Katy Perry Drops Out of People's Choice Awards After Split with Russell Brand

Katy Perry at the Grove in Los Angeles

JB Lacroix/WireImage

Katy Perry has dropped out of plans to attend the People's Choice Awards, which would have been her first public appearance since splitting with her husband, comedian Russell Brand. Perry has been nominated for seven awards at this year's show, which will air on CBS tomorrow night.

"Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the People's Choice Awards. I want to thank u all for voting for me, fingers crossed! #KATYCATS," Perry announced on her Twitter account yesterday. Perry has kept a low profile since separating from Brand. Aside from this message, Perry's only word to her fans in recent days has been a tweet urging them not to trust reporting from gossip sites and magazines. "Concerning the gossip, I want to be clear that NO ONE speaks for me. Not a blog, magazine, 'close sources' or my family," she wrote.

Russell Brand filed papers for divorce in Los Angeles just before New Year's Eve, citing irreconcilable differences. Brand and Perry had been married for 14 months.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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