"California Gurls" serves as the lead single of Katy Perry's upcoming sophomore studio album. The song features rapper Snoop Dogg, and was produced by Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Benny Blanco. According to Perry, the song is a answer song to "Empire State of Mind".
During a Rolling Stone photo shoot in April 2010, Perry revealed details about the song, allegedly a response to Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind", she stated: "It’s so great that 'Empire State of Mind' is huge and that everyone has the New York song, but what the f**k? What about LA? What about California?. It's been a minute since we had a California song and especially from a girl's perspective. We took the references of Prince, which is always a great reference, and some of the '90s, almost house music references".
After the song was leaked online, Capitol Records decided to release it early, and it was posted on Perry's newly revamped site due to the song, and the radio release date was moved up from May 25, 2010 to May 7, 2010.[2] The artwork was also released, featuring Perry laying out on the beach sand with a bejeweled bikini.