Katy Perry Knew Dua Lipa Was the ‘It Girl’ Early On

In a new interview, Katy Perry said she knew Dua Lipa was the “it girl” early in her career.

“I remember going in to watch her play at the Hollywood Palladium,” Perry tells Rolling Stone. “It’s so funny, I left work early. It was the first season of me doing American Idol. I was like, ‘I really need to get out of here by 7 because I’m going to see this new artist Dua Lipa play at the Palladium,’ and my co-judge Luke Bryan was like, ‘Who’s that?’ I was like, ‘Don’t worry, you’ll know her name.’”

Perry expressed empathizing with the rising star because of her own experience as a woman in the industry coming up. Perry has been very vocal about stan culture pitting women artists against one another.

“I love new female artists,” said Perry. “I know the really intense challenges and the pressure and all that stuff. I just feel for them so much.”

Perry also shared the inspiration behind her campy Las Vegas residency in the new interview. The show, filled with over-the-top costumes and larger-than-life sets, drew upon the fantasy of Alice in Wonderland.

“You don’t have to take mushrooms to feel like you’re on mushrooms when you watch this show. Believe me,” Perry says. “It’s got all the nostalgia factor, but it is wrapped up in this Alice in Wonderland mushroom trip animated story of finding true love and self-love.”

Read Perry’s full interview on Rolling Stone.