"Roar" Quotes

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Source: "Roar"

Speaker: Katy Perry

"You held me down, but I got up."

You held me down, but I got up, already brushing off the dust.

Context

This line is from the song "Roar" by Katy Perry, from the album Prism (2013).

The critics might've hated on this song for being filled with clichés, but that didn't stop the lead single off of Prism from being Katy's eighth #1 hit. The video also did very well in its own right, probably because its retro-vision story of Katy learning to survive in a jungle and eventually tame a tiger was just fun to watch. Fun fact: when the song was used to introduce the Bengals NFL team, fans complained, saying that football teams ought to be introduced by hard rock, not pop. We wonder what they thought of Katy's Super Bowl halftime show. You decide if it's tough enough, Shmoopers. Here's that video.

Where you've heard it

Unless you purposely avoid all things pop, you've heard Katy sing these lyrics someway, somehow. Specifically, maybe you caught her belting these lines under the Brooklyn Bridge at the close of the MTV Video Music Awards. We hope you also saw this parody, "Thor," about a girl who longs for the crown prince of Asgard. It doesn't include the line we're analyzing, but it's funny, so just watch it anyway.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

We don't think Katy Perry could be pretentious if she tried.