One Of The Boys

She kissed a girl and she liked it. So did the 2.5 million Americans who downloaded Katy Perry’s breakthrough hit, keeping the pseudo-sapphic make-out session on top of the US charts for seven weeks. And no doubt pushing up the sales of cherry chapsticks.

Girl-on-girl action clearly sells. But it's not only dirty old men turned on by the cute 23-year-old's lesbian lip locking. Kids are seduced by the song's addictive sugar rush — unsurprisingly, considering its pedigree. Written and produced by the team behind Kelly Clarkson’s biggest singles, ‘I Kissed A Girl’ was unlikely to fail. But the record company weren’t taking any chances — working with all the go-to-guys on the mainstream pop-rock scene, this pop tartlet comes from the same factory that baked Avril, Pink, Britney and even Paris.

But despite the talent surrounding her — which also includes one half of the Eurythmics and the co-writer of Bon Jovi’s biggest hits — this daughter of two Christian pastors has something that can’t be manufactured: a sassy sense of fun. Whether boasting that she can “belch the alphabet, just double dare me” on the tomboy-transforms-into-prom-queen title track; emasculating a boy who done her wrong on the less-than-PC ‘Ur So Gay’ (“I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf”); or pissed off with an emotionally distant guy (“You’re not a man, you’re just a mannequin”) she adds much needed spunk to the familiar girl power schtick.

Powering it all is her rock chick voice — with traces of Alanis self doubt showing through on the two perfunctory ballads — ensuring that the rather harmless and appropriately titled ‘One Of The Boys’ sits quite comfortably alongside the likes of Daughtry’s crowd-pleasing debut.