"Firework" is a song written by Katy Perry, Ester Dean, Stargate, and Sandy Vee. The song serves as the third single from the album, Teenage Dream. Perry described it as one of her favorite songs off the album. The song was released as the third single on October 18, 2010. On October 8, 2010, the single's artwork was released as Perry's profile picture on Facebook. The song made its radio debut on October 18, 2010. The single peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 9th, becoming Perry's fourth chart-topper in the US and third number-one single from the album. It so far spent four non-consecutive weeks at #1 on the Hot 100. It was also Katy Perry's first song ever to be added to Radio Disney's playlist. The song also reached number one in Canada and New Zealand. It peaked at number three in the United Kingdom, where it has been certified gold for sales in excess of 400,000 copies. The song has sold 509,000 digital downloads in the US which is the second highest amount ever sold by a female artist, and fourth highest overall.
Katy Perry revealed in an interview that the song's inspiration came from a book shown to her by her fiance, Russell Brand.
“
He showed me a passage from On The Road by Jack Kerouac and he said that this is what I am. It was something like, 'I want to be around people that are buzzing and fizzing and never say a commonplace thing and shoot across the sky and make everybody go ah'. So that's become my life statement.
”
—Katy Perry
Perry stated to MTV News about the song:
"People are coming back and almost adopting it as their own anthem, and it's hard, I think, to write an anthem that's not cheesy, and I hope that this could be something in that category. I hope this could be one of those things where it's like, 'Yeah, I want to put my fist up and feel proud and feel strong. But I also don't want to be cheesy, it's a fine line, and I think 'Firework' ..... would be like the opus or my one song — if I had to pick a song to play — 'cause it has a great beat. But it also has a fantastic message"
Inspiration for the song
Katy Perry talks "Firework"
Lyrics
Do you ever feel
Like a plastic bag
Drifting through the wind
Wanting to start again
Do you ever feel
Feel so paper thin
Like a house of cards
One blow from caving in
Do you ever feel
Already buried deep
Six feet under screams
But no one seems to hear a thing
Do you know that there's
Still a chance for you
'Cause there's a spark in you
You've just gotta ignite
The light, and let it shine
Just own the night
Like the 4th of July
'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on show them what you're worth
Make them go oh, oh, oh
As you shoot across the sky-y-y.
Baby you're a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make them go oh, oh, oh
You're gonna leave them all in awe, awe, awe.
You don't have to feel
Like a waste of space
You're original
Cannot be replaced
If you only knew
What the future holds
After a hurricane
Comes a rainbow
May be a reason why
All the doors are closed
So you could open one
That leads you to the perfect road
Like a lightning bolt
Your heart will glow
And when it's time, you'll know.
You've just gotta ignite
The light, and let it shine
Just own the night
Like the 4th of July
'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on show them what you're worth
Make them go oh, oh, oh
As you shoot across the sky-y-y.
Baby you're a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make them go oh, oh, oh
You're gonna leave them all in awe, awe, awe.
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the
Moon, moon, moon
It's always been inside of
You, you, you
And now it's time to let it
Through-oh-oh
'Cause baby you're a firework
Come on show them what you're worth
Make them go oh, oh, oh
As you shoot across the sky-y-y.
Baby you're a firework
Come on let your colors burst
Make them go oh, oh, oh
You're gonna leave them all in awe, awe, awe.
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the
Moon, moon, moon
Boom, boom, boom
Even brighter than the
Moon, moon, moon
The filming of "Firework" the video began on September 28, 2010 in Europe. The video is part of a huge cross-promotional deal with European telecommunications group Deutsche Telekom. Deutsche Telekom hosted a series of activities and competitions from which fans around Europe will be recruited to be in the video. On October 8, 2010 Katy Perry posted a lyric video for the song using stills from the video shoot. On October 15, 2010 Perry posted a 51-second teaser on her Facebook. The video was released on TwitVid, DirectLyrics and Youku on October 28, 2010. It premiered on October 28, 2010 on VEVO YouTube. It was presented in the anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio. On full-screen prints, the music video was presented in 4:3 open matte. The video was directed by Dave Meyers.
Synopsis
The video begins with Perry gazing down at the city from a balcony. Other scenes show two parents quarreling with their son comforting their crying daughter, an overweight, shy girl observing a pool party and a cancer patient in a hospital room. Fireworks begin sparkling from Perry's chest and they shoot out into the city. Later, two teenage boys are shown sharing a kiss in the middle of a party and fireworks ignite. Fireworks begin igniting from the chests of the shy girl (who is now enjoying the pool party), fireworks ignite from the boy's chest and he turns and pushes his father away (who was hurting his mother) The cancer patient sees a woman having a baby, fireworks ignite on the woman's stomach and the cancer patient run's out of the hospital. Perry dances along with other people in a square, and fireworks burst in the sky. Then a magician was walking home then three teenagers were going to rob him then birds flew out of him then he showed them a trick and the fireworks burst out from her chest.
Censorship
On November 5, 2010, The British media and entertainment website, Digital Spy, reported that the video had been partially censored for British Television; the kiss between the two men, despite only being about a second long and the video being used as part of the 'It Gets Better' campaign, was said to be pixelated out. However, British music channel audiences have reported this information to be incorrect.
In other media
The song was featured in the 2012 DreamWorks Animation film Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted and on it's soundtrack album.