Katy Perry Is Top Winner at People's Choice Awards

Katy Perry promotes her new fragrance, Meow, at the Grove in Los Angeles.

JB Lacroix/WireImage

Katy Perry was the big winner at last night's People's Choice Awards, scoring five awards out of seven nominations, including prizes for favorite female artist, tour headliner, song ("E.T.") and music video, for her hit "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)" The singer also won an award for her acting as a guest star in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Perry was not on hand to accept the awards, though, since she backed out of the appearance in the wake of her split from husband Russell Brand.

Other winners in music categories include Demi Lovato, who beat out superstars Perry, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Rihanna to win for favorite pop artist, and Bruno Mars, who took home the prize for favorite male artist. Lady Gaga won favorite album of the year for Born This Way, Maroon 5 won for favorite band and Rihanna beat out ex-boyfriend Chris Brown for favorite R&B artist.

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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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