Guys, Katy Perry (Twitter bio: "Artist. Activist. Conscious.") is woke now, so you can all just deal with it okay? Katy Perry is so woke that she never sleeps. Even the title of her new album, "Witness," announced on Monday 15 May, is woke. Except, the potency of that wokeness has kind of been diluted by the fact that it shares a name with the new record by the Southern US musician Benjamin Booker.Usually this wouldn't really be a big deal – plenty of acts have albums which share titles – but unfortunately it seems that Katy might well have been pipped in the woke stakes by Booker (though it feels unfair to use "woke," a word that's now been hijacked to almost connote a performative, borderline competitive awareness of social justice, to talk about him). Alongside the March release of his album's title track, Booker wrote a thoughtful, lyrical essay about his identity as a black man in the US. At the end of his essay, Booker stated simply: "Witness asks two questions I think every person in America needs to ask. 'Am I going to be a Witness?' and in today's world, 'Is that enough?'"Conversely, Billboard reports that according to a release, Perry's album "reflects on the changes in her own life and in the world around her, delivering songs that both challenge and inspire", which, comparatively, is just words really, isn't it? But, you know, #Witness! #Awareness, guys! But hey, at least it sounds as though Benjamin's ready to break bread over it. "I wonder what her reasoning for her album title is," he told Billboard, "and I wonder if… nah, she doesn't know who I am. That's impossible. But if she's out there and wants to reach out, we can have a nice chat about the title Witness." She may have come a long way since she slicked down imitation baby hairs with cornrows and wore grills, after all.Follow Lauren on Twitter.(Image via Katy Perry on Instagram)
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