US pop star Katy Perry performs in front of Giza Pyramids

US pop star Katy Perry performed in front of Egypt's famous Giza Pyramids Tuesday. The singer also spent the weekend in Abu Dhabi for the star-studded Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Perry sang some of her biggest hits for the Egyptian crowd, including 'Roar' and 'Hot N Cold,' while wearing a blue and silver sequined tube dress.

The staging of Perry's performance was stripped back compared to many of her recent performances, dropping her usual aerial performances and AI-generated imagery to highlight the breathtaking monuments.

With the pyramids as her backdrop, Perry's performance was reminiscent of her 2014 'Dark Horse' music video, which was one of the most viewed YouTube videos of the 2010s. 

The video is a brightly coloured mix of ancient Egyptian symbolism and mid-2010s style. In one shot, Perry wears a white bob wig with printed hieroglyphs, in another she is served by models wearing cat masks and stiletto heels.

Though the video was immensely popular at the time, it also generated a lot of controversy. Perry was criticised for a scene in which a man wearing a necklace saying "Allah" in Arabic  is turned to sand. The necklace was digitally removed from the video after a petition demanding the video be removed from YouTube received over 65,000 signatures.

Though she was one of the most successful pop stars of the 2010s, recently Perry has received more attention for her personal life than her new music. 

Perry made headlines in April this year for taking a ten-minute trip to space with Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos' space tourism company. US TV personality Gayle King, and former journalist, Lauren Sánchez, who married Bezos this summer, were also on the flight.

Recently, it was confirmed that Perry was in a relationship with former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, following widespread speculation. Former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida referred to Perry as Trudeau's 'partner' in an X post. 

I feel like Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry match each other’s specific variety of extremely corny and I’m happy for them https://t.co/0zZyOMXBRk

— DEI speedwagon🌹🇵🇸 〽️ (@uhshanti) December 5, 2025