Even if you don’t know her, you have heard her work. Bonnie McKee is the co-writer of many of Katy Perry’s hits, like “Teenage Dream” and “California Gurls”, but she also’s the woman behind “Hold It Against Me” by Britney Spears, “How We Do” by Rita Ora and the massive hit “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz.
Altogether, as a writer, she has reached sales numbers of over 30 million copies and has had about 8 number one hits, in the US alone. But, as an artist, things are moving a lot slower with her.
The link to Katy Perry is both a blessing and a curse. Katy Perry had already put herself on the map, but the results of their collaboration would make her star rise to insane proportions and she did take Bonnie McKee with her.
The two are friends and had met in their pre-fame days. It’s easy to see why the two connected. When you see Bonnie McKee with her own solo work, you can’t help but see a similarity to Katy Perry.
As artists they are very much alike, bringing color, fun, humor into their music and music videos (yeah!), but where I always got the impression that it was just a phase for Katy Perry to have blue hair, I believe it’s a lot more authentic with Bonnie McKee. I think she does have a bit of a rebel heart, even though, in interviews, she’s incredibly down to earth and looks like a total sweetheart.
I expect that Katy Perry will reinvent herself and choose a theme for each album, like Madonna, where I think Bonnie McKee will stay with this concept longer. She appears to be hanging on to her teen spirit, which is a reoccurring topic when you listen to her full catalog. And it also comes back in her own recent single, “Wasted Youth”.
It’s a philosophy to life that I embrace as well; I think it’s good for you to remain young at heart. This probably explains why I’ve been keeping an eye on her for a while.
“Wasted Youth” has a strong and powerful beat to it, which is such a trend right now. But - and that’s where I think the Katy Perry link is a bit of curse for her again - it sounds like it could’ve been a track on Katy’s Teenage Dream album, especially when you also see the video. I don't mean that as a negative thing, because I like Katy Perry too, so I am the targeted audience, I guess. If you don't who Bonnie is and how she ties in to everything, you'll just think she's a copy cat, when I'm actually beginning to think that she may have been the originator.
