Bonnie McKee on Taylor Swift Link and Challenges of Writing with Katy Perry

Even if you’re not familiar with Bonnie McKee’s name, you most certainly know her body of work – the famed songwriter was behind some of the most massive hits of the aughts, including Roar, California Gurls, and Teenage Dream by Katy Perry, Hold It Against Me by Britney Spears, and Dynamite by Taio Cruz.

The Grammy-nominated artist is considered the ‘founding mother of recession pop,’ for her work with stars like Ke$ha, Cher, Christina Aguilera, and more. 

Bonnie stopped by the Daily Mail office while she was in town for the Tribeca Film Festival. 

Her music video for Hot City song Forever 21, which she directed, starred in, edited, produced, and cast, is an official selection this year. 

The Los Angeles based singer unexpectedly blew up on TikTok during the pandemic when she started talking about her songwriting process on the platform. She writes in ‘an old school notebook’ and kept ‘relics from the past,’ which she was able to share with fans. 

When she started a session, she would ask pop stars about their love life, who they were dating, and what kept them up at night. She’d then take notes as they were talking and found that usually had a track that she’d already started that would fit with the vibe.

When it came to co-writing with artists like Kesha and Katy, Bonnie called it ‘a truly collaborative effort.’ 

As for writing with Katy on some of her most iconic songs, Bonnie admitted it was ‘sometimes very difficult’ because ‘we have a really high standard, and we wanted to make the best pop music ever,’ admitting, ‘on some of them, I feel like we did.’

Bonnie McKee, seen above at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, is the songwriter behind the most massive hits of the 2000s

As for writing with Katy on some of her most iconic songs, Bonnie admitted it was ‘sometimes very difficult’ because ‘we have a really high standard, and we wanted to make the best pop music ever,’ admitting, ‘on some of them, I feel like we did’

Kesha had a ‘clear aesthetic’ which made it ‘very easy to write with her because she comes in with great ideas.’ 

Bonnie originally made her album Hot City a decade ago when she was signed to Epic Records. ‘I got dropped and it got shelved and they owned the masters,’ Bonnie explained. ‘So I pulled a Taylor Swift and I ended up rerecording all of the masters myself.’ 

When she found fame on TikTok, she quickly realized that many of her fans were obsessed with Hot City and were clamoring for the songs to come out. In fact, some even had the lyrics tattooed on them. She decided to dive into the vault and bring recession pop back to life. 

Bonnie, often called Hollywood’s secret weapon, believes a truly great recession pop song needs ‘an element of escapism and an element of hope and has to be upbeat, danceable or at least uplifting in some way.’

And ‘it has a has to have a little bit of heart because we all are living in a very real time and people are looking for something to connect to.’

The best example of this from her repertoire just might be Dynamite, which ‘on the surface sounds just like a party time song, but is actually about surrender.’ The American Girl singer is now 13 years sober after struggling with a crystal meth addiction, but at the time, she wrote it about considering sobriety and ‘surrendering to the new life’ that she was embarking upon.

Of course, the song and its catchy chorus quickly became inescapable, with even Lorde poking fun at it with her lyrics on Team: ‘I’m kinda over gettin’ told to throw my hands up in the air.’ 

Bonnie called Lorde’s infamous reaction ‘totally fair, but explained, ‘when I wrote that it was coming from a different place.’ 

Bonnie originally made her album Hot City a decade ago when she was signed to Epic Records. ‘I got dropped and it got shelved and they owned the masters,’ Bonnie explained. ‘So I pulled a Taylor Swift and I ended up rerecording all of the masters myself’

‘It used to be if you were a middle class songwriter and you got a B-side on a Rihanna album, or even a smaller artist than that, you could buy a house. But these days that is not the case,’ Bonnie explained, calling for change in the industry.

‘I got dropped and it got shelved and they owned the masters,’ Bonnie explained. ‘So I pulled a Taylor Swift and I ended up rerecording all of the masters myself’

Bonnie has seen the music industry evolve since she wrote her first record at just 14, and not all of the changes have been positive. She described the royalties songwriters now receive as ‘nothing’ and ‘insignificant.’

‘On the streaming platforms, we get 0.0003 percent of a penny per stream,’ Bonnie revealed, adding that ‘it’s not a livable wage for songwriters and that really needs to change.’

‘It used to be if you were a middle class songwriter and you got a B-side on a Rihanna album, or even a smaller artist than that, you could buy a house. But these days that is not the case,’ Bonnie explained.

Now, as an indie artist, she’s paying for everything herself and imagines a day where she can work with investors instead of ‘record labels that are going to steal your soul.’ 

It comes at a time where other independent artists like Kate Nash and Tyson Ritter from the All American Rejects are having similar conversations, and have even started OnlyFans accounts to make money to support their music after no longer working with major labels. 

Next up, Bonnie is working on a full-length album that’s darker than ever before – but it’s still full of the pop songs that made her famous. 

‘It’s definitely my most brutally raw and honest lyrically but it’s still bops. They’re just  a little darker but still danceable. I don’t think I’ve ever been as vulnerable as I am in these songs and I think it can be cathartic for people,’ Bonnie promised.