20 music documentaries you must watch if you liked A Star is Born

Katy Perry: Part of Me

When Katy Perry released Teenage Dream, it was clear the album was a hit. After slowly working her way up the ladder in the pop music world and landing hit after her from her debut album, the pop star was clearly hitting her stride on her sophomore album and she took off running. But as we saw in her 2012 film Katy Perry: Part of Me, not everything is as it seems, even when you’re on top of the world.

Part of Me was first released in theatres as a 3D concert experience and later released on Blu-ray and DVD. The film followed Perry on her California Dreams Tour to promote her smash hit album Teenage Dream. It also chronicled Katy’s childhood and early rise to fame through home movies, early demos, and interviews with her parents, siblings, and industry execs she worked with in the past. Perry was raised in an extremely religious family and originally got her start under her real name, Katy Hudson, as a Christian rock singer in 2001. The film shows how she went from churches to spraying whipped cream out of her chest on a tour around the world.

While the film perfectly demonstrates Perry’s quirky and goofy attitude and shows how hard she worked to get where she is, it also shows the downside of fame. At the time of filming, she was married to comedian Russell Brand, who makes many appearances in the film. They tried everything they could to keep their marriage alive as she jetted around the world, but unfortunately, the pair split… while she was on tour and filming the documentary.

Watching as Perry cries her eyes out in the dressing room leading up to going out on stage, and then taking a deep breathe and plastering a smile on her face before she getting on stage is one of the most heartbreaking moments in the movie. It goes to show you never really know what’s going on.