Katy Perry Says New Album Features Message From Her Angels: ‘I Really Believe It’

Heavy/Getty Pop star Katy Perry says she incorporated an angel message into her new album title

When pop star and former “American Idol” judge Katy Perry releases her first album in four years on September 20, 2024, she hopes listeners feel uplifted, not only by the music but by knowing that the album title — “143” — was inspired by angels in her midst.

During an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 on July 11, 2024 — the same day Perry released her new single, “Woman’s World,” — Perry explained that the album title is her “angel number,” which began appearing for her repeatedly during a “scary time” for her family two years prior.

Katy Perry Explains Meaning Behind the Angel Number ‘143’ for Her

Angel numbers, rooted in the ancient practice of numerology, are a widely-held belief that repetitive numeric sequences — like 11:11 or $12.34 — may serve as spiritual signs providing encouragement, confirmation or direction, per USA Today.

Nearly 70% of U.S. adults say they believe in angels, according to a 2023 poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, including Perry, 39, who feels so strongly that her angels have been using the same number — 143 — to send her encouragement that she wanted to pass it along to her fans by making it the title of her new album.

“It’s kind of obvious to my fans, but to the world that may not watching as closely as them, it’s my angel number,” she told Lowe on his podcast. “It’s my symbol, it’s my sign.”

She then explained, “A couple years ago, we were going through a little bit of a hard time medically in our family, and it was a little bit scary, and I started seeing 143 in many different ways, not just on the phone.”

“It was just like trippy, almost, and I looked it up and it’s just that it’s, like, code for ‘I love you,'” Perry continued. “And I really believe it was my my angels, my guides, saying ‘We love you, we got you, we’re going to protect you … you’re exactly where you’re meant to be, you’re on the path. And so I named my album ‘143’ because I feel like I’m exactly where I meant to be at this moment.”

Perry added that she chose the title as a way to pass along that angelic love to her fans.

“Like, I love the listener and I want to give them the love that I’ve received as best as I possibly can and help invite them into this kind of love frequency,” she said. “It is a love frequency.”

Katy Perry Says Signs From the Angels Have Helped Her During ‘Some of My Hardest Times’

Perry reiterated her thoughts on the angels in an Instagram video posted on July 11, as she sat on the beach “celebrating” the release of her first single from the album.

“I don’t know about you, but 143 for me is a message from my angels,” Perry said in the video. “It means ‘I love you’ in some digital language, but it’s a symbol that I get and have received in some of my hardest moments. And it was something that started coming to me about two-and-a-half years ago.”

Wearing a “Woman’s World” shirt and hat, she said, “It’s so funny, because my friends made me this merch, right, for today to celebrate and they don’t know, they didn’t know, they made it before I announced the album title or anything like that, but the wild thing is I see 143 everywhere, and not just like on the phone, even though that’s always a good sign, but I see it everywhere.”

“Like, for instance, when I was taking this rash guard off, there was an ID number,” she said, showing viewers a code printed at the bottom of her shirt that read “#5143Y.”

Smiling about noticing “143” inside the code, she said, “The angels always want to speak with you, (you’ve) just got to be willing to hear it.”

Perry has long had a fascination with angels, even dressing up in angel wings at multiple public events. During her world tour in 2017, she wore giant silver wings for part of her show, as seen in images published by DailyMail.com, and the following year, she showed up at the Met Gala wearing feathered wings that were taller than her, per Marie Claire.