"California Gurls" is an electropop song by American singer-songwriter Katy Perry. It serves as the lead single of her third studio album, Teenage Dream. The song features rapper Snoop Dogg.
Initially the song was titled "California Girls", but Perry changed the spelling to "California Gurls" at the request of her manager in tribute to Big Star, which had recently lost one of its members, as a reference to their song "September Gurls".
Perry used Wikipedia to research which rapper she wanted to collaborate with for this track, browsing West Coast artists before selecting Snoop Dogg. The Beach Boys had allegedly threatened a lawsuit due to Snoop Dogg's line "I wish they could all be California Girls", which they consider to be one of their classic lines in their "California Girls" song.
A video clip of Cebu Pacific flight attendants performing a pre-flight safety demonstration as a dance routine to this song ended up as a viral YouTube video clip, attracting comment.