--- description: No birthday suits here — the singer is nearly unrecognizable as she crashes five different birthday parties in ridiculous disguises. title: Katy Perry is dressin' up for "Birthday" video image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Katy Perry Is Dressin' Up for "Birthday" Video, For Better or For Worse  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 24, 2014 6:09 PM CUT  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Apr 24, 2014 6:09 PM CUT It’s hard out there for pop stars making videos this week. On Tuesday, a sneak peek of a Katy Perry’s “Birthday” video [drew](http://www.salon.com/2014/04/22/katy%5Fperry%5Fdresses%5Fas%5Fa%5Fjewish%5Fbar%5Fmitzvah%5Fdj%5Ftells%5Frabbi%5Fjokes%5Fin%5Fher%5Fnew%5Fbirthday%5Fvideo/ "undefined") [criticism ](http://music-mix.ew.com/2014/04/22/katy-perry-birthday-music-video-preview/ "undefined")for its stereotypical portrayal of a bar mitzvah DJ, and today Avril Lavigne is fighting off accusations that her [wacky “Hello Kitty” video](http://time.com/71928/avril-lavigne-hello-kitty-video/ "undefined") was [totally racist](http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/avril-lavigne-kitty-video-racist/story?id=23453019 "undefined"). On the Perry front: the full video for “Birthday” premiered today, and it does little to quell concerns. As expected, it features a supposedly incognito Perry crashing birthday parties as five different costumed characters (Halloween pro tip: Jewish people aren’t costumes), and together they leave behind a trail of chaos, crying children, car accidents and… animal poop. As with any Perry video, there’s a lot going on, but the faux-hidden camera hijinks here distract from the fact that “Birthday” is actually one of the better tracks on _Prism_, her disappointing follow-up to the confectionary perfection of 2010’s _Teenage Dream_. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/76191/katy-perry-birthday-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/76191/katy-perry-birthday-video/"},"headline":"Katy Perry Is Dressin' Up for \"Birthday\" Video, For Better or For Worse","datePublished":"2014-04-24T18:09:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T07:29:24.175Z","description":"No birthday suits here — the singer is almost unrecognizable as she crashes five different birthday parties in ridiculous disguises","url":"https://time.com/76191/katy-perry-birthday-video/","keywords":["Music","Katy Perry","Prism","Birthday","Music Video","pop music"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/76191/katy-perry-birthday-video/","name":"Katy Perry Is Dressin' Up for \"Birthday\" Video, For Better or For Worse"}}]}] ```