NZ gave it an excellent review. She said "There was no doubt her fans were left with a truly sweet taste in their mouths after one of the most extravagant and fun performances Vector Arena has seen in a long time".^[30] Bernadette McNulty fromThe Daily Telegraph gave it four out of five stars, complimenting storyline of the tour itself. She had noted "Her California Dreams tour is less of a pop concert and more of a megawatt jukebox musical." They had said that it features all the glitz and glamour, but said that the music lacks a few and it doesn't leave a trace to remember.^[31] Jon Mitchell fromMTV reviewed the concert at Uniondale and said that "The show stuck so impressively to its storyline about Perry's travels through Candy Land in pursuit of "the baker's boy" that it could almost be a jukebox Broadway musical in the vein of "Rock of Ages" or "Mamma Mia."^[24]

Joseph Brannigan Lynch fromEntertainment Weekly reviewed the tour through the night inNew Jersey, which featuredRobyn. He gave it a positive review, but said: "Say what you will about Katy Perry—sure, she has a weak singing voice and her songs are mostly devoid of substance—but as a courier of frothy delights and eye-catching effulgence, she's become one of today's most-satisfying pop stars."^[32]Metro.co.uk gave it a positive review. They had said, "The show had a sweet theme and Katy performed in a front of a candy cane staircase against a backdrop of giant lollipops in a characteristically outlandish outfit of glittery fishnet stockings, a sparkly heart-shaped corset and a bright pink tutu."^[33] John Mitchell fromMTV News gave the concert a very positive review. He had said "It was colorful, triumphant and the perfect way to end a near-perfect pop show" and also added, "Unlike many of her dance-pop contemporaries (think Lady Gaga or Britney Spears), Perry left most of the dancing to her talented backup troupe, who were introduced individually during solos to popular candy-related songs."^[24] Emily Mackay fromNME gave it a positive review.^[34]

Perry's performance at theRock in Rio festival was broadcast live in Brazil onMultishow,Globo.com, andRede Globo, and aired live, internationally, onYouTube.^[35] In March 2012, Perry announced, viaTwitter,^[36] the release of her autobiographical documentary,Katy Perry: Part of Me, to be released on July 5, 2012 withParamount Pictures. The "rockumentary" contains various behind-the-scenes interview clips and performances from the tour, with most being recorded in Los Angeles on November 23, 2011.^[21]

This set list is from the show on June 15, 2011 inColumbia, South Carolina. It is not intended to represent all concerts for the tour.^[37]

• "One of the Boys" was played instead of "Hummingbird Heartbeat" in the first night of the tour and "Hot n Cold" was played during the encore.^{[citation needed]}
• "Friday" was not performed during the first European leg^[38] and Perry sang "Born This Way" instead at selected dates, such as in Paris, France.^[39]
• At selected dates of the second leg in Europe, Perry performed a mash-up of "The One That Got Away" and "Someone like You".^[40]
• On August 5,Rebecca Black joined Perry onstage to perform "Friday".^[41]

• Lead vocals & guitar — Katy Perry
• Background vocals — Lauren Allison Ball &Tasha Layton
• Musical director & drums — Adam Marcello
• Guitars — Casey Hooper & Patrick Matera
• Keyboards — Max Hart
• Bass — Joshua Moreau

Wikimedia Commons has media related toThe California Dreams Tour.

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