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Why Katy Perry started following Bill O’Reilly again

Katy Perry: pop superstar, Women’s Marcher, die-hard Hillary Clinton fangirl and … one of Bill O’Reilly’s 1.7 million Twitter followers?

Katy Perry: pop superstar, Women’s Marcher, die-hard Hillary Clinton fangirl and … one of Bill O’Reilly’s 1.7 million Twitter followers?

Perry, who grew up in a conservative Christian household where Amy Grant and O’Reilly ruled supreme, notably did a 180 when she released the song “I Kissed a Girl” in 2008. Since then, the singer-songwriter has had a streak of No. 1 singles and a political awakening. During the 2016 presidential campaign, the 32-year-old “Roar” singer seemingly showed up whenever and wherever the Clinton campaign called, from the Democratic National Convention to college dorm rooms. Needless to say, she wasn’t following a lot of Fox News.

But that has changed.

“I want to know what’s going on on the other side,” Perry told Vogue magazine in a recent interview. “I don’t want to be ignorant.” According to the profile, Perry, who received her GED at 15, spent her 20s educating herself.

Perry went on to say that although she doesn’t believe famous folks need to “shout” their political views “from the rooftops,” powerful influences such as herself do need to “stand for something.” But hold off on the oft-used maxim about falling for anything. Perry added that doing anything less would, to put it bluntly, be selfish. (Do we smell a Taylor Swift burn?)

“And if you’re not standing for anything, you’re really just serving yourself, period, end of story. ‘California Gurls’ and fluffy stuff would be completely inauthentic to who I am now and what I’ve learned. I do believe we need a little escapism, but I think that it can’t all be that. If you have a voice you have a responsibility to use it now, more than ever.”

But it’s not all doom and gloom in the Technicolor pop star’s worldview.

“I am so grateful that young people know the names of senators. I think teenage girls are going to save the world! That age group just seems to be holding people accountable. They have a really strong voice - and a loud one.”