Katy Perry isn\u2019t letting heartbreak break her. Instead, she\u2019s telling her story the way she knows best. On Thursday, the pop queen released her single \u201cBandaids,\u201d a surprise, mid-tour breakup song seemingly inspired by the end of her relationship with Orlando Bloom.<\/p>\n
The Christian Breslauer-directed video follows Perry as she endures a series of unfortunate, yet darkly humorous, events, some laced with Easter eggs referencing things she has said in the past, as she sings about losing someone she loved. \u201cHand to God, I promised I tried\/There\u2019s no stone left unturned,\u201d she declares in the opening line. \u201cIt\u2019s not what you did\/It\u2019s what you didn\u2019t\/You were there but you weren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The video opens with her washing dishes when a golden ring slips down the drain. As she reaches in to retrieve it, the garbage disposal switches on, mangling her ring finger. (The scene could be a sly nod to her NSFW comment on Call Her Daddy<\/a> last fall, when she joked that she\u2019d give her ex oral sex if he did the dishes.)<\/p>\n In one scene, she saws off the branch she\u2019s sitting on and tumbles down. In another, she rides an escalator, only for her shoelace to get caught in the cracks, dragging her back. She\u2019s later electrocuted by a Tesla before eating a croissant with her ring finger wrapped in bandages.<\/p>\n In the lyrics, co-written with Justin Tranter, Sean Cook, Russ Chell, Eren Cannata, and Kiddo Iba\u00f1ez, she looks at the positive parts of her past relationship: \u201cOn the bright side\/We had good times\/Never faked our pictures\/We were perfect\/Til we weren\u2019t\/Now we\u2019ve got too many splinters.\u201d<\/p>\n In one poignant scene, she nearly gets crushed by a speeding train before spotting a single daisy growing through the rocks \u2014 a clear homage to her daughter, Daisy Dove, whom she shares with Bloom. The sight gives her the strength to break free. After the song ends, she\u2019s seen buying a cigarette at a gas station as a radio DJ mentions a song called \u201cWatch It Burn,\u201d which fans have speculated might be an upcoming single.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that complicated\/To ask me how my day is\/I\u2019m flatlining tryna save this,\u201d Perry sings later in the song, before making it clear in the bridge: \u201cIf I had to do it all over again\/I would still do it all over again\/The love that we made was worth it in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n At the end of the video, she lights a cigarette as \u201cWoman\u2019s World<\/a>\u201d plays faintly in the background \u2014 a reference to the gas station scene from the controversial single\u2019s video \u2014 before the station explodes, symbolically signaling her farewell to her poorly received last era.<\/p>\n Perry is currently wrapping the European leg of her Lifetimes Tour,<\/a> with shows scheduled in Lyon, Barcelona, and Madrid this week, before she heads to Asia for the tour\u2019s final leg. This is the first official release from Perry since her album, 143<\/a>.<\/p>\n Best of Rolling Stone<\/p>\n Sign up for RollingStone’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n