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Wealth & Money Quote by Katy Perry

"My dad would give me $10, which is a lot of money when you're 9, to sing at church, on tables at restaurants, at family functions, just about anywhere"

About this Quote

A small bribe with a big origin story baked in. Katy Perry frames performance not as a mystical calling but as a transaction: $10 for a song, applause for labor. The detail is doing double duty. It’s funny in a plainspoken way, but it also lays out an early lesson in how showmanship gets priced, rewarded, and repeated. When you’re 9, ten bucks isn’t pocket change; it’s proof. Proof that your voice can move adults to reach for their wallet, proof that attention can be earned on demand.

The setting matters: church, restaurant tables, family functions. These are “safe” stages, spaces where singing is tolerated because it’s wholesome, communal, and slightly adorable. Yet the list escalates into “just about anywhere,” hinting at a kid trained to treat public space as potential spotlight. The subtext is hustle shaped by family: the father isn’t just encouraging art, he’s conditioning comfort with being watched. It’s support, yes, but it’s also a kind of early management - turning a child’s talent into a repeatable act.

In Perry’s broader arc, the line reads like a prequel to pop stardom’s glossy machinery. She came up through religious music and later built a persona that thrives on spectacle. This anecdote explains why that leap isn’t as sudden as it looks. The punchline is that “anywhere” is basically the job description.

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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Perry, Katy. (2026, January 17). My dad would give me $10, which is a lot of money when you're 9, to sing at church, on tables at restaurants, at family functions, just about anywhere. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-dad-would-give-me-10-which-is-a-lot-of-money-75458/

Chicago Style
Perry, Katy. "My dad would give me $10, which is a lot of money when you're 9, to sing at church, on tables at restaurants, at family functions, just about anywhere." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-dad-would-give-me-10-which-is-a-lot-of-money-75458/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My dad would give me $10, which is a lot of money when you're 9, to sing at church, on tables at restaurants, at family functions, just about anywhere." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-dad-would-give-me-10-which-is-a-lot-of-money-75458/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

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Katy Perry

Katy Perry (born October 25, 1984) is a Musician from USA.

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