Katy Perry is an American singer, songwriter. Kathy Perry was born in Santa Barbara, California, USA. The middle child of two pastors, she grew up listening to gospel music and singing in church. After Steve Thomas and Jennifer Knapp signed Perry to their label Red Hill Records, she released her first CD Katy Hudson in 2001, a Christian gospel album.

After signing to Capitol Records, Perry began recording for her official mainstream debut album, released in 2008, working with Greg Wells, Dr. Luke, Butch Walker, Max Martin, Cathy Dennis, Dave Stewart, and Ted Bruner. The full length album titled One of the Boys was released in the USA on June 17, 2008. Katy was an act in the 2008 Vans Warped Tour to promote the album. The album was preceded by a digital EP in late 2007, entitled “Ur So Gay”, produced by and co-written with Greg Wells. A video for the song premiered in early 2008, and brought Perry to the attention of Madonna, who mentioned her on KISS FM & KRQ’s JohnJay & Rich morning show in Arizona, stating that “Ur So Gay” was her “favorite song right now,” as well as another mention on Ryan Seacrest’s Morning Show. “Ur So Gay” has been criticized for alleged homophobia.

On April 29, 2008, her first official single from one of the Boys, “I Kissed a Girl”, debuted on the iTunes Store. The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #76, climbing to #1 as of June 25, 2008. It has peaked on iTunes Top 100 at #1, as of June 3, 2008. The music video for “I Kissed a Girl” was released on May 21, 2008 on MySpace. The song has generated controversy due to its popularity with children and its depiction of sexuality, homosexuality, and promiscuity. In contrast, an essay in Slant Magazine argues that the song “isn’t problematic because it promotes homosexuality, but because its appropriation of the gay lifestyle exists for the sole purpose of garnering attention-both from Perry’s boyfriend and her audience.” As an actress, she made a cameo appearance on Carbon Leaf’s video “Learn to Fly” and on Gym Class Heroes’ video “Cupid’s Chokehold”, playing the eventual love interest for her real life boyfriend, lead singer Travis McCoy. On March 10, 2008, she appeared as herself on ABC Family’s Wildfire. She has appeared in advertisements for Too Faced Cosmetics’ spring 2007 line. On June 12, Perry appeared as herself on the popular daytime soap opera, The Young & the Restless, who poses for the cover of the fictional magazine Restless Style, and on MTV’s TRL.

This year her single “I Kissed a Girl” has become a worldwide hit, topping Billboard Hot 100, Canadian Hot 100, the UK singles chart, the Australian ARIA Charts, and peaking at #2 on the Worldwide Charts. This single is second single from the album “One of the Boys” produced by Dr. Luke. The music video for the song was directed by Kinga Burza features a Moulin Rouge and burlesque-type setting with scenes containing Katy, along with many other flamboyantly-dressed women, dancing to the song. The video made its television debut on June 12 on TRL with the visit and interview by Perry in set show. And on June 24, 2008 it became #1 on TRL. It debuted at #20 on VH1′s VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown on June 28, 2008. On June 30, 2008 the video was premiered on MTV Latin America.

On July 6, 2008, it rose all the way up to #4 on VH1′s VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown and the video was nominated for Best Female Video for the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. A second cover version, by Barnicle, entered the UK Singles Chart (published 3 August 2008) at position #116. There is no doubt that Katy Perry’s provocative & sexy new hit single will end up being one of the most popular single of 2008 in the United States and around the rest of the world. Check out more

One of the popular searches on the internet is for song lyrics and chords. What happens is that a new song is in the music charts and its popularity makes other musicians want to play and sing the song. Guitarists are always looking for guitar song chords to the latest songs. The trouble is that unless you are prepared to spend a lot of money these pieces of music can cost quite a lot of money. Any guitar song chords that you do find will be simplified versions and probably illegal.

The cheapest way for you to get guitar song chords is to learn to play by ear and pick up the main arrangements by following them as you listen. Tune your guitar up to concert pitch so that it will be in tune with the CD or radio. The most important first thing to do is find out the key. Then go to a chord reference chart to find out the main chords that will work in that key signature. In the case of most simple songs this will give you enough resources to work out the chords.

It might take a few run throughs to get the chord sequence but if you have some knowledge of chords and the guitar you should be able to work the guitar chords songs out this way. The other way to learn guitar song chords is to learn with a good guitar course. These will have easy guitar songs for beginners that you will be able to play quickly. They will have any complex parts removed so that anyone can play them

The question I get asked the most by new worship leaders: how do I choose the right songs? Many people are told ‘just pray and let God lead you’, and when they don’t hear anything from God or they choose the wrong songs they get discouraged.

Choosing songs for a worship set is actually very simple and straightforward. There are four important components, four basic steps to planning a contemporary worship set, for both small group and congregational worship.

1) Know the songs the people are familiar with.

Don’t try to use more than ONE new song per worship session. In order to follow this guideline you need to know what the songs the people already are familiar with are.

If you are leading worship for a group you are familiar with, this is easy. Over time, when other people are leading worship, you will discover what are the songs the people enjoy and really click with. This will give you a good idea of what songs can use.

What if you are leading worship for a group you don’t know? What I do is this: I email or call the leader of the group (or pastor of the church, as the case may be) and ask for the worship songs they have used for the last 4-6 meetings. This will give me a good idea of what songs I can use.

2) Know what makes a song effective in worship.

There are a multitude of ‘worship’ songs that are quite unusable in regular church worship. If you try using these, you will usually get blank stares from the people. If you try to force these songs to work, you will alienate the people and frustrate them. And that’s not what you want.

In a nutshell, an effective worship song will have a melody that is easily sung by the average believer, with lyrics that are edifying and easy to remember. Avoid songs that have large singing ranges (parts that are too low or too high). People will be uncomfortable singing such songs, or they will stop singing. And that’s not good.

Be on the look out for songs that are very much Scripture verses set to music are very valuable to you as a worship leader. They usually work very well – if the melody is sing-able, of course.

Putting it simply, if people can sing the song without having to look at the lyrics, that’s a strong contender, a song you should seriously consider using.

3) Settle the music.

You have to watch out for the musical aspects of the songs you have chosen, to make sure they can be effectively used by the people for worship. If you are a non-musician who has to lead worship, work in partnership with a good musician until you learn some basic music theory.

You need to work out the key, which determines the vocal range the people will sing in. If you are not the only musician accompanying the worship, then prepare the chords in advance for the other musicians. Don’t expect them to already know the songs or to figure out everything during the rehearsals. This is unnecessary pressure.

There are many people who think that watching out for the musical technicalities is unspiritual. To these people I would respectfully remind them that Jesus was once challenged to give the greatest commandment, but he replied with two, love the Lord AND love your neighbor. (Matt 22:38-40). Don’t get so caught up with the spiritual aspects of worshiping God that you forget the people you are there to serve. The correct music technicalities for worship ministry are those that serve the congregation by giving them a firm musical foundation for them to sing their praises to the Lord.

4) Join the songs.

The current trend on ‘worship’ CDs is to take a song, cram it full of instrument solos, vocal pyrotechnics, complex music arrangements then bring it to a grand conclusion to the tumultuous applause of the audience. And then move on to the next song. This sounds good on ‘worship’ CDs but when you try this in real worship you’ll frustrate the people because they can’t engage their hearts fully in worship unto the Lord.

So join the songs. Make sure that they flow in terms of the theme (what the lyrics are about) and the key. This way you are creating the best environment for the people to fully engage their hearts in worship.

Remember, the greatest commandment is to worship the Lord our God with all we are, including our hearts and emotions. Don’t be afraid of emotions in worship.

Conclusion: usually, if there is a worship session that falls flat, with people unresponsive to the worship leader, we’ll find that one (or more) of these four steps have been ignored. So watch out for these.

When we study the craft of leading worship, there are many other aspects and factors to look at and examine. But if you pay attention to these four steps first, you’ll find that you have covered a large part of what it takes to be an effective worship leader. May God bless you as you serve him in the worship ministry!