“Unconditionally” by Katy Perry

The song “Unconditionally” is primarily about loving someone irrespective of their flaws or merits. Katy Perry assures her lover of her willingness to accept him for who he truly is.

Katy begins by questioning if she is truly discovering the parts of her lover that may have been hidden from her. She admits she is aware of her partner’s imperfections and is not necessarily going to be moved by them. She mentions his dirty laundry, which may be a metaphor representing an ugly character trait of his, or literally to signify how he does not do his laundry regularly. These are traits she is willing to deal with because her love for him goes deeper than that.

She promises her lover an undying love ready to endure all the pitfalls that might surface in the relationship. She also gives him her full approval to completely be himself, even if it means she has to tolerate the parts of him that no one else can stand. Her partner seems to be afraid to be extremely real with her as this is what many people do generally. People usually hide their imperfect sides and show off only their good traits to their new lovers. However, Katy wants him to be free of such a mentality.

Second Verse

In the second verse, she tells him not to feel undeserving of her love even if he may have hurt her in the past. She talks about walking him through the storm, which is a widely used term describing the great extents one would go for the ones they love. Just like a storm, bad times can be full of harsh winds and rain, but a lover can make it all better.

True freedom in the relationship can only be achieved if they both open up their hearts and readily accept each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This is the message the singer wants to get across to her partner.

What Katy Perry has said about “Unconditionally”

Speaking in an interview, Katy Perry revealed that this song is mainly about full acceptance in love despite the flaws, zits, smells, the highs and lows. She added that she was also inspired by seeing a group of children on a visit to Madagascar. According to her, the children who have yet to be exposed to the world’s view of affection, showed a genuine and pure love among themselves without caring about other factors.

Music Video

“Unconditionally” has an official lyric video which had Aya Tanimura, a multi-talented artist, as its director. And the music video proper, which was filmed in London, had a different director, Brent Bonacorso.

Facts about “Unconditionally”

This song has three producers – Max Martin, Cirkut and Dr. Luke. And they all also co-wrote “Unconditionally” with Katy Perry.

Her personal inspiration in composing the tune was a humanitarian trip she took to Madagascar in 2013. And she partook of this particular journey in conjunction with UNICEF. In fact later in the year, she was actually appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador by UNICEF.

“Unconditionally” first came out, via Capitol Records, on 16 October 2013.  And it was the second single from Katy’s fourth album, “Prism”.

Interesting to note is that “Unconditionally” is also Katy Perry’s personal-favorite tune from “Prism”.

“Unconditionally” proved to be a monumental international success. That is to say it charted in 30 nations, which included appearances on the UK Singles Chart and Billboard Hot 100.  It also reached number one in Belgium as well as on Billboard’s US Dance Club Songs chart.

Moreover it has gone Platinum in a handful of countries, with its most-impressive showing being in the United States itself, where it has been certified double-Platinum.

Controversy

Katy Perry is an musician who has been accused of stereotyping and misrepresenting groups in the past. And such was the case when she performed “Unconditionally” on 24 November 2013 at the American Music Awards. After the performance, some Asian-American as well as American groups accused her of cultural appropriation. And why did they do that? Because of Katy’s usage of certain aspects of Japanese culture during the show.