Katy Perry
Getty Images for Katy Perry
Katy Perry released her album 143 a little over a year ago, and while most pop stars spend a few years working on new music, Perry has gone through quite a bit over the past year that would ostensibly inspire the creation of an entirely new project. In April, she famously went into space as part of Blue Origin’s suborbital flight program; she embarked on her Lifetimes Tour, in support of 143, that same month. Two months later, she parted ways with actor Orlando Bloom after nearly a decade together, and shortly thereafter she struck up a romance with former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Perry now seems to be tending to her personal wounds from her breakup with Bloom, as evidenced by her new single “Bandaids.” On the heartfelt track, Perry appears to reflect on a relationship gone awry – seemingly inspired by her split from actor Orlando Bloom over the summer after nearly a decade together.
“Got so used to you letting me down / No use trying to send flowers now / Telling myself you’ll change, you don’t / Band-Aids over a broken heart,” she croons on the track. “Tried all the medications / Lowered my expectations / Made every justification / Bleeding out, bleeding out, bleeding out slow / Band-Aids over a broken heart.”
Her relationship with Bloom wasn’t all bad, of course. Their daughter Daisy was born in 2020, just days before the release of Perry’s previous album Smile, and on “Bandaids,” Perry alludes the positive memories she and Bloom shared in their nine years together. “On the bright side, we had good times / Nеver faked our pictures / Wе were perfect ’til we weren’t / Now we’ve got too many splinters,” she sings. “If I had to do it all over again / I would still do it all over again / The love that we made was worth it in the end.”
The music video for the track speaks to many of the dejected emotions Perry likely felt while processing the demise of her relationship with Bloom. In one scene, she sits on a tree branch and saws it off the tree, sending her crashing down to the ground. In another, she nearly gets crushed by a speeding train, only to see a single daisy growing out of the tracks – a sweet nod to her five-year-old daughter. Elsewhere, she’s seen with bandages on her ring finger after dropping a wedding band in the kitchen sink and slicing her hand on the garbage disposal blades.
The song arrives as Perry completes the home stretch of the European leg of The Lifetimes Tour before heading off to Asia later this fall. The tour wraps up Dec. 7 in Abu Dhabi. Whether “Bandaids” is a standalone single or tied to an upcoming album remains to be seen.
