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At last year’s Democratic National Convention, Katy Perry belted out her hit single “Roar” for Philadelphia’s packed Wells Fargo Center. The occasion was Hillary Clinton’s nomination as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, and “Roar” had come to number among that campaign’s emblematic fight songs, electrifying the convention center that summer night, and running in a host of political ads aired in battleground states. The pop song wasn’t just there to provide background music: Perry’s involvement with Clinton’s messaging was a de facto endorsement, one that she delves into during her conversation with Hamish Bowles for the May 2017 issue of Vogue.
“I think you have to stand for something, and if you’re not standing for anything . . . you’re really just serving yourself, period, end of story.” Perry tells Vogue, “ ‘California Gurls’ and fluffy stuff would be completely inauthentic to who I am now and what I’ve learned . . . I do believe we need a little escapism, but I think that it can’t all be that. If you have a voice you have a responsibility to use it now, more than ever.” In this regard, Perry is far from alone.
The past election may have galvanized a slew of celebrities to become politically engaged, but long before the days of Hillary and Bernie, Jane Fonda protested the Vietnam War, and Elizabeth Taylor took on the AIDS crisis as the founding cochair of amfAR. More recently, Angelina Jolie and Emma Watson have worked as U.N. ambassadors, and Leonardo DiCaprio has made waves in the fight for environmental action. Above, a look at 22 celebrities who have demonstrated a firm belief in the importance of using their celebrity to make a difference.
See Katy Perry’s Style Evolution, From Teenage Dream to Vogue Cover Star: