Katy Perry spilled some major tea during the Tomorrowland press conference on Thursday (July 23), revealing that she once turned down the chance to be featured on David Guetta’s smash 2011 single “Titanium.”
“Do you remember when, like almost 10 years ago, you sent me ‘Titanium’?” the pop star asked, leading Guetta to respond, “Oh my god! Did you turn down the record?”
“So you sent me the song, right?” Perry continued. “And this is when you had Sia, obviously from Zero 7, you know, who had already had the coolest success — she had demo’d that record. And you’d sent it to me and I remember specifically listening to it on the plane, I was like, ‘Oh my god, this song is so good. Who is the person on the record? They should stay on the freakin’ record. This is a hit record; don’t put me on the record! Keep Sia on this record!’ ‘Cause I was already such a huge fan of Zero 7, and so I wrote you back an email…and I just said, ‘You’re crazy. I don’t need to be on this record. Keep Sia on the record.’ And there is ‘Titanium.'”
While Sia had been releasing music for more than a decade — both with British electronic soul collective Zero 7 and as a solo artist — Perry passing on the record gave the Australian singer the highest-charting hit of her career at the time. (“Titanium” peaked at No. 5 on the Hot 100, but was quickly surpassed by “Wild Ones,” Sia’s other 2011 collaboration with Flo Rida, hitting No. 1.)
Watch Perry recount the story of “Titanium” to Guetta below, starting at the 29:10 mark.
