Amidst a blossoming relationship with the Canadian ex-prime minister Justin Trudeau, Katy Perry is taking some time to reflect on her last relationship that ended in quite a storm. “bandaids” don’t fix broken hearts, but love does.
“bandaids” is the lead single from Katy Perry’s upcoming 7th studio album. The song likely reflects back to her last relationship with actor Orlando Bloom and how it ended in divorce in the middle of one of the most tumultuous times of Perry’s life. Since releasing the “Woman’s World” single in July 2025, Katy Perry received backlash over the music video and its producer.
The backlash continued to her album ‘143’ and her Lifetimes Tour that followed. She was made fun of for her choreography during the tour, amongst other things. During the same time, Orlando Bloom and Katy Perry split up. In the song, Katy Perry says that she really did try in their relationship, even though she did not feel the effort was reciprocated.
The song and the music video were released on November 6, 2025.
Listen to “bandaids” by Katy Perry
Katy Perry “bandaids” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
In the beginning of the song, Katy Perry promises that she did everything she could to make it work with him. There is nothing she didn’t try to keep him around, make him involved, and make him care. But there is always so much one person can do in a relationship before fatigue sets in.
It’s not what you did, it’s what you didn’t
Katy Perry says that the problem wasn’t that he did anything bad. He didn’t cheat, either. The issue was rather what he didn’t do. He did not stand by her when her world was falling apart. He wasn’t there for her. For someone as successful as Katy Perry, there’s little another person can bring to her table. And he couldn’t bring in that little.
In the pre-chorus of the song, Katy Perry says her heart is broken. There is little to nothing that person can do anymore to mend her heart. Fake promises out of the wazoo now that the damage has been done. Not a single word when her world was actually crumbling down. There is no use of such a relationship to either one.
Bleeding out, bleeding out, bleeding out slow
Band-Aids over a broken heart
Things have been bad in her relationship for quite some time now. Every cold stare, every chatter-less dinner, and every forced action jabbed at her heart, slowly making her bleed. So long can someone bleed before they have to pick themselves up and remove themselves from the danger.
In the second verse, Katy Perry says it wasn’t all bad all the time. They had a good run. When they were smiling, they were genuinely smiling. But something broke along the way, and it never got repaired. The spark died, and they grew apart until ‘stuck’ was their relationship status. Moving on was the only solution to save herself from a loveless grave.
It is quite refreshing to hear Katy Perry say that she did not have regrets in this relationship. She says that if they had to do it over again, she would. This tells us that when things were good between them, it was really good. It was a tangible relationship that fell apart for some unexplained reasons. This might be the reason why she fought for so long despite her bleeding on.
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Read the complete lyrics to the song on Genius.