Sara Bareilles Says She Doesn’t Mind Comparisons Between Her Tune ‘Brave’ and Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’

By Laura Ferreiro

While some artists would be incredibly upset if someone apparently cribbed from their work, Sara Bareilles sees the benefit in the comparisons that are widely being drawn between her song, "Brave," and Katy Perry's new single, "Roar."

"I was stoked. I was like, 'Great,'" Bareilles told the Associated Press in a recent interview. "I was like, 'You guys want to go get (mad) about something and buy my music, that's great.'"

Shortly after Perry's "Roar" leaked last month, Twitter exploded with comments about how similar the two tunes are, and a mash-up of the songs quickly followed. Although the songs' lyrics are quite different, they're both incredibly uplifting, power-to-the-people tunes with a similar marching-band style percussion and instrumentation.

It's quite pragmatic of Bareilles to see the bright side of the situation, given that Perry is a massive star with a huge fanbase, and all this talk is exposing Bareilles' music to people who may not have been aware of it otherwise. In fact, after "Roar" premiered last month, Bareilles' song shot into the Top 40.

What's more, the two singers are actually pals. "I've known Katy a long time," Bareilles said. "We are friends and she and I spoke about it. I look at it as two female artists who are releasing a message of empowerment."

While "Brave" was co-written by Bareilles and fun.'s Jack Antonoff, and was inspired by a friend who was struggling with coming out of the closet, "Roar" encourages ladies to stand up and be their own champions.

"I don't feel like anything was taken from me artistically," Bareilles added. "I wasn't the one having any problems with it." That said, she admitted that she was bothered by how contentious some of her fans got.

"To be totally honest, I was sort of disappointed in how aggressive fans were being about it," she said. "I don't promote drama in my life and competition and stuff like that."

"Brave" was the first single from Bareilles' third album, The Blessed Unrest, which came out in July. "Roar" is the first single off of Perry's upcoming album, Prism, which is due to be released in October.