# Katy Perry Lets Herself Be Angry on Watch It Burn > The singer says she spent a lifetime refusing herself permission to be furious. Her new single is what happened when she stopped. - Source: Star Life - Canonical URL: https://starlife.channel/article/katy-perry-lets-herself-be-angry-on-watch-it-burn - Author: Hana Vester - Section: Music - Published: 2026-06-26T18:28:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-06-26T18:28:00.000Z - Tags: Katy Perry, New Music, Songwriting, Pop --- Watch It Burn arrived on June 25 with a cinematic video, and it is a harder record than Katy Perry usually makes. She had already tested it live, previewing the song at O Son do Camino in Spain and at Rock in Rio Lisboa before the release. ## Where it came from Talking to the songwriter Justin Tranter on his Unfamous podcast, Perry traced it to a genuinely difficult year. In the song, she said, she is wrestling with her darkness. The more revealing admission was about permission. She said she has never allowed herself to be angry about things she had every right to be angry about, that her instinct has always been to push it down, and that she is entitled to be angry for a moment. ## The lyrics follow that arc The verses sit in the diminishment. For years, she sings, you fed me only crumbs and paid me only dust, before arriving at the line that turns it: she gave and gave, and now she is giving up. The chorus moves from frustration into release. She lights a match, throws it behind her back, says she will try to forgive and forget, lights a cigarette and watches it burn. The gesture is deliberately undramatic. She does not stay to watch closely. ## Who it is about Perry has not said. Listeners have connected it to the end of her relationship with Orlando Bloom, with whom she shares her daughter Daisy, and whose engagement to her ended last year after nearly a decade. The outro argues against reading it as revenge. She sings about getting what she deserves and finally putting herself first, before returning to the title. The fire is behind her and she is walking away from it. --- Originally published by Star Life. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://starlife.channel/article/katy-perry-lets-herself-be-angry-on-watch-it-burn.