This mid-tempo number from Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection follows directly from "Part of Me" on the track listing. Whilst "Part" is a kiss-off to a former beau, "Wide Awake" finds Perry crooning about the feeling of empowerment she feels after finishing a relationship. "I'm wide awake, not losing any sleep/ I picked up every piece, and landed on my feet," she sings. Perry penned both songs with her frequent collaborator, Bonnie McKee, whom she met at a thrift store when both were broke.
On the face of it, the lyrics appear to allude Perry's breakup with her husband Russell Brand. However, since "Part of Me" was recorded long before this re-release, it's hard to tell whether the British comedian is actually the intended target of this song.
When Max Martin worked up a demo of this song, he called it "No Matter What." But Martin has a Swedish accent and put some processing on his voice, so when Bonnie McKee heard it, she thought he was singing, "I'm wide awake," and wrote a lyric based on that. Martin told her to start over using "No Matter What" as a title, but then changed his mind and ran with McKee's idea.
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