Katy Perry Turns Berlin’s Uber Arena Into a Dystopian Wonderland of Pop and Power

Written and Captured By | Anne Einecke

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Katy Perry transformed Berlin’s Uber Arena into a dystopian world filled with action and magic last Tuesday. It had been eight long years since the superstar last toured Berlin. Fans celebrated this live-show comeback wearing extraordinary glitter outfits, creative costumes, and signature looks inspired by Katy’s music videos. The stage setup promised something spectacular: a huge path shaped like an infinity sign led from the back of the stage through the middle of the arena.

To warm up the crowd, British pop artist Becky Hill brought her most danceable drum ’n’ bass songs to the sold-out arena. With hits like Lose Control and Afterglow, she proved her impressive vocal control. Wearing a black halter dress and black leather boots, she looked like a character from an action movie — showing off her energy as she performed on top of a projection box that displayed green light beams and sunsets in the middle of the stage. “Berlin, should we speed things up a little bit?” she asked the crowd before playing a sped-up version of Outside of Love, while the audience enthusiastically moved along to the rhythm. For her last song, Becky walked along the stage path, getting closer to the people, right before her name appeared in big letters behind her — perfectly timed to the last note.

KatyCats (as Katy Perry calls her fanbase) now waited eagerly for the pop star to start her set. When the lights went dark and enthusiastic screams filled the venue, a wall of screens showed a dystopian, matrix-like world with butterflies trapped in pods. It became clear that Katy had to fight this evil digital world to free them. The three-hour-long show was split into five acts, with video projections continuing the storyline before each one.

For Act One — ARTIFICIAL — Katy Perry floated down gracefully from the ceiling in a red-glowing futuristic cage, her head connected to it by tubes attached to a helmet. She wore an armor-like outfit made of red and blue metallic parts, giving her a robotic look. Her glittery long black hair moved elegantly. As she reached the stage floor, she was immediately surrounded by dancers wearing VR headsets, carrying backpacks with fog tubes, and holding tablets with bright screens. The incredibly synchronized choreography made the first couple of songs, like Chained to the Rhythm and Dark Horse, extra special.

Act Two — WOMAN’S WORLD — was a treat for fans who had been there since the beginning of Katy’s career. She played some of her biggest hits, like Hot N Cold and I Kissed a Girl, during which she encouraged the crowd to celebrate diversity and the LGBTQ+ community — later spinning upside down in a cage-ball from the ceiling. For Last Friday Night, she grabbed a fan’s smartphone, saying, “It’s pretty good content,” and after asking how to say hello in German, she joyfully shouted “Hallo” into the phone, claiming the pronunciation was much happier. Katy then asked whether the gay clubs were happier in Berlin too — or naughtier. When her dancer Jake mentioned KitKat Club and how he wasn’t allowed to wear a shirt there, she said, “Show us! But let’s save it for later,” clearly intrigued by this “Kitty-cat Club,” earning laughter from the crowd.

Katy also spoke to a fan from Georgia and dedicated Peacock to him after he told her about government oppression in his country and being jailed for protesting. She asked him to repeat his message into the microphone and then told the audience, “We stand with you in Georgia; we still believe in democracy!”

In the third act — NIRVANA — huge climbable flowers appeared on stage as Katy, wearing a white Fifth Element-inspired bodysuit, descended from above. Suspended by wires, she flew and flipped through the entire arena. The 41-year-old proved her world-star status with this choreography — she’s still got all the moves. For CRUSH, she included a cover of Jennifer Paige’s hit of the same name. Then came “Choose Your Own Adventure,” where fans could vote for a song from her album PRISM via a QR code on the monitors. Unfortunately, the venue had internet issues due to the large crowd, so not everyone could cast a vote.

After a short break, Katy emerged from the ground again wearing a shimmering leopard top and a green light-up leaf skirt — clearly inspired by her Roar music video. After asking where all the KatyCats were, she recognized a fan in the inner circle, whom she always calls “Bubbles,” since he once blew soap bubbles outside her hotel room. Many fans were holding up signs with song requests, and she jokingly replied to one: “That was horrible. I’m not gonna sing 365.” After singing a short part of This Is How We Do a cappella, she introduced her band: drummer Tony Royster Jr., bassist Kyle Whalum and Dani McGinley on keys.

The singer talked about how her guitarist, Devon Eisenbarger, was harassed online for “playing like a girl.” After Devon delivered an incredible solo, Katy declared, “Hell yeah, we play like girls around here!” Dani also provided backing vocals for Legendary Lovers, which Katy performed for only the second time on this tour.

“Why the hell is there a clown?” the pop star shouted after asking for more light to see the audience’s outfits. She picked four people from every corner of the arena to join her: a 21-year-old guy in stylish leopard pants and sunglasses, an 18-year-old aspiring kindergarten teacher in a silver cowboy hat, a girl in a pizza costume — whom she pretended to take a bite of, saying, “My favorite pizza? You!” — and a young psychology student from Switzerland named Luca. She later jokingly kicked him offstage when the crowd booed him for claiming he spoke “the better version of German” and failing to apologize properly after she asked him to. “I’m not gonna lie, I kinda miss you, Luca. This is so weird,” she laughed later. After almost seven minutes of chatting with the remaining fans onstage, she handed them tiny rattles and turned them into percussionists for Unconditionally. After hugs and selfies, she personally led them back down.

Act Four — MAINFRAME — was all about fighting the bad guys, which she literally did, performing a staged fight with a huge red lightsaber and a metal glove that shot smoke and fire. For E.T., her dancers were dressed in black latex and given elongated arm prosthetics, the green matrix-like background making it feel like a movie scene. After defeating a black tunnel that emerged from the ground, she performed Part of Me in a blue glitter bikini set with red glowing lights attached to the bra — an homage to her Firework music video. Katy changed the lyrics from “I just wanna throw my phone away” to “I just wanna throw my social media away,” while dancers circled her with large mirrors, reinforcing the futuristic theme. The pop queen ran laps on the catwalk in huge heels and then slid under her guitarist as she played a solo.

In the final act — END GAME — the screens showed her defeating the end boss and freeing all the butterflies before she appeared riding a huge butterfly for Roar, soaring through the Uber Arena. Although she’s often been teased online for her trip to the moon, she stands by it, saying, “To all the dreamers in the building — you wanna go to space? You wanna go to the moon? You have to dream about it first! Never give up on your dreams.” After introducing each of her eight dancers by name and giving them time for a short solo, Jake finally showed off his abs, as promised in Act Two. Katy shuffle-danced with everyone in her pink glitter outfit — the last of six stage looks in total — asked the crowd to make some noise for the crew, and thanked Berlin for reminding her that “no matter what the internet says, this is real!”

In a cloud of smoke and colorful paper butterflies that burst into the crowd after Firework, Katy Perry left the stage to thunderous applause.

This show was one of the most elaborate stage productions Berlin has seen in 2025, with Katy proving her authenticity despite being one of the world’s biggest celebrities — showing that she doesn’t take online hate or herself too seriously (selling merch that reads “Touch grass & kiss my ass”). She reminded everyone how deeply she cares about her fans, no matter where they’re from. A night full of glitter, laughter, gasps, dancing, and a vibrant celebration of diversity — a pop show for the books.