After endless teases, Katy Perry has finally dropped “Watch It Burn,” her new single and video inspired by her feelings of anger.
The video begins with the words “Part II,” because it’s a sequel to the 2025 video for “bandaids.” As you might recall, that clip ended with Katy lighting a cigarette at a gas station and blowing it, and presumably herself, up.
In “Watch It Burn,” Katy is rushed into a hospital operating room covered in burns. As doctors try to save her, she gets flashes of herself destroying everything around her with a massive scorpion tail, but when she looks in the mirror, it’s not there.
After breaking out of the hospital and going through a car wash, Katy’s scorpion tail fully emerges, and she walks down the street causing mayhem and destruction. Finally, she staggers into the church, where she’s held down in a baptismal font of holy water until she emerges, gasping.
According to a press release, “Watch It Burn” is about “permission to feel anger honestly, to stop minimizing pain and let the suppressed emotions finally surface.” In it, she sings, “For years/ I tried to rise above/ Was only light and love/ But now I’m shut the f*** up.”
In the chorus she sings, “You know I gave and I gave/ Now I’m giving up/ There’s nothing more you can take, no/ Don’t wanna cause a scene/ But give me the gasoline/ Tonight’s the night/ I light a match/ Throw it hard behind my back/ Gonna try to forgive and forget/ Light a cigarette/ And watch it burn.”
Katy’s been performing “Watch It Burn” during her festival dates this summer, and she wrote on Instagram, “Loved seeing how many of you already know the words.”
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